blazing-lazers
Latest
VC Tuesday: Hi!
This week's Japanese Virtual Console releases are, unquestionably, awesome. Art of Fighting 2 may not be as awesome as the others, but just being the least awesome game in this week's lineup is still pretty great. Nintendo of Japan is just now getting around to offering Blazing Lazers, which we got in May. Japan is actually getting the U.S. version of the game; the Japanese version, Gunhed, was based on a movie license to which Hudson apparently no longer has the rights.As great (and interesting) as Blazing Lazers is, the Famicom release, however, is the best of the bunch. It's Super Dodge Ball. It may be extraordinarily flickery and simplistic, but the gameplay still holds up. Nekketsu Koukou Dodgeball Bu (Famicom, 1-4 players, 500 Wii Points) Blazing Lazers (PC Engine, 1 player, 600 Wii Points) Ryuuko no Ken 2 (Neo Geo, 1-2 players, 900 Wii Points)
Wii Warm Up: New pew pew pew
If there's one thing the Wii has plenty of, it's scrolling shooters, vertical and horizontal. Thanks to the Virtual Console, the Wii has probably the best library of shmups in history. You can go play something like Lords of Thunder or Blazing Lazers right now without even having to go to a store first. That's pretty compelling. Which means that original disc-based shooters actually face a lot of competition from the VC. If you're just now discovering that you love shooters, you can get some of the best ones ever made for a few bucks. That could mean trouble for Castle of Shikigami III, Monkey King and Blast Works. If you like shooters, are you content with the vintage offerings? Do you feel that there's enough of a reason to continue checking out the new games, or have you been reveling in undiscovered classics?
Turbografx primer part 2: the games
Racketboy's Turbografx-16 coverage continues, and continues to be excellent. We totally feel obligated to cover it, because it's about our favorite underdog VC system. This time, the focus is on the games that made the system so awesome. And also Keith Courage in Alpha Zones. Categorized by, among other criteria, storage format and by whether each is an arcade port or an original game, this list of "Games that Defined the Turbografx-16" covers a lot of the best games for the system. There's quite a bit of stuff on the list, like Alien Crush and Blazing Lazers, for you to go buy on the VC now, and other stuff like Devil's Crush that will ensure that the VC will be providing us with rich, flavorful content for quite some time.
Wii Warm Up: Too many shooters?
The Virtual Console has made shooting games widely available for the first time in years. We like shooters, despite being categorically awful at them, so we're happy about this. But has the genre been disproportionately represented on the VC? There are so many, versus very few fighting games, and no role-playing games. Are you guys buying shooters? Are you happy with the selection? Are you all zap zap zap and pew pew pew at the bad spaceships?
VC Friday: Ready, aim, fire vegetable
Give us a second here -- we're going to gush for a moment over Super Mario Bros. 2, and burn with jealousy that we're not in Europe today. We would trade our weekend plans for a little face time with this classic, but it looks like we'll have to wait. Some nice choices available today on the Virtual Console -- let us know what sounds good to you!Today on the Virtual Console: Blazing Lazers -- TurboGrafx -- 600 Wii points Mach Rider -- NES -- 500 Wii points Super Mario Bros. 2 -- NES -- 500 Wii points
Blazing Lazers confirmed for Monday VC release
Here's a little pre-Monday Virtual Console Madness, courtesy of Hudson. Get your Wii Points ready, because our personal favorite shmup ever is going to be available for download next week in the US. Blazing Lazers (Gunhed in Japan) is a vertical shooter for the Turbografx-16 that differs from other vertical shooters in one important way: really fun weapons. There are four categories of weapons, each of which can be upgraded to five different levels. Our favorite is the enemy-seeking green lightning beam thing. It's pretty.[Via GoNintendo]
