Celerystalker is on vacation for a few weeks so Im going to keep the Game of the Day threads going for a little bit. I will probably do them for about a week, after which if anyone else then wants to take over feel free.
So over the last year-and-a-half, I have been doing what I call 'NES Quest' where the goal is to beat as many NES/Famicom games as I can, and I have currently beaten 86 games. The last game I beat was Blaster Master so I think I will start by discussing that.

The story of Blaster Master is simple and rather silly. Your pet frog escapes, and then touches some kind of large radioactive generator that you have installed in your back yard. Then, of course, the frog instantly grows to monstrous proportions... because thats what radioactivity does.. (duh!). Anyway, the frog then jumps down a deep dark hole. The only logical thing to do is to follow it, because hey.. whats the worst that can happen? Its not like some giant mutated frog is going to eat you or anything.. heh..
Anyway, in the hole you find a giant pink-colored tank.. and lucky you.. somebody left the keys in the ignition! Oh, and the owner of the tank left a cool jump-suit & helmet for you to wear while you go blasting your way into the earth. I dont know which aspect of this story is the most absurd; the giant frog, the abandoned tank, or the personal nuclear reactor that you've got in your backyard.

Now you guys probably know the backstory because you would have to be living underground to not have played Blaster Master at some point (pun intended). Blaster Master is widely considered to be an excellent game and many people consider it to be one of the best Nintendo NES games. This reputation is well deserved because being a Sunsoft title it has excellent music, the graphics are nicely textured and very well done, the controls are tight and there is lots of action.

The game is composed of 8 stages, each with two parts. First you have to navigate the underground area in your tank, searching for the 'base' areas where the mutant bosses hide. There are multiple of these hidden bases in each stage, so finding the correct one that hides the boss is not a simple process. Once you enter a base, the game switches over to top-down view where you navigate various rooms looking for the boss. Once you destroy the boss you obtain a tank upgrade which allows you to progress to the next level. The bosses are all fairly easy, especially considering you can use the 'pause trick' on over half the bosses. If you press pause during a frame where you are damaging the boss, the game will pause but the boss will continue to take damage. Therefore you can basically take down these bosses in a single hit. I am unsure whether the pause trick was intentional or it is a glitch, but I get the feeling that it is intentional since it doesnt work on the final 2 bosses. This is probably one of the most well-know and awesome game glitch/tricks, and it was mentioned in Nintendo Power more than once.

Blaster Master is a challenging nes title, but it is actually not as difficult as it may initally seem. The lack of a password or cotinue feature is the largest frustration. Any serious attempt at beating this game will require a certain amount of exploration/practice on the later stages, which means that you will have to play the first 4/5 stages multiple times. Stage 5 is a water level, and thats the only level I find a little annoying because its a little slow compared to the others.

Other random observations/criticisms:
-My biggest complaint about this game is the overuse of the color grey. Almost all the enemy sprites are grey. Like comon, use some other color than the most boring color in the world. geez.
-The laser weapon you have during the top-down portions of the game is almost totally worthless. You can power it up but its just a total waste of time since you lose the power ups evey time you take damage. I think the only time I use it at all is against the level 5 boss.
-The lightning bolt sub-weapon is pretty much useless as well. Sometimes it doesnt even work if there are too many sprites on the screen.
-There are parts of stage 8 that seem downright impossible, but then you realize that you need to use the hover.
-In many nes games, the goal is to rescue a princess. In this game you set out to rescue a frog. The final cutscene shows you sitting upon the tank next to your beloved friend... even though you blasted the s*** outta him not once but twice during the game.

Phew, I think Ive written more than enough. Blaster Master. Played it? Of course you have..