is an interactive film game developed by

Data East , also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game, pinball and electronic engineering company. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, and released 150 video game titles. At one time, the company had annual sales of 20 billion yen in ...

, featuring animation by

Toei Animation is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including '' Sally the Witch'', '' GeGeGe no Kitarō'', '' Mazinger Z'', '' Galaxy Express 999'', '' Cutie Honey'', '' Dr. Slu ...

, originally released in Japan as a

LaserDisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...

-based

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily game of skill, games of skill and in ...

in 1985. The player assumes the role of a vigilante who pursues a biker gang responsible for his wife's death in a modified sports car. The game was ported home formats such as the

MSX MSX is a standardized home computer architecture, announced by ASCII Corporation on June 16, 1983. It was initially conceived by Microsoft as a product for the Eastern sector, and jointly marketed by Kazuhiko Nishi, the director at ASCII Corpo ...

and

Sharp X1 The , sometimes called the Sharp X1 or CZ-800C, is a series of home computers released by Sharp Corporation from 1982 to 1988. It is based on a Zilog Z80 CPU. The RGB display monitor for the X1 had a television tuner, and a computer screen ...

( VHD format),

Sega CD The Sega CD, known as in most regions outside North America and Brazil, is a CD-ROM accessory and format for the Sega Genesis produced by Sega as part of the fourth generation of video game consoles. Originally released in November 1991, it ca ...

(under the title of ''Road Blaster FX''),

LaserActive The is a hybrid LaserDisc player and home video game console released by Pioneer Corporation in 1993. Marketed as a high-end, modular entertainment system, it was designed to combine movies, music, and video games into a single unit. Out of the ...

(in Mega-LD format),

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

and

Sega Saturn The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it is the successor to the succes ...

(in a compilation with '' Thunder Storm''). The Sega CD and Mega-LD versions were released outside of Japan under titles of ''Road Avenger'' and ''Road Prosecutor.''

Gameplay

As with other

laserdisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...

-based arcade games from the same time, the gameplay consists of on-screen instructions overlaid over pre-recorded

full motion video Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than Sprite (computer graphics), sprites, vector graphics, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games featur ...

animated footage of high-speed chases and vehicular combat. Played from a first-person perspective, the player controls the crosshair to steer their car toward the correct directions according to the green arrows flashing and beeping beside it, while controlling the gas pedal, brake and booster whenever they light up. The game has nine stages. Upon successfully completing a level, the player is graded on the reaction time. Different difficulty levels can be selected. In Normal Mode, pop-up icons and audio tones signal when to turn left or right, brake, hit turbo, or hit other cars. In Hard Mode, there are no on-screen icons to guide the player.

Plot

''Road Blaster'' is inspired by revenge

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

s such as ''

Mad Max ''Mad Max'' is an Australian media franchise created by George Miller and Byron Kennedy. It centres on a series of post-apocalyptic and dystopian action films. The franchise began in 1979 with '' Mad Max'', and was followed by three sequels: ...

''. In the late 1990s United States, the player assumes the role of a vigilante who drives a customized sports car in order to get revenge on a biker gang responsible for his wife's death on their honeymoon. After recovering from his own injuries, he upgrades his car and goes on a rampage through nine areas. His goal is to seek out the gang's female boss and complete his vengeance.

Development

''Road Blaster'' uses animation provided by the

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

studio

. It was animated under the guidance of Yoshinobu Inano, who also directed or key-animated such films such as '' Gundam: Char's Counter Attack'', '' Macross: Do You Remember Love?'', and '' The Transformers: The Movie''. It was animated using 15,000 hand-painted cels to produce over 30 minutes of animation. Game director

Yoshihisa Kishimoto is a Japanese video game developer known primarily for his involvement with Technos Japan Corp. He is best known for his work on beat 'em up games, as the original creator of the '' Kunio-kun'' and ''Double Dragon'' game franchises, having worke ...

, who previously worked on '' Cobra Command'', later directed the arcade version of ''

Double Dragon is a beat 'em up video game series originally developed and published by Technōs Japan. It began with the release of the arcade game '' Double Dragon'' in 1987. The series features twin martial artists, Billy and Jimmy Lee, as they fight again ...

'', where the car from ''Road Blaster'' can be seen inside the Lee brothers' garage at the start of the game. The chopper from '' Cobra Command/Thunder Storm'' can also be seen at the beginning of ''Road Blaster''.

Releases

''Road Blaster'' was originally released in 1985 as a

-based arcade game. Various ports were released throughout history, including versions for the

, X1 (both in VHD format), Mega CD/Sega CD,

(in Mega LD format),

, and 3DO Interactive Multiplayer (prototyped as ''Turbo Blaster''). However, only the Sega CD and Mega LD versions were released outside Japan, under the titles ''Road Avenger'' and ''Road Prosecutor'', respectively. The titles were possibly changed to avoid confusion with the similarly titled arcade game ''

RoadBlasters ''RoadBlasters'' is a vehicular combat game released in arcades by Atari Games in 1987. The player navigates an armed sports car through 50 different rally races, getting to the finish line before running out of fuel. Ports were released for ...

'' by

Atari Games Atari Games Corporation was an American producer of arcade video games, active from 1985 to 1999, then as Midway Games West Inc. until 2003. It was formed when the coin-operated video game division of Atari, Inc. was transferred by its owner Wa ...

, which was ported to the

Mega Drive The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Sys ...

around the same time. ''Road Blaster'' was also released for the Sharp X68000 and for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

in 2011, exclusively in Japan. A unofficial

Super NES The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Europe and Oceania a ...

port of the game titled ''Super Road Blaster'' was released in 2012, which uses the MSU-1 chip support. ''Cobra Command'' and ''Road Blaster'' were ported to

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

by Revolutionary Concepts in 2010 and 2011, respectively. In 2018, a port for the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

( OCS and AGA) and the

CD32 CD32 (cluster of differentiation 32), also known as FcγRII or FCGR2, is a surface receptor glycoprotein belonging to the Ig gene superfamily. CD32 can be found on the surface of a variety of immune cells. CD32 has a low-affinity for the Fc r ...

was also released unofficially. Other variations included one-shot reproductions for

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

cassette players such as

Takara was a Japanese toy company founded in 1955. In March 2006, the company merged with Tomy, Tomy Company, Ltd. to form Tomy, Takara Tomy. The Takara motto was("playing is culture"). The company focused on traditional toys and board games. They cr ...

's '' Video Challenger'' which was a limited interactive port of the ''Road Blaster'' arcade game. The Sega Saturn and PlayStation ports were compilations of ''Road Blaster'' and another laserdisc arcade game developed by the same team titled ''Thunder Storm'' (known outside Japan as '' Cobra Command'').

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Road Blaster'' on their January 15, 1986 issue as being the fourteenth most-successful upright/cockpit arcade unit of the month. ''

Dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

'' reviewers gave the Sega CD version of the game 4 out of 5 stars in 1993. ''

GameFan ''GameFan'' (originally known as ''Diehard GameFan'') was a publication started by Tim Lindquist, Greg Off, George Weising, and Dave Halverson in September 1992 that provided coverage of domestic and imported video games. It was notable for it ...

'' noted it has greater interaction compared to '' Time Gal'' and ''

Thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustics, acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorm ...

'', and praised the "non-stop control of the vehicle," graphics, smooth animation, and "andrenaline rush" experience.''GameFan'', volume 1, issue 3 (January 1993), pages 11 & 26-27 ''

GamePro ''GamePro'' was an American multiplatform video game magazine media company that published online and print content covering the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software. The magazine featured content on various video ...

'' praised the highly detailed animation and stereo CD sound, and called it a "masterpiece" that is "like participating in an intense, action-packed, animated movie."''GamePro'', issue 45 (April 1993), pages 52-53 On release, '' Famicom Tsūshin'' scored the Sega Saturn version a 25 out of 40, and the PlayStation version a 23 out of 40.NEW GAMES CROSS REVIEW: サンダーストーム&ロードブラスター. Weekly Famicom Tsūshin. No.358. Pg.31. 27 October 1995. ''

Famitsu , formerly , is a line of Japanese Video game journalism, video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly f ...

'' would later give the Mega CD version a score of 32 out of 40, while '' MEGA'' rated it at 86%. The iOS port was released to generally favourable reviews, including the scores of 8 out of 10 from

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

and 7 out of 10 from ''

Pocket Gamer ''Pocket Gamer'' is a video game website and former print magazine that focuses on mobile, portable and handheld games. It was launched in 2005 by Steel Media Limited. The publication covers portable and mobile gaming formats, including iPhone, ...

''.

Legacy

novelization A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book, or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent ...

of the game was announced in 2009. The project was officially authorized by G-Mode of Japan (the rights holder to most of Data East's catalog) to be written by Mary Margaret Park.

References

External links

* *
Road Blaster
' at Arcade-History *
Road Blaster
' at Dragon's Lair Project *
MSX version
' at Generation MSX {{Homebrew 1985 video games 3DO games Arcade video games Data East arcade games Data East video games Full motion video based games Homebrew software Interactive movie video games IOS games LaserDisc video games MSX games MSX2 games Multiplayer and single-player video games PlayStation (console) games Science fiction video games Sega CD games Sega Saturn games Sharp X1 games Telenet Japan games Toei Animation video game projects Video games about police officers Video games about revenge Video games developed in Japan Video games set in the 1990s Video games set in the United States Windows games X68000 games