Developer: Cyclone System Publisher: Sage’s Creation Released: 1990 Genre: Action
Sage’s Creation is a forgotten publisher from the early days of the Sega Genesis. They were one of the few to support the system in light of Nintendo’s iron grip on third parties and while that is admirable most of their games were not. Devilish was an interesting take on breakout with a killer soundtrack that I wish were better. Crack Down was a decent port of the arcade game that suffered due to the system’s lower resolution compared to the arcade. Shadow Blasters is game with a decent hook that unfortunately is strictly average. There is nothing wrong with that of course but you would need to be really hard up for another action platformer to settle for this one.
The Gods are fed up with humanity. After watching mankind’s depravity for millennia they deem humans a lost cause. The Gods seal the portal between their realm and Earth and leave man to their own devices. One God sees this as an opportunity however. Asura plans on conquering the world but is opposed by Hyprion. Hyprion grants four mortals the power to fight back. Localization issues aside (I’m sure it is supposed to be Ashura and Hyperion) this is an interesting premise for an action game. Now if only the game were better.
Shadow Blasters heavily reminds me of Mystic Defender. They both feature a similar charge based mechanic to power your basic attack. Here the charge meter is level based and at levels 3, 6, & 9 your attack changes. You also have a one-time use super spell that essentially clears the screen as in Shinobi. There are power-ups to increase the rate at which your meter charges in addition to raising your default jump and walking speed. At the highest level it takes less than a second to fully charge, making your most powerful attack the default. But where Mystic Defender focused on a single character Shadow Blasters has a team of sorcerers at your command.
Your team of mystics each has their strengths and weaknesses. Horatio is your well rounder, with good power. His fire dragon attack is incredibly strong but slow and only one can be on screen at a time. Leo is probably the most useful. His attacks function like boomerangs, and you can have multiples of all sizes practically litter the screen. Marco is the strongest, with his thunder decimating bosses in short order. It also has good coverage as it splits in three at the highest level. Sadly Tiffany takes the most effort to use effectively. Her bombs require close range and when they evolve into tornadoes still are not that great.
The team element is Shadow Blasters most unique trait. Like TMNT on the NES you can switch at any time and everyone has separate life bars as well as level up their “stats” separately. You will spend most of the time changing before someone dies as there is no way to bring them back until a game over. The game does not refill your health between levels which makes team management crucial. Having said that it is not as complex as I make it sound but at least gives the game some flavor.
The first six levels can be tackled in any order. This is not like Mega Man where your approach will give you an advantage in other levels but it is a nice bit of flavor. Each of these stages takes you to a wildly diverse set of locales, from a forest, the streets of a broken down city, and for some reason the future. Each level is short with some being a few screens long. But they still manage to offer a few paths to their end level boss. This is an action platformer but the focus shifts depending on the stage. While some stages do focus on platforming like the forest it is still basic compared to similar titles. And while certain levels do have more enemies it isn’t until close to the end that you will face enemies worth a damn and even that is slight.
Shadow Blasters is an insanely easy game, to an absurd degree. Power-ups drop from almost every enemy which is reasonable as you need to level up each character individually. It is easy to max out everyone’s stats at which point you can use Leo or Horatio to storm through levels. Ironically the character switching mechanic largely contributes to why the game is so simple. The platforming is rudimentary and the only challenge comes from the boss battles. But even these are a cinch as they deal such little damage. If you play coop then it becomes even easier. It wasn’t always this way; the international version is easier than its Japanese counterpart which makes the game’s already short length more compact.
In Closing
Shadow Blasters is an average action game that would soon be eclipsed by better titles. There is nothing wrong with it but it does not stand out either. Only buy it if you have played every other action game for the system and are just exploring the rest of its library.
