accepting lasers
as an admirable weapon
is it possible?
Additional Comments:
Wait, so there's actually an STG that has a decent laser? Incredible, but it's true!
What's funny is that a while back Sven and I were joking about how in most platformers or STG's, lasers, though cool by admission, are just completely useless weapons. True, their power is typically unmatched by any other weapon, but their speed, range, or rate of fire is just atrocious. Our conversation stemmed from an opinionated afterthought regarding Contra III by another friend of mine who believed that the laser was by far the best weapon in the game. Well, for me, the laser is the one weapon in that game that I will deliberately go out of my way to avoid, as if it were the plague. There is nothing that will bring that game to a sudden, grinding halt like attaining the dreaded laser - might as well just jump off a cliff and start the game over. Now, maybe I'm being a little harsh by grossly stereotyping the mass assembly of light-emitted weaponry, but let's face it, there's a definite commonality going on here - a slow-firing burst of absolute power - and for fast paced games, it's a guaranteed failure. I don't know, is the trade-off for power really warranted? As someone who will always choose speed or maneuverability over brute strength; that's a big emphatic no. Basically, what we're dealing with here is the Bowser or DK of the shoot 'em up world.
So what's all this about a decent laser if you're so quick to slander the thing? Well, I have to admit, not all lasers are created equal. Somewhere out there is a game that managed to turn the laser into an absolute badass of a weapon, and that game's name is Blazing Lazers. Heck, it's in their name! This game rewrote the book on laser mechanics in an STG. Not only is it an amazing weapon, it's quite possibly the best weapon! (Or damn near close - I have to admit, I still prefer the spread shot, which I'll explain my reasons later on.) So how can this possibly be? STG's, especially space shooters, typically contain the same set of weaponry, so even if you've only ever played one - like an R-Type or Gradius, you're still able to ascertain what kind of weapons will be available: a basic single shot gun and/or rapid succession variety, some form of spread shot, a shield, an assist, and possibly some sort of homing missile. Did I forget anything? Oh yea, a laser - and don't forget the disgust. Ugh....
With most shooters, I will usually grab the spread shot or homing missile and refuse to budge an inch regarding alternate choices. However, with Blazing Lazers, once I understood the weapon and upgrade system, I found the laser to be the prime choice since it too has somewhat of a spread effect. Sure enough, the rate of fire was down compared to the other weapons, but the way the lasers snaked across the screen, the slow ROF was barely noticeable, especially when paired up with a couple of assists. And who doesn't like assists? Myself, I try to use them as much as possible, that is until I realized the benefit of the firepower enhancement. Holy shit! Coupled with the laser and you've got yourself one badass mother. Firepower will turn the laser into a homing snake of evisceration that contains at least twice the firepower of any other weapon in the game. However, it does come with it's limitations. Unfortunately, firepower will return your laser to a single beam; therefore removing the illusion of a decent rate of fire. Back to the drawing board. Or is it?
My personal opinion, or at least what I found worked the best: the firepower enhanced laser works best for the first half of the game while a firepowered enhanced spread shot worked best for the second half, especially the last two stages. Seriously, I wouldn't recommend using anything but the spread shot for the last two stages, which I didn't realize until my playthrough on Hard mode. And despite Hard being far more difficult than Normal, the last two stages were a cakewalk as I blazed through them with the spread shot. Actually, on my first playthrough which was on Normal, Area 8 just frustrated and confused me to no end. There are sooo many bubbles! And they are everywhere!! During my Hard playthrough, I eventually found that you can pretty much ride the right edge the entire time and avoid everything - well, almost the entire time, and besides, the later difficulties chose to prove me wrong. But as far as Area 9 is concerned, sit at the top of the screen with a full power spread shot and you're golden - no matter the difficulty setting.
Ok, so Areas 8 and 9 turned out to be easy once I figured them out. Areas 3, 5 and 7 on the other hand - goddamn! Those levels are brutal!! Now, a sort of self-imposed challenge I've always tried to abide by in STG's is to complete the game without using bombs. Of course, it never works, and this game is no different. In these three stages, I found myself spamming bombs like there was no tomorrow. Seriously, without the aid of bombs, I don't know how or if you can even fight your way through them. Fortunately, Areas 4 and 6 were well deserved breathers where I could stock any lost weapons or bombs. In fact, I completely strategized my latter playthroughs around this knowledge - all my war efforts being geared towards Areas 3, 5 and 7. And I knew that once I completed Area 7, the rest of the game was gravy.
As far as music, it's usually hit or miss when it comes to STG's. For me, Blazing Lazers came through and had a fairly good repertoire of music. Some of my favorites were Area 5, Area 6 and Area 8 (heh, Area 8's music just added to the general kookiness that is Area 8). And hey, the Ending Theme's not too bad either.
And finally, as a TurboGrafx-16 game, what can I say? The game is fantastic. Not only, that, but the graphics were amazing. I know I keep promoting the system in a more than favorable light, but the system just keeps astounding me, even with its mediocre titles like Legendary Axe. I'm curious to see how Blazing Lazers compares to its Japanese counterpart, Gunhed, though from what I understand, there's really no difference at all. Either way, Hudson managed to make a brilliant game.
Nano-Rant:
There is something that really bothers me about this game though. The lack of difficulty modes. Seriously, what kind of STG decides to forgo difficulty modes? But wait, didn't you mention various difficulty modes in your above comments? Ok, you got me.
Let me explain. After my first playthrough, I was sort of left questioning as too whether or not I ran the full gambit of the game. I found it curious that there was no options screen upon startup, but figured it was one of those situations where a new difficulty will open up after you beat the current mode. Nope. Well, I'll be damned. But then I find out you can access a hidden menu by mashing the I and II buttons repeatedly while holding Mode (or whatever NEC calls the Select button - wait, is it actually called Select? I forget) where you can set the difficulty between Normal and Hard. But wait, there's more. Inside the secret menu, you can mash the same set of buttons while highlighting one of the aforementioned modes to bring up another, yet harder, mode - but you've got to do so for both modes if you want both of the additional "bonus" modes.
What the hell? Why is the difficulty menu such a pain in the ass to find? I can understand if you had to mash a bunch of buttons on the opening screens to find a debug menu or access some sort of cheat, but to make the game harder? Maybe I'm missing something. But then, what I really want to know: why can't you just press Run to exit the difficulty menu? Why do I need to press a combination of buttons!? Sure, it's only two, but come on, this is totally unnecessary. After finding out how to access the menu, I spent five minutes mashing buttons just trying to get out. Arrghhh!!!!!
Rating: 4.5 floating brains out of 5
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