''Blazing Star'' is a

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs) are a Video game genre, subgenre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain typ ...

video game developed by

Yumekobo Aicom was a Japanese video game developer, founded in 1988. The Sammy Corporation website gives 1990 as its first year and says it was a subsidiary of Jaleco. Sammy bought it in 1992. Its games include ''The Mafat Conspiracy'', ''Totally Rad'' a ...

and published by

SNK is a Japanese video gaming and interactive entertainment company. It was founded in 1978 as by Eikichi Kawasaki and began by developing arcade games. SNK is known for its Neo Geo arcade system on which the company established many franchises ...

in 1998 for the

Neo Geo The , stylized as NEO•GEO, is a video game platform released in 1990 by Japanese game company SNK Corporation. It was initially released in two ROM cartridge-based formats: an arcade system board (Multi Video System; MVS) and a home video gam ...

arcade and home systems. It is a follow-up to '' Pulstar'' (1995) and features

side-scrolling A side-scrolling video game (alternatively side-scroller) is a video game viewed from a side-view camera angle where the screen follows the player as they move left or right. The jump from single-screen or flip-screen graphics to scrolling grap ...

action similar to its predecessor and different ships with varying characteristics. It was made less challenging than its predecessor, and the graphic quality was improved upon. The game was released to mixed reviews. It was commended for its graphics and boss design, and for keeping the Neo Geo shooter scene alive. It has received greater recognition in retrospective reviews when re-released on

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

s and home consoles through the '' ACA Neo Geo'' series. Critics continued to praise the boss battles and graphics, but criticized the uneven stage design.

Gameplay

''Blazing Star'' is a side-scrolling

similar to its predecessor '' Pulstar'' (1995) and the classic shooter ''

R-Type is a horizontally scrolling shooter arcade video game developed and released by Irem in 1987 and the first game in the ''R-Type'' series. The player controls a star ship, the R-9 "Arrowhead", in its efforts to destroy the Bydo, a powerful a ...

'' (1987). The story revolves around

cyborg A cyborg (, a portmanteau of ''cybernetics, cybernetic'' and ''organism'') is a being with both Organic matter, organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline. The player can choose from playing as one of these cyborgs, each piloting a ship equipped with different shot types, power, and speed. Tapping the fire button will unleash a standard shot, or it can be tapped rapidly for a different shot type, or held down for a charge attack. Upon releasing the fire button during a charge, it will unleash a powerful focused shot which can also be dispersed to cover a large area with smaller bullets. The effect and range of these attacks varies depending on the player's ship.

Power-up In video games, a power-up is an object that adds temporary benefits or extra abilities to the player character as a Game mechanics, game mechanic. This is in contrast to an Item (game), item, which may or may not have a permanent benefit that ca ...

s are littered across each stage that boost the power of the ship's weaponry. There are also other items that will increase the player's score and count towards their ranking at the end of each stage. Some of these are only revealed if the player eliminates specific waves of enemies. Some of the later stages introduce more stage hazards like narrow passages. Each stage ends with a boss fight which the player must be completed in the allotted time to get bonus points added to their score. If not completed under the time limit, the player is forced to continue to the next stage without collecting additional points.

Development

''Blazing Star'' was the first game developed by Yumekobo, a company formerly known as

Aicom Aicom was a Japanese video game developer, founded in 1988. The Sammy Corporation website gives 1990 as its first year and says it was a subsidiary of Jaleco. Sammy bought it in 1992. Its games include ''The Mafat Conspiracy'', ''Totally Rad'' a ...

but rebranded to mark their new direction of working closely with

. Initial discussions began with the concept for a follow-up to their shooter ''Pulstar'', however they wanted their new game to maintain a degree of independence from the original.Scan collectionTranslation
With significant changes made to the gameplay style and setting, the team treated their new game as a

gaiden A spinoff or spin-off is any narrative work derived from an already existing work that focuses on different aspects from the original work. History One of the earliest spin-offs of the modern media era, if not the first, happened in 1941 when t ...

and did not want to use ''Pulstar'' in the title. Yumekobo's president at the time opposed this, wanting ''Pulstar'' in the title for business reasons. At some point the game was titled ''Pulstar Blast''. The publisher SNK entered the dispute, saying they did not want Yumekobo's new shooter to be associated to ''Pulstar'' in the west because it received poor reception there due to its high difficulty. The team settled on the title ''Blazing Star'' for its western release, chosen among others including ''Zero Hour'' and ''The Zenith''. Not wanting to keep the names different between regions, Yumekobo's president decided to make ''Blazing Star'' the title in all regions. The team had trouble designing the attack patterns and enemy placements to establish the right level of difficulty. Interesting combat patterns made the game more difficult, but the game was boring otherwise. The director of ''Pulstar'' thought the original game was too difficult and wanted the new shooter to have a charge shot for an easier challenge. Although much of the game changed through development, the charge shot was one of the early concepts that was kept along with the goal to create impressive scenery. Yumekobo staff believed the game's best selling point was its detailed graphics. The artists had to overcome challenges creating the textures, animation, and reducing the sprites to 16 colors each due to

hardware limitations. The system's sprite limit restricted the number of bullets they could place on-screen. There was still some sprite flickering in the final game due to crossing this threshold. The character Leefa has a

kogal In Culture of Japan, Japanese culture, refers to the members of the Gyaru subculture who are still in high school and who incorporate their School uniforms in Japan, school uniforms into their dress style. These high school girls are characte ...

personality and was modeled after Yuko Asahina from ''

Tokimeki Memorial is a dating simulation series by Konami. It consists of eight main games in addition to many spin-offs. The games are notable in the dating sim genre for being highly nonlinear. Their nickname amongst their fans is the contraction ''TokiMemo'' ...

'' at the request of the game designers. JB was modeled after the actor

Jean Reno Juan Moreno y Herrera-Jiménez (born 30 July 1948), commonly known as Jean Reno (), is a French-Spanish actor. He established himself as a Leading actor, leading man of French cinema through his collaborations with director Luc Besson, and has w ...

, and Asayuki was based on a character for a previous game the character designer worked on that was never released. Unique endings were planned for each character but were later cut, the details of which were divulged in an issue of ''Neo Geo Freak''.

Release

''Blazing Star'' was released on the Neo Geo arcade system (MVS) in 1998, and the home system (AES) on 26 February 1998. A

Neo Geo CD The is a home video game console produced by SNK Corporation, released on September 9, 1994. The system is the same platform as the cartridge-based Neo Geo released four years earlier, but converted to the cheaper CD media format which reta ...

release was planned but abandoned. The game was re-released on

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 ...

and

Android Android most commonly refers to: *Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google * Android TV, a operating system developed ...

in July 2012, and on the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...

via the

Virtual Console The Virtual Console was a line of downloadable retro video games for Nintendo's Wii and Wii U home video game consoles and the Nintendo 3DS family of handheld systems. The Virtual Console lineup consisted of titles originally released on pa ...

in Japan on 21 August of that year. The smartphone versions include multiplayer support via

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is li ...

and a practice mode that lets the player start from any stage they have cleared.

Hamster Corporation is a Japanese video game publisher, with office located in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan. The game division of Toshiba-EMI Limited spun off Hamster Corporation in November 1999. On the Japanese PlayStation Store, more than 360 titles are distribut ...

rereleased the game for the

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

via the

eShop The is a digital distribution service for the Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo Switch 2, and formerly available via the Nintendo Network for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. Launched in June 2011 on the Nintendo 3DS, the Nintendo eShop served as t ...

on 2 May 2017 as part of their '' ACA Neo Geo'' series. As with all games released under the ''ACA Neo Geo'' brand, the game includes Hamster's additional scoring modes, screen filter options, and difficulty settings. This version later came to the

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

digital storefronts on 8 February 2018. ''Blazing Star'' is also included in SNK's Neo Geo Mini dedicated console. A port developed by

DotEmu Dotemu SAS (originally DotEmu SAS) is a French video game developer and publisher based in Paris, founded in 2007 by Xavier Liard and Romain Tisserand. It is best known for its remasters and remakes. History Dotemu was founded by Xavier Liar ...

for

Microsoft 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 ...

OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

and

asm.js asm.js is a subset of JavaScript designed to allow computer software written in languages such as C to be run as web applications while maintaining performance characteristics considerably better than standard JavaScript, which is the typical l ...

was released by

SNK Playmore is a Japanese video gaming and interactive entertainment company. It was founded in 1978 as by Eikichi Kawasaki and began by developing arcade games. SNK is known for its Neo Geo arcade system on which the company established many franchises ...

as part of the Humble NEOGEO 25th Anniversary Bundle on 15 December 2015. It was also released on

GOG.com GOG.com (formerly Good Old Games) is a digital distribution platform for video games and films. It is operated by GOG sp. z o.o., a wholly owned subsidiary of CD Projekt, based in Warsaw, Poland. GOG.com delivers DRM-free video games through i ...

on 30 May 2017.

Reception

Critics commended ''Blazing Star'' as a testament to SNK's devotion to the Neo Geo hardware and keeping classic genres such as shoot 'em ups alive. ''

Edge Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...

'' wrote that side-scrolling shooters were rare to find, but the game should satisfy fans of the genre. They praised the colorful backgrounds and 3D special effects. ''Video Games'' agreed that the graphics were nice, but felt some of the backgrounds were pale and it ultimately did not offer "The Ultimate in Neo Geo graphics" as was advertised on the game's packaging. ''Next Level'' argued that the game took better advantage of the Neo Geo hardware than ''Pulstar'' with its improved background and lighting effects. Journalists found the game similar to its predecessor, but ''Video Games'' in particular thought ''Pulstar'' was the better game. They gave ''Blazing Star'' a score of 72% and felt it was too short, not challenging enough, and lacking in sophisticated level design. They did however like the bosses, as did ''Next Level'' and ''Edge'' who both appreciated the game for carrying on the large boss trend from ''Pulstar''. ''Edge'' ultimately felt that the "frenetic, old-school gameplay...will keep the Neo Geo's devotees happy." In 2014, ''

HobbyConsolas ''HobbyConsolas'' is a Spanish video game magazine founded in 1991 by Hobby Press and published by Axel Springer SE. The first issue appeared in October 1991. The monthly magazine offers information about games for all consoles, and since 2012 ha ...

'' identified it as one of the twenty best games for the Neo Geo AES. The iOS and Android ports of ''Blazing Star'' were well-received. ''

TouchArcade ''TouchArcade'' (stylized as toucharcade) is a mobile games journalism website. It was launched in 2008 as a sister site of ''MacRumors'' by its founder Arnold Kim and Blake Patterson. ''TouchArcade'' also hosts a forum and a weekly podcast. ...

'' commended the strategic gameplay, impressive 2D backgrounds, and felt it featured "some of the most intricate shooter gameplay you can find in the vast pool of shmups available on the App Store." Their biggest criticisms were the touch screen controls which they felt were sluggish. ''

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, ...

'' agreed about the controls, writing that their finger would get in the way of action occasionally. They still thought the game was addictive and "the equivalent of the machine in the corner that the hardened veterans congregate around, dropping in coin after coin as they inch their way up the leaderboards." Reviewing the ''Arcade Archives'' release, ''

Nintendo Life Gamer Network Limited (formerly Eurogamer Network Limited) is a British digital media company based in London. Founded in 1999 by Rupert and Nick Loman, it owns brands—primarily editorial websites—relating to video game journalism and ot ...

'' called it a "perfect port", noting that it even retained the frame rate slowdown when the screen is filled with sprites. Their biggest complaints were the game's aged pre-rendered graphics and the sharp difficulty increase in the latter stages, but they felt these were minor issues. They felt Hamster Corporation's Hi-Score and Caravan modes were perfect complements to ''Blazing Star''. ''Nintendo World Report'' felt that it had an uneven level design, wishing the earlier levels had more stage hazards. They did however appreciate the game for maintaining a degree of simplicity without sacrificing gameplay depth, and called it "one of the more accessible and fun shoot-em-ups out there".

Legacy

''Retro Gamer'' and ''Harcore Gaming 101'' wrote that the game is sometimes remembered for its poorly-translated English text. Some articles, including one by

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

Ben Zimmer Benjamin Zimmer (born 1971) is an American linguist, lexicographer, and language commentator. He is a contributing editor for ''The Atlantic''. He was formerly a language columnist for ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''The Boston Globe'', and ''The ...

, have cited the game's

game over "Game over" is a message in video games which informs the player that their play session has ended, usually because the player has reached a loss condition. It also sometimes appears at the successful completion of a session, especially in ga ...

message, “You fail it", as inspiring the popular interjection " Fail".

Notes

References

External links

*
''Blazing Star''
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controlle ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blazing Star 1998 video games ACA Neo Geo games Aicom games Android (operating system) games Arcade video games D4 Enterprise games Horizontally scrolling shooters IOS games Multiplayer and single-player video games Neo Geo games Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games Science fiction video games SNK Playmore games Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Harumi Fujita Virtual Console games Windows games Xbox One games Hamster Corporation games Dotemu games