Genre: Action
Perspective: Side view
Visual: 2D scrolling
Gameplay: Shooter
Setting: Post-Apocalyptic, Sci-Fi / Futuristic
Published by: SNK Corporation
Developed by: Yumekobo Co.
Released: 1998
Platform: Neo-Geo
Blazing Star is a horizontal shooter game for the Neo Geo game system. It is the sequel to acclaimed shooter Neo Geo Pulstar, who was herself a close cousin of the R-Type franchise. A typically strong Neo Geo ROM at 346 Mb, the game makes extensive use of prerendered pseudo-3D sprites, short anime and CGI scene cuts (mostly during the intro sequence), and frequent Engrish voice samples and legends. While Blazing Star was superior in many ways to previous action games, some fans compared it unfavorably with Pulstar on the basis that Blazing Star was too easy and there are those who prefer the appearance of simple 2D sprites on the prerendered sprites that came to dominate Many of the most recent shoot-em-ups.
Plot
At some point in their past, the planets Remuria and Mutras began an interplanetary war that showed no signs of ending. The endless struggle between the human-like inhabitants of the two planets had spent so much time that the development of weapons moved into dangerous terrain: Organic Production Weapon combined with alien technology. Soon, a sensitive weapon - Brawshella - was born. Brawshella gathered all animal life on both planets and forced them to do their will and attack humans. In a week, human beings were assimilated by Brawshella.
However, once they were assimilated, they found no other purpose in life, but they keep fighting each other. After a while, six of the assimilated combat pilots regained their consciousness and remembered their past. Upon discovering their humanity, the pilots were in conflict with the following orders of Brawshella or fight to fully regain their independence. The pilots, finally, turn against the machine in a battle to discover themselves and reclaim their planets.
Gameplay
The joystick and two buttons are used to reproduce fiery star. The joystick moves to the ship, the A button while the normal shot is fired. If A is rotated quickly, then a variation on the normal shot is used. If A is held down, the boat stores energy during a loaded shot, which fires when one is released. Charged-shot attacks have a duration based on how long the A button is held during, and pressing B during the attack will spread the projectile in some way, greatly increasing the range.
Power-ups can increase the strength of the player's weapons, while increasing the maximum power of the loaded shot. The types of shots, charge-up attacks, and fractional shots used depend on the player's ship selects. For example, the boat you see in the image above has small energy waves as its normal shot. The loaded shot, is seen in action here, a continuous stream of large fireballs comes out. By pressing B, each fireball on the screen is divided into numerous smaller shots, extending to cover a much wider range.
Stage Select
At the character select screen, hold Right on the gamepad and button D on both the one player and two player sides, then select your character. The next screen will be a stage select menu.