Battle Blaze

Developer: Aicom     Publisher: American Sammy     Released: 1993     Genre: FIghting

Street Fighter 2 was the equivalent of a nuclear bomb on the arcade industry. Like Pac-Man and Space Invaders before it Street Fighter 2 spawned a legion of imitators, both in the arcade and at home. Some were great like Fatal Fury and the King of Fighters. Some of these were interesting if flawed experiments like Eternal Champions. And then there were the games like Battle Blaze that tried to be different and stumbled in the process. I can appreciate a game trying to create an identity of its own. But originality will only get you so far and in execution Battle Blaze falls flat.

In the land of Virg the king is decided by the Tournament of Champions. Five combatants enter but a demon named Autarch, with plans of world domination, sends phantoms that possess all of the entrants except one, Durill.  Durill fights and defeats his phantom but succumbs to injury soon after. His son Kerrell takes up his sword and enters the Tournament of Champions seeking revenge.

Battle Blaze has two modes, Hero and Battle mode. Hero is the game’s single player campaign. In it you control Kerrell in a series of non-linear battles to reach Autarch. You can tackle the story mode in any order, not that it makes much of a difference. The fact that you are forced to use Kerrell in Hero Mode sucks as he is the least interesting character. This is not a Ryu situation where he is well rounded. Kerrell’s special moves are not terribly interesting compared to the rest of the cast and feel like a handicap in front of the aggressive AI. It makes the story mode more frustrating than it should be considering the game’s severe lack of content.

Battle Blaze suffers from a dearth of content. Even the simplest fighting games usually defaulted to eight characters and one or two bosses. Battle Blaze has five (or six if you include the boss) leading to one of the shortest single player modes in the genre. Sure the fact that you can choose your next opponent is cool. But when there are so few it does not seem so special. Fighting games live or die by their multiplayer in most cases in this regard the small roster means the game barely lasts longer than an afternoon before boredom sets in.

The AI makes the single player mode a chore. The computer is aggressive and will block the majority of your attacks. Because you lack the options of other more in depth fighting games there is little you can do other than employ cheap tactics such as spamming the one or two moves that seem to work. Even this isn’t completely infallible. Characters such as Adrick deal ridiculous amounts of damage, to a level you cannot. With the game’s double life bars even losing can take a while. Don’t get me started on the final boss. This is SNK boss levels of cheapness before that was even a thing. With a lacking single player mode and lackluster multiplayer Battle Blaze simply does not hold up in its genre.

The frustrating thing about Battle Blaze is that it had potential to be decent. I like that special moves are simple to execute; the genre would continue to become more complex so a game that is immediately accessible has a point in its favor. Some of its characters have interesting abilities. Shnouzer is a beastman who can change forms mid-match. Adrick has a massive Dark Blade that gives him long reach at the expense of speed. But most of his moves are gap closers to make up for it. If the game had a few more characters I would have liked it. But with its small cast I can’t help but view it as wasted potential.

I will give the game credit, special moves are simple to execute. The game uses two buttons, one for attack and jumping. The simplified control scheme and button inputs for moves allow novices to jump in and (ideally) have a good time. Each character has four or five special moves which is impressive for the time. Battle Blaze feels more like a beat em up than a traditional fighting game. There are no combos and little tactical depth.

In Closing

A fantasy fighting game was a novelty concept for the genre at the time. Unfortunately Battle Blaze fails on almost level to be compelling. You will get more enjoyment out of replaying Street Fighter 2 than this one.