"You're tuned to Reading Blaster 2000, the intergalactic reading network."
Reading Blaster 2000 is an Edutainment Game in the Blaster series. It has also been released under the titles Reading Blaster: Ages 6-9 and Reading Blaster for 3rd Grade.
The game is a loose remake of Reading Blaster: Invasion of the Word Snatchers. The premise now involves the Blaster Pals competing on a game show called Challenge of the Reading Gladiators, hosted by Ike and Rita Cuecard. You, the player, choose which Blaster Pal you want to play as, and then, you compete in a series of educational challenges. For each playthrough, your prize is a new chapter in a Reading Blaster Adventure Story. Complete all three Reading Blaster Adventure Stories, and you've won the game.
The Reading Blaster Adventure Stories are:
- The Spooky House: The Blaster Pals visit a Haunted House, where Spot is kidnapped by a tall, gray ghost.
- The Panther and the Dragon: Teaming up with a little girl named Ellen, the Blaster Pals go on a quest to restore water to a drought-stricken land.
- Dr. Dabble's Revenge: Spot is kidnapped by Dr. Dabble, who intends to use him as the brain of a monster robot.
The original release of Reading Blaster 2000 features an optional multiplayer mode, in which a friend plays as another Blaster Pal and serves as your opponent on the show. In single player mode, your opponent is Illitera, who was previously the villainess of Reading Blaster: Invasion of the Word Snatchers. In later releases, the multiplayer mode is eliminated, making playing against Illitera the only option.
This game provides examples of:
- Advanced Tech 2000: The title, obviously. In-universe, it's the name of a intergalactic television network. Even when the game is retitled, the in-universe "Reading Blaster 2000" iconography is retained.
- The Announcer: The Challenge of the Reading Gladiators announcer is named Johnny Lightspeed, presumably in reference to Johnny Gilbert.
- The Artifact: Despite the elimination of the multiplayer mode in later releases, there are still onscreen instructions for player two during the final race.
- Asteroid Thicket: In "Word Zapper," countless meteors rain down along with the letters.
- Audience Participation: "Get a Clue" features the participation of the game show's fictional, in-universe audience, which is composed of wacky aliens. You, the player, have to read a series of clues in order to find the audience member who is hiding the key to the next challenge.
- Beige Prose: Considering this whole game is aimed at teaching young children to read, it's unsurprising that the Reading Blaster Adventure Stories feature very basic and straightforward prose. The opening of The Spooky House:
One day, Blasternaut, GC and Spot saw a big, old house. They saw bats fly out of the door. "This place is scary," said Blasternaut.
"I'm not scared," said GC. "Let's go in." - Bland-Name Product: The game takes place on a TV set labeled "Zony," a parody of Sony.
- The Chosen One: In The Panther and the Dragon, a prophecy foretells that the Blaster Pals will save the day:
Ellen's father told the three friends a story. The story said that a boy, a girl, and a robot helped famers find water. "Hey, that sounds like us," said Blasternaut.
- Crossover: Dr. Dabble's Revenge features the Blaster Pals battling against Dr. Dabble from the Blaster Mystery series. Dr. Dabble appears as he does in the box art for The Great Brain Robbery, which differs from his appearance in the actual game. Interestingly, one chapter features Dr. Dabble tormenting the local mayor, telling said mayor, "When you and I were kids, you made me cry!" This predates Reading Blaster: Ages 9-12, in which the main plot is Dr. Dabble taking revenge against six people, including the local mayor, for childhood grievances. Considering that game was only a year away at the time, this may be an instance of Production Foreshadowing. Still, this mayor bears no resemblance to Jackie O'Cassidy.
- Endless Game: The "Word Zapper" bonus round ends only when all your ships have been destroyed. The optimal ending is to keep shooting meteors until you run out of ammo, at which point your ships are doomed but you've shot as many meteors as possible while you could.
- Friendly Ghost: In The Spooky House, following the little ghost into the kitchen reveals him to be a shy, friendly soul who likes cookies.
- Gamebooks: The Reading Blaster Adventure Stories work this way. Each chapter ends with you making a choice between two actions, after which you have to complete another playthrough to win the next chapter.
- Game Show Appearance: The entire premise of the game is the Blaster Pals competing on a game show called Challenge of the Reading Gladiators.
- Game Show Host: Ike and Rita Cuecard are the hosts of Challenge of the Reading Gladiators.
- Giant Spider: In The Panther and the Dragon, the Blaster Pals encounter one if you choose to go into the tunnel.
- Hover Bike: In the Reading Blaster Adventure Stories, Blasternaut and GC tend to get around on "rocket bikes."
- Humongous Mecha: In Dr. Dabble's Revenge, Dr. Dabble builds one of these and kidnaps Spot to serve as its brain.
- Impossibly-Compact Folding: One of the animations for the spaceship commercial features an alien pulling the spaceship out of his coat.
- Is This Thing Still On?: After "Word Zapper," there's always a bit in which Ike and Rita are engaging in some kind of Argument of Contradictions until they realize that they're on live.
- Kiddy Coveralls: This is how Ellen, a farmgirl, is dressed in the story The Panther and the Dragon.
- Kids Prefer Boxes: One of the activities involves creating a commercial for an in-universe product. One of the products you can choose to advertise is an empty box that kids like to play with.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to Reading Blaster: Invasion of the Word Snatchers, in which you have to thwart Illitera after she steals all language from the planet Earth. This version features the much lower stakes of an in-universe game show, not to mention that Illitera has been downgraded from word-snatching supervillain to rude game show contestant.
- Memory Match Mini-Game: "Media Madness" is this type of puzzle, featuring TV screens that reveal an image or sound when you click on them.
- Multiple Head Case: Ike and Rita are two alien heads sharing the same body. Illitera calls them "living proof that two heads are worse than one."
- No Campaign for the Wicked: Illitera is unplayable, existing only as a computer-controlled opponent in single player mode.
- Opposing Sports Team: Illitera, who is your opponent when you play in single player mode, also known as the only available mode in later releases. She acts rude and the audience boos everything she says.
- Punny Name: Ike and Rita Cuecard = "I Can Read A Cue Card". Don't worry if you didn't get the joke as a kid.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Threatening Ike and Rita, Illitera declares, "I'll blast you with words so complicated, your bifurcated cranial topknot will rend itself asunder!"
- The Unintelligible: In this game, Spot speaks only in electronic sounds, à la R2-D2. This is exclusive to this game, and in all his other appearances, Spot is portrayed as talking normally.
- Updated Re Release: Inverted, if anything. For some reason, later releases remove the optional multiplayer mode but leave everything else the same.
- Video Game Remake: Loosely, this game is an upgraded version of Reading Blaster: Invasion of the Word Snatchers. Plotwise, the only thing that really carries over is the presence of Illitera, and in terms of gameplay, "Word Zapper" is the only mini-game that continues to exist in a recognizable form.
