Blazing Lazers - History

History

Blazing Lazers was co-developed by Hudson Soft and Compile. Notable developers include Masamitsu "Moo" Niitani, president of Compile and creator of Zanac, The Guardian Legend and the Puyo Puyo series; Mikio Ueyama, director of the Super Bomberman series for the Super NES, and Tadayuki Kawada, designer of the Super Famicom game DoReMi Fantasy. The game was released as Gunhed on July 7, 1989 (1989-07-07) for the Japanese PC Engine console as a tie-in to the live action film of the same name. It was subsequently released in North America as Blazing Lazers in November 1989, with the game localized for the North American audience by removing the references to the Gunhed film. The game was rereleased on the Wii's Virtual Console service in North America on May 21, 2007 (2007-05-21), in Europe on May 25, 2007 (2007-05-25), in Australia on July 30, 2007 (2007-07-30), and in Japan on June 17, 2008 (2008-06-17). It was released for the PlayStation Network in Japan on July 21, 2010 (2010-07-21). During development of the game Super Star Soldier, NEC considered calling the game Blazing Lazers II because of the similarity in gameplay with Blazing Lazers. The game was featured in a preview of future TurboGrafx-16 games in Electronic Gaming Monthly in November 1989. In a section previewing new TurboGrafx-16 games, said that game was a "total blast from start to finish".

The game has been considered by game reviewers as one of the better shoot 'em up video games in the genre as well as one of the best games on the TurboGrafx-16 gaming console. Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser from Dragon reviewed the game in its "The Role of Computers" column, giving the game 5 out of 5 stars. Brett Alan Weiss from Allgame considered this game as "one of the most highly regarded games in the TurboGrafx-16 library". VideoGames & Computer Entertainment featured a walkthrough of the game which spanned over two issues in 1990; they praised the game, saying that it is "one of the fastest games for the TurboGrafx-16", that it "will keep you going for hours".

Steve Harris reviewed the game in Electronic Gaming Monthly in November 1989. He said that Blazing Lazers was the next best game to the much-anticipated port of R-Type. He noted the great gameplay and spectacular graphics, sound, and music. He appreciated the amount of detail in the game's graphics. He said that the large bosses in the game were the best part, saying that they "were enough to make even die-hard veterans of video game wars cringe in terror". His only criticism of the game was its difficulty, especially in the game's final level; he says that the final level is near-impossible if players have lost all their power-ups. The game would be featured in a series of cheats in the magazine's January 1990 issue. It was reviewed again in the magazine's December 1989 issue by Harris and three other reviewers. In the review, Harris added that the game takes advantage of the TurboGrafx-16's processors with its animation and gameplay. Ed Semrad appreciated the detailed backgrounds, difficulty, and action, but he criticized the game for being repetitive. Donn Nauert called Blazing Lazers the best game on the console, while Martin Alessi called it the best shoot 'em up on any console; Alessi added that the gameplay, graphics, and sound are "near perfect".

Blazing Lazers received further praise after it was released on the Virtual Console. Mike Fahey from Kotaku describes the game as the "best damn shooter on the TurboGrafx, if not best game overall". Lucas Thomas from IGN referred to the game as superior to other shoot 'em up games such as Super Star Soldier, Gradius III, and the R-Type series. Thomas further asserts that the game had "pushed the to its limits". Frank Provo from GameSpot also gave positive reviews for Blazing Lazers, saying that the game, despite the plain graphics and aesthetics, compensates with intense gameplay and a "ridiculous orgy of firepower". He also lauds the game for its diverse weaponry, lack of graphical slowdown seen in some older console games, and the superior, futuristic audio, which he says has an "optimistic quality" to it.

Jeremy Parish from the site 1UP.com praised Blazing Lazers, saying that the game is "drowned in goodness". Justin Leeper from GameSpy especially praised the game also for its lack of slowdown, stating that prior to 1989 players could only experience the same in arcades. He claimed that the game surpassed any game on the Nintendo Entertainment System at that time. He lauds the smooth scrolling, lush background graphics, and "catchy tunes." Paul Glancey from the UK-based magazine Computer and Video Games gave it a score 96%, praising the gameplay, difficulty, graphics and sound, calling it "utterly incredible" and stating "Anyone on the quest for the ultimate shoot 'em up—this is it! THIS IS IT!!".