PixlBit

A shooter that's not afraid to give you TONS of fire power

No doubt you've heard of this famous shooter. If not, it's time you learned about one of the best space shooters ever. Blazing Lazers (which is an awesome title, by the way) was developed by Hudson and Compile (the latter being the reason why this game is so good probably), published by Hudson, and released for the TurboGrafx-16 in 1989. I imagine the game was quite impressive in that day, as it holds up perfectly now and is still fun to play.

The game starts immediately without any opening scene or story to tell. Honestly, a good space shooter doesn't need a story, so they skip that part and get right to the shooting. And the shooting is good! Very good! There are only two buttons you need to concern yourself with: the fire button (which you hold to constantly fire), and the bomb button (which shoots out a wide blast just in front of your ship). That's it, simple and concise. The controls are also tight and spot-on.

Power-ups in BL are everywhere; most enemies will give you a power-up or a pink orb (which, honestly, I'm not sure what it's for). A muffled voice tells you which power-up you got (multi-shot, homing missiles, shield, etc.), which must have been amazing in '89, but it's hard to tell what he's saying, especially when action is going down.

The power-ups in this game are amazing. Your main guns are numbered: I is regular shot, II is moon sphere shots, III is lazers, IV is similar to I. I preferred II and III. Your secondary guns or helpers are lettered: M (multi-shot), F (fire gun), L (lazer gun), etc. Your main gun will increase each time you get that number, eventually becoming so giant it almost fills the screen. At first I got every power-up I could, but eventually figured out which ones I like the most, and stuck with those. Ironically, the best gun is III, which is the lazer gun (blazing lazers indeed!).

While your main gun will shoot straight out of the nose of your ship, your secondary guns will come out of the sides of your ship, covering anything around you. Homing missiles are especially helpful, coming out of your ship in all directions and homing in on anything nearby. Grabbing an M (multi-shot) will produce a pod which shoots alongside your ship, and grabbing an S will put a shield around your ship (so your ship can take several hits before exploding). Suffice to say, the power-ups really make this game awesome.

Level design is also very good. Each level has distinct backgrounds, and the graphics are very detailed and colorful. Of course, there has to be an ancient civilization level with Easter Island heads! New enemies doing different things appear in each level, keeping you on your toes. While levels can certainly be chaotic, they're not difficult for the most part (until level 7). In fact, BL overall is not a difficult shooter. Gaining lives happens often (especially when your massive gun is covering the screen, obliterating everything). The most challenging part of BL is starting a level (after dying) without any power-ups.

The bosses in BL are good, but not difficult. In fact, they can be defeated very quickly due to the fact that you can lay waste to them with your bombs. By the end of the level, you've collected between 10 and 20 bombs, making the big bad boss pathetically easy. The bosses here are cool, though, because they usually have multiple moving parts, meaning you need to really watch what's moving where.

BL is truly an impressive space shooter. With awesome power-ups, bright graphics, good music, and creative levels, it really stands out among all the shooters of the day. Amazingly, it's not a difficult game, but can still be challenging. Even more amazing than that, BL never feels unfair; if you die, it wasn't the game's fault, it was yours. But instead of blaming the game, you'll be praising it.

Final Verdict--5 Stars: Awesome!

Blazing Lazers is one of the best vertical space shooters of days gone by. It's still tons of fun to play! The good news is, it's much easier than a Gradius game, meaning it's more appealing to those who like to make it to the end of a game (unless you enjoy a steep challenge). Also, the game never lags, which is amazing considering how much stuff is on-screen. BL is not just a great shooter, it's one of the best. . . ever! It has boring box art, but an awesome title. While not as difficult as Gradius, it's still just as impressive. It's available for download on the Wii Virtual Console.

Join me every Saturday as we take a look back at all kinds of retro games, good and bad.