Blaster Master: Overdrive

To do: Various "test" files in the "sideview" directory

More like "Blaster Master: Overlooked", because nobody remembers this aggressively 2010 reboot exclusive to a now-defunct storefront.

Debug Menu#

In the NeoGAF thread for the game's release, Victor Ireland of Gaijinworks mentioned "the advantage of a warp-enabled debug mode. :)"¹ Whatever method existed to access the debug menu during development seems to have been removed from the final release, but the debug mode can still be activated on startup using the following Gecko codes:

00013A63 00000000

Like the rest of the game, the menu is navigated with a sideways Wii Remote and idiosyncratically using the 1 button to confirm. The menu selections are:

• Start Side View Stage: launch into normal SOPHIA (tank) gameplay; there is no level select option here, SOPHIA is just placed in the first part of the overworld
• Start Top View Stage: opens the top-down level select menu described below
• Start Game: boots to the game's title screen
• Opening Demo: plays the game's opening cutscene, which then transitions into gameplay
• Ending Demo: plays the game's ending cutscene, which then transitions to the title screen
• Test menu: opens the test menu described below

Start Top View Stage#

Selecting Start Top View Stage opens a level select screen allowing the player to select any of the overhead Alexander (non-tank) maps. This section has some issues: the player is spawned outside of the walls and is unable to move, and because of the way the debug menu is forced to open, Alexander's health has not yet been initialized, so he spawns with 0 health. Game Over, man.

The first two maps in the list are test maps:

• 108/fuji_test: a seemingly empty map with mist scrolling across the screen
• 109/test_boss_9: a test area for the stage 9 boss

Test menu#

The test menu seems to be from an earlier period of development than the rest of the debug menus, as it's controlled using a vertical Wiimote and Nunchuk, the game's original control scheme (see below). For some reason, it's extremely robust, with an entire windowing system and multitasking. It is made up of eight windows, each with their own functionality:

• BGM test: play any background music
• SE test: play any sound effects
• message [CURRENT]: display any text dialogue for the current locale
• message [lang]: display any text dialogue in the relevant language (ENG, GER, FRA, SPA, ITA)

The controls are as follows:

• press A: confirm
• hold B: use window navigation functions
  • B and Nunchuk analog stick: move on-screen mouse cursor to select windows
  • B and D-pad Up/D-pad Down: toggle between windows using a WindowMenu overlay (like Alt-Tab on a PC)
  • B and A: move currently selected window using either the analog stick or D-pad
  • B and Plus: resize currently selected window using either the analog stick or D-pad
  • B and 1: collapse/expand current window
  • B and 2: hide the entire test menu
  • B and Minus: exit to debug menu
• Minus in the BGM or SE test screens: stop playing audio

Nunchuk Support Messages#

In the NeoGAF thread linked earlier, Ireland noted that during development, the game used the Wii Nunchuk for movement and infra-red pointer controls to aim. This was changed to sideways Wii Remote input when Gaijinworks joined the project. Leftover in the game and accessible in the test menu are a number of Nunchuk-related messages:

References#