
	Platform TurboGrafx-16 Genre Shooter Publisher NEC Developer Hudson Soft Released 1989
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Blazing Lazers

Easily the first game I think of when someone mentions the TurboGrafx-16 is the vertical space shooter, Blazing Lazers. A little while after getting the system I decided to expand my collection of games for it, and when looking at titles available at my local game shop, there was something about this one in particular that I couldn’t resist. There was lots of stuff happening on screen, and it had some neat power-ups to boot.

One of the first things to stand out when I first popped the game in the console was the game’s music. It was just so damn catchy. It had an amazing mix of slow, atmospheric tunes, and fast-paced pieces, all packed with so many hooks that it was hard not to get the game’s music stuck in one’s head. There were several times that I would blast through the game just to get to the last level and enjoy the music for it. I was absolutely amazed by that piece. It was fast, intense, and perfectly matched the craziness happening on the screen...though this sorta crapped out when the game got hit by slowdown.

It was this high-intensity action that made me very happy that I had picked up the game. Things may have started out slow on the first few levels, but by the third level things really picked up. The only problem with the game in this regard, though, was the TG-16’s tendency to suffer from slowdown. If there were too many

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enemies on-screen at once, things suddenly went into slow motion. Nowadays, I would complain like mad about this sort of stuff in a heartbeat. However, being barely 13 at the time, I didn’t know much better, and was willing to cut the game some slack.

The power-ups were pretty decent for the game too. There were lightening attacks that started with one stream and gradually increased to several that branched out, filling much of the

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screen. There was a standard spread shot that didn’t do a lot of damage, but shot all around the ship. Probably my favorite weapon, though, was the wave attack. It spread out into a maximum of five waves, shooting in a v-shape, and it packed quite a bit of punch. On top of this, I would make sure to grab shield power-ups whenever possible. There was also an option for having a couple of small ships add firepower to your vessel, but these wound up being pretty useless, as they’d disappear right quick when the main ship was taking damage.

One of the things that slightly took away from the fun in Blazing Lazers was that its graphics just weren’t all that amazing. The title really showcased how limited the TG-16’s technology was. If one were to compare the game to similar titles on something like the Sega Genesis (Thunderforce III or Gaiares for instance), Blazing Lazers just didn’t stack up. Compounding the problem was the aforementioned slowdown the game suffered from.

Back in the 16-bit era, another thing that a lot of games were known for was the one hit wonder approach to play, where it could take one hit and you were dead. This wasn’t really the case in Blazing Lazers. There were shields that players could get, and as players were hit, their weapons would become weaker, and their ship would only be destroyed if their weapons were whittled down to their lowest level. Despite this, the game was still no cakewalk. There were many instances where there would be tons of lasers blasting on screen, requiring nimble fingers in order to avoid the gunfire. By the last level, players really needed to be on their game in order to win.

Even though Blazing Lazers wasn’t the prettiest game of its time, and had quite a bit of slowdown, I still loved it. It took a fair bit of time to finish from start to end, and I absolutely loved the soundtrack. It may not be a legendary space shooter, but it still deserves a nod for providing some fun on NEC’s doomed console.

Mr. Nash

(April 10, 2005)