This is my first blog entry and I hope that it entertains as well as informs. :D I finally got around to finishing the overhead shooter for the TurboGrafx-16, Blazing Lazers. You might ask, "Why the hell are you blogging about that? It's like a 20 year old game!" Blazing Lazers, originally released as Gunhed in Japan for the PC-Engine is an overhead vertically scrolling shooter by Hudson Soft and the now defunct publisher Compile.


US Box Art


The ship looks a lot more badass here, of course.


It was one of the first U.S. Turbografx releases and remains to this day a fun and sometimes frustrating game.I sat there looking at some of my old games wondering what to play, seeing Blazing Lazers sitting there, I thought of all the times I have played and not finished the game in the past. Sometimes, I am the type of gamer who will play a game like this enough that I will get to a point where I will be able to survive with bombs and all power ups through several levels and then hit a wall somewhere and hit reset. The point for this game is stage 5. This stage was my bane especially the second half when the moai heads start shooting spread shots and and the large pyramids whose tops blow off into a heat seeking missile shower become more numerous...ugh.


This sucks


You are given 4 continues for the 9 levels of the game. I ended up blowing through them all by this point in past plays. I was determined to avoid that fate. So I decided to attempt the game yet again, with low expectations. Sure enough, stage 5, dead. Used up all my ships, continue? No. Reset.



I'm resetting nao!


Now I realize this is a stubborn method to some of you, 'idiot' you say. W[/size]ell yeah, I admit it's silly, but the OCD in me sometimes won't allow it. :p I caved and allowed the continues to flow, sure enough stage 6, then 7! Agh...no more continues! So I started over. After a few more start overs, I now have reached the final stage! I can tell because; A)I know how many stages are in the game (duh) and B)The background is speeding by at a rapid pace for the entire level, and I am fighting old bosses and sub-bosses between waves of annoying enemies whose job it is to run me out of bombs and lives. Dead again. At this point I was too annoyed to play again and needed a break. So fast forward to the next day, I fired up the game and with firm resolve, played a couple more rounds which ended in frustration. Then it happened, that moment where you are playing and the enemy pattern that you have been killed by over and over finally makes sense, and you dodge and weave and somehow in a zen-like state, avoid death for a bit longer than usual.
I found myself coming face to face with the final boss! A tall cylinder with two rows of five panels that each shoot bullets at you while you attempt to shoot the panels away and when you do, they fall and explode into a large spread of circular shots that you must stay away from. I think I had 2 ships left here. I lost one, and my powered up shots with it.. There were only 4 panels left! I then lost my last ship. But I still had 2 continues! I work my way back to the cylinder, I succeed in destroying all of them when, a female in robes that kind of looks like the virgin mary(!?) materializes in place and starts shooting missiles and lasers at me...


Hail Mary?



Ok so, I shoot and dodge her for awhile, then she turns into what else? A large floating robotic eye that is shielded and can only be damaged when it opens to release a bullet that turns into a spread shot when hit!


This is it!

After I took that out, I wondered 'will I be sent back to the beginning for round 2?' But no, victorious music plays with couple shots of the mothership exploding as my ship flies away. The credits roll, I feel good as only you can when beating an old game that has eluded you.


No YOU!

This is a worthwhile shooter for any fan of this type of game and if you don't have a TurboGrafx, it can be purchased on Wii virtual console for 600 points.