I was not impressed by the Turbo Grafx initially. It didn’t help that I got the system in 1992, when the price had dropped to $50. By then the SNES and Genesis were in full stride, pumping out classic titles left and right. NEC, with their non-existent third-party support, could not keep up. Keith Courage in the Alpha Zones was an awful pack-in title and did not show off the system right. It was titles like Air Zonk and Blazing Lazers that really made me change my opinion of the system. Blazing Lazers stands out as one of the best games for the system overall.
Blazing Lazers was developed by Compile a tie-in to the movie Gunhed. I use the word tie-n loosely as the only thing the two had in common was the title. Since it was not released here the name was changed and no one was the wiser. Leave it up to Compile to create one of the definitive shooters for the system. Blazing Lazers, being one of the earliest titles for the system in the US, shaped what I expected out of subsequent shooters for the Turbo Grafx-16, unjustly or not. After lame crap like China Warrior and Vigilante this is what I needed to restore my misguided faith in the system.
At its core Blazing Lazers is very similar to most Compile shooters. It features a powerful set of weapons, all denoted by roman numerals. Unlike Zanac the list has been paired back to four, but you aren’t lacking in choice. Each of the four options brings something to the table with only one real dud in the bunch. Number I upgrades your standard shot, increases its radius and direction of fire. Number II fires wave beams, adding more beams at higher levels. My personal favorite is Number III. Aside from being the strongest the laser beams it produces cover a wide swath of the screen. At max level it blankets most of the playing field in blue thunder. Number IV is virtually useless. It functions like the ring shield in Zanac except here you are limited to weak basic shots. Avoid it at all costs.
Every weapon can be powered up to five times, either by collecting more of the same or by chips. But it doesn’t stop there. Secondary enhancements run the usual shooter gamut like homing missiles, options, and shields. One in particular, firepower, further enhances your current and changes it entirely. The already strong lasers become homing lasers for example. You can only have one enhancement which is tricky as all of them have their uses.
If it seems like a lot of firepower it is. Blazing Lazers is one of the most generous shooters when it comes to power-ups. There is rarely a moment where an item pod is not flying in. It like their other shooters but I would say even more abundant here. The frequency with which items drop encourages playing around and switching depending on the circumstance. It helped to break me out of a mindset that I carried for a long time. I was the type of player that picked a favorite and stuck with it. The pacing and overall design of Blazing Lazers almost discourages that approach. With the game’s length and variety playing around with the various weapons is incredibly fun.
Despite the game’s generosity it still manages to put up a fight. The system’s extra grunt compared to the NES is on full display as the screen regularly fills with enemies. The game is chaotic but never descends into bullet hell insanity. It is easy to get lost in the chaos and get hit by a stray bullet. Death is handled differently here; most of the time you have a weak shield. Light hits will degrade your weapon before death while big hits spell instant doom. Death sends you back to a checkpoint with no weapons, but it is easy to get back up to speed. Honestly, I don’t know how they did it. You are practically showered in items, yet the game remains challenging yet fair. The fact that it pulls off that balancing act so well is commendable.
Like Legendary Axe Blazing Lazers was an early showcase for the hardware. On its face it doesn’t look that impressive. Outside of sparing moments of parallax the game is mostly flat. It gets by on its great art direction and tons of sprites. Blazing Lazers focuses on what the TG-16 does best, manipulating tons of large sprites with no slowdown. Coming from NES games that routinely ground to a halt this was especially impressive. The only weak link is the soundtrack which is decent but not memorable.
In Closing
Blazing Lazers is one of the best shooters for the Turbo Grafx-16. That isn’t a knock against later titles; the game is that good. In those dark early days where quality titles were few Blazing Lazers was one of the best reasons to own the system and remains a great game today.
