Developer: A.I. Co, Ltd Publisher: Atlus Released: 1992 Genre: Shooter
The SNES saw its fair share of arcade ports initially. A lot of these titles ranged in quality. You had your classics like Turtles in Time and mediocre games like Gun Force. For some unexplained reason shooters seemed to be the hot genre released on the system early on. I have no problem with that; I’m still a fan of the genre even if it has descended into bullet hell. Literally. That being said I wish developers chose better games to port. For every U.N. Squadron you had a bland game like Strike Gunner. Blazeon sits right comfortably beside it as a middling game with a cool mechanic that does nothing with it.
Blazeon is different from most shooters in a few ways. There are no traditional power-ups of any kind. Your ship has two weapons. You have a rapid fire cannon that is incredibly weak. The more interesting weapon is the Tranquilander. Lord I don’t know how they came up with that name. This…interestingly named weapon is slow but pacifies enemies, at which point you can jump in their body.
All told there are seven unique enemies that can be captured for your use. Some bio cyborgs only appear in particular due to their specialized weapons. The most common are the Mars cyborg, with its three-way attack, the Grain Beat, with its movable laser cannons, and the Neptune, which has an incredibly strong wave cannon. Usually the game will throw one of these cyborgs in your path at least three times per level. Commandeering an enemy is doubly important not just because it increases your firepower but also because they function as armor. Most take a few hits to destroy before you revert to the default ship. You do not want this to happen.
While the three cyborgs I have listed appear the most they aren’t the most interesting. The Shadow Blade is the fastest ship and its special weapon allows it to become intangible for ten seconds. This is a literal god send on certain levels. The Titan has the strongest weapons but only appears two or three times which is lame. Possibly the most useful is Hyper Dee. Compared to the rest Hyper Dee is the largest cyborg but makes up for it by allowing you to destroy enemy bullets.
I like that each cyborg has strengths and weaknesses but it does not change the fact that they all make you a giant ass target. Blazeon may have its issues in terms of action (more on that later) but it manages to pack a lot into its cramped confines. There are frequently times where it is near impossible to avoid taking hits due to your size. As you take damage your mech’s weapons downgrade before it is ultimately destroyed. There are long gaps in between enemies you can control and it is pointless trying to rely on the base ship. I realize it is one more element that needs consideration when choosing a “weapon” but it is annoying that they are such a liability. It is especially bad when they are the only power-ups available.
Although I’ve praised the capture system in Blazeon ultimately the game does little with it. To put it bluntly, the pacing in Blazeon is terrible. This is not a twitch shooter but at the same time the game desperately needed more action. There are long gaps of nothing in between enemy waves with only the music playing. If it were one or two instances it would be forgivable. But every level has multiple instances of dead air. Blazeon is a game of highs and lows. When the action is going it can be exciting. When it isn’t the game is extremely boring. Games like Super R-Type manage their slow pace a lot better and show that you don’t need to be a Lightening Force to keep players entertained.
As if the lacking action were not bad enough Blazeon is fairly routine in its difficulty. The game does a good job of providing enemies to capture so you are not stuck with the default weapon. So long as you have a slight amount of skill dodging bullets you will almost never die. If you do die it can be hard to mount a comeback as in most shooters but the chances of that are low. Defeating end level bosses within the time limit grants massive point bonuses toward extra lives as well. If you can stay interested long enough to reach the end there is no ending as the game simply loops.
In Closing
Blazeon is not necessarily bad but it isn’t good either. It squanders its potential by doing nothing with its cool weapon system. The SNES may not have a large library of quality shooters but you can certainly do better than this.
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