Blazing Lazers is fun on all fronts.
This however cannot be said about Blazing Lazers, a vertical scrolling shooter for the Turbo Grafix 16 re-introduced by the Wii which gives modern gamers an opportunity to look on all the games I (and older gamers like me) grew up on with fond childhood memories and spit on them which explains why I'm reviewing the TG16 original. Part of Blazing Lazers' artistic features may be rooted in the fact that it's actually based off of the Japanese movie titled GunHed which the Japanese version of the game was named after, which may also explain why its US counterpart here has a rather minimalist story: you play as a space-fighter pilot who is going up against an oppressive united force of aliens and machines led by an oppressive super computer of some sort (go figure) intent on attacking Earth, but before tackling their flag-ship and mobile HQ, you have to destroy every outpost they possess no matter where it's stationed in the galaxy. I'll admit I've never seen the movie GunHed and it may explain some of the rather unique and seemingly esoteric enemies and images you encounter despite its heavy 80's cyber-punk motif that stands in for the apparent lack of plot, but somehow the only connection I've been able to muster is that our space fighter has the apparent ability to transform into a mech robot at random times. For what the game lacks in plot however it balances out in it said imagery and even more so in its game play... like most modern action games! Sorry, I'll stop that now.
Blazing Lazers is a very simple straight forward shoot em' up game in which you scroll a variety of vertically positioned levels blasting everything in sight in order to survive. Lazers' most innovative point of game play however lies in the weapons as you start out with a rather meek rapid fire weapon, but can upgrade it to a meek rapid fire weapon that shoots in five different directions. However, that is just one out of four other weapons and each one can be upgraded to inflict crowd-control damage to the point of feeling like it's over-kill! Also every weapon is practically different from each one in that they share different strengths and attack patterns.
You can also pick up and upgrade side weapons that proffer just as different attack patterns and strengths such as bullet absorbing Option-esque weapons, a pick-up that empowers your chosen weapon, homing missiles, etc. It's interesting to note that picking up more weapons gives you a shield to protect you from damage, but the shield never reaches its zenith unless you pick up the actual Shield pick-up which does only that, so your options of optimum defense over aggression are rather limited.
The AI is definitely geared towards the strength of the player's most upgraded weapons as the enemy count increases with every level and the attack formations change for some of the later levels. However, due to the weapon power-ups, at times it's hard to consider your enemies adopting attack patterns as the most effective attack the have against you usually include slews of kamikaze attacks which is a judgment I keep getting the feeling that not EVERY alien/robot invader of Earth possesses despite what most game developers like to think; I would be very disappointed if I were an astronaut that had discovered an intelligent life form only to discover their only bright part in combat was based off of the strategies of suicidal Collectivists.
There are a few moments of level design that inspire frustration as there's so much going on around you it's hard to determine where a bumbling enemy shot is drifting and so many power-ups and pick-ups fly on-screen it's hard not to collide into them while avoiding potential kamikaze death and some of the pick-ups seemed to be scientifically designed to depart you from whatever choice of weapon you've made that works. Like most shooters of its time (and on), Lazers takes the role of setting post mortem checkpoints during levels so that every time you die you start off on a certain part in the level, but this feature at times is highly inconsistent: sometimes you die and start back at a certain point other times you die and get to keep going and sometimes it's frustrating not knowing what will happen next.
Despite all these nitpicks I've made however, there seems to be a game play element in Lazers that makes those issues easier to swallow and that's the game's difficulty. Seeing how the game is a TG16 game the game starts you off on a default difficulty you can't change unless you manage to use a cheat code, but said default difficulty is tuned to perfection as the difficulty shifts from hard to normal at seemingly random intervals which makes attempting to beat the game a great challenge while only reaching moments of blatant unfairness at the last level. So combine the assortment of weapons you get to use against the throngs of enemies with more than seven levels of numerous enemies and you've got a solid combination for an enjoyable shooter all ready.
Seeing how this is on a TG16, it's hard to comment on the sound without ripping it a new hole. Many of the songs on the system sounded the same regardless of the game you played. Lazers has a gratifyingly better assortment of different sounds that stand out on their own, particularly the sound of your shots hitting different boss' weak points and guarded points as well as the sound of your powered-up weapons firing away at enemy waves. Over all though a lot of the sounds you hear will sound pretty similar to most previous games you've played on the TG16. IF anything the sound quality occasionally degrades the music as an Extend bonus noise will practically kill the song that's playing.
The soundtrack consists of highly motivational and sometimes whimsical but constantly groovy songs that rarely cease in driving the player into aeronautic chaos. Like most shooters, the first songs from the game's opening all the way to the end of level 1 are well composed for the sake of enhancing the player's will to proceed with quite possibly some of the best music composed on a Turbo Graphic 16 sound-card. There are only a few songs that sound a little lazy such as the Bubble Zone level song which makes me picture a composer behind his desk lounging around while occasionally pushing random keys before striking an actual melody, but this hardly compares to the rest of soundtrack which is absolutely fantastic. There is practically a tune for everything in the game from mini-boss fights, level clear and enemy defeated songs and none of them give you a misinterpretation of that game's presentation and all continue the theme of hard-driving, chaos fueled motivation, something that every shooter needs. While on the whole audio subject, it's interesting to note that this game features a voice-over during game play that announces what weapons you picked up, but the quality of the voice is quite laughable as it is a dull voice-over that tiredly announces your choice of weapons as if the actor just woke up. Then again, it's hard to tell if it's really an actor speaking or if it's just a sound effect used to implement a human voice. Still, this is the TG16 and much like the music's tones, sometimes the sounds of exploding enemies can drown his voice right out, so there is that plus!
From an artistic stand point, Blazing Lazers proffers a lot considering that most vertical scrolling shooters are so objective and straight forward that any and all attempts at art direction is practically invisible. Admittedly the visuals of Blazing Lazers tread similar ground in some areas as you face up against the usual flying brains and human skulls, eye-balls and even the biggest Gradius rip-off of all which has giant Moai heads shooting stars at you, but as far as visual designs go BL proffers some unique visuals, particularly during the perplexing final boss fight and in the fifth level where you end up facing slews of Egyptian pyramids loaded with missiles and moon shaped lasers along side a boss that's basically a giant floating boulder with a scarab shape on its face that splits open to reveal a two-headed dragon inside. Such visuals are simply hard to criticize and easier to ponder which works very well in Lazers' favor. And so, Blazing Lazers is a grand old game, one that through the strains of gaming time may just get forgotten after being re-discovered, but it still deserves some credit if not a lot. If you're in need of a super fun, challenging vertical shooter with a good presentation then Blazing Lazers is the game for you.