 There are items to break and power-ups to collect, typical of this genre in the 1990s.In Japan, "Game Machine" listed it on their August 15, 1991 issue as being the fifteenth most-successful table arcade unit of the year, outperforming titles such as "Vimana" and "King of the Monsters".British gaming magazine "The One for Amiga Games" reviewed "Blade Master" in August 1991, calling it a "masterpiece", stating that "Irem has certainly pulled out all the stops here - beautifully crafted animated sprites, lovely backgrounds, excellent gameplay, sampled sound", and furthermore calls the combat "satisfying".