Blaster Master Jr. is one of those Game Boy games that somehow feels bigger than the tiny cartridge it came on. You start off in this little tank—which, honestly, is way more fun to control than it has any right to be—zooming through caves and blasting mutants. The controls are tight, and switching between side-scrolling tank action and top-down sections where you hop out on foot keeps things from getting stale.

I remember getting stuck in the second area for way too long because I missed a hidden passage. Classic Game Boy era design—no hand-holding, just trial and error. The pixel art has that chunky charm, and the music’s got that tinny-but-catchy vibe. If you’ve played the NES original, this one’s a neat little pocket-sized version, though it’s definitely its own thing. Just don’t expect a cakewalk—some of those boss fights will test your patience.

It’s the kind of game you keep coming back to just to see if you can do better than last time.