Gettin' Blazed! - Playing Blazing Lazers for the Very First Time on the TurboGrafx-16

After I finished playing the last of the launch titles for the TurboGrafx-16, I decided to turn to one of the games that released shortly after the console's broader launch in North America: Blazing Lazers.

Dark Squadron-Dead Ahead!

Seated at the helm of 80 tons of awesome firepower-a Gunhed Star Fighter-you've just run into the ruthless Dark Squadron. Dangerously close to the Earth, they threaten to destroy the world with 8 Super Weapons. Only you and your Star Fighter's blazing lazers and bombs stand between them and certain destruction. Plan your strategy and power up with the 8 different enhancements that appear-you'll need more than straight shooting to fight your way out of this one!

Blazing Lazers was released in November 1989, and was the first shmup ("shoot 'em up") released on the TurboGrafx.

Truth be told, even though there are several shmup's I've played over the years, I've never been a huge fan of games in that category. That being said, however, I had a good time playing Blazing Lazers.

First off, the graphics look really good with both the fidelity of the graphics and the design of the levels and enemies being well made and great to look at while the action is unfolding. I also encountered very little if any slowdown, which is rare for games back in the day with lots of action on screen.

The next thing I noticed was that the music is great and really fits the action, like all of TurboGrafx games I've had a chance to play so far. My first impressions of the TurboGrafx are that the games tend to have above average music, and that really adds to the experience overall.

The controls in Blazing Lazers are also really tight, and make most of the deaths totally the player's fault. However, the only thing I'd like to add, is that with both the backgrounds and enemies being so colorful, sometimes my eyes would get lost in all the onscreen action and I wouldn't see incoming bullets until my ship exploded. Not a criticism per se, but more an observation.

I also need to get better at memorizing what the various power-ups are by number, so I make sure to pick up the one I want at the time I want it. There were quite a few times, in my first playthrough, that I would have a killer weapon and then accidentally pick up something I liked a lot less, just because I couldn't remember which number corresponded to which weapon.

You can watch my gameplay from my very first run in Blazing Lazers on YouTube:

Overall I can certainly see myself playing a lot of this if I had received it as a present when I was a kid. There were quite a few shmups on the NES that I put a bunch of time into, and I think I would have done the same with this game. It's more fun than many similar shmups I've played, and this is probably a T-16 title I could keep going back to.

Next I'm excited to play... China Warrior!!

Until next time...