Blazing Lazers / Gunhed

If there were a textbook on what a perfect vertical shooter on a 16-bit console should look like, it would be called Blazing Lazers. Under the Japanese title Gunhed this gem came out on the PC Engine and instantly proved why Hudson had built a reputation as the king of shmups. The game was created in connection with the eponymous Japanese sci-fi film, but that is actually the last thing on your mind while playing — here everything serves a single purpose: relentless, deafening fire.

At the heart of the experience is a weapons system that ranks among the best-tuned of its time. You pick from several types of main firing system — from a focused laser to scattered salvos covering the whole screen — and on top of that you collect support modules, shields and cleverly designed power-ups. The gradual accumulation of power is addictive to the point of pain: each further upgrade changes the feel of the ship so much that losing lives hurts twice as much. The pace is brisk, enemies arrive in well-readable waves and the bosses at the end of the levels present exactly the right measure of challenge.

Visually the game shone for its time. The PC Engine could render an enormous number of objects on screen without significant slowdown, so Blazing Lazers is not afraid to flood the player with shots, explosions and colorful effects. Parallax backgrounds, varied cosmic scenery and detailed enemy design showed that the little console from Hudson and NEC was a match for the arcades in the shooter genre.

In the context of the PC Engine's early history it is one of the titles that defined the platform. While Western audiences knew the console as the TurboGrafx-16, it was shooters like this one that made the machine a cult choice for fans of the genre. Blazing Lazers appears to this day in rankings of the best shmups of the late eighties and early nineties and belongs among the titles that collectors hunt with enthusiasm.

It is the type of game you return to not for the story but for the pure, rhythmic flow of the action — for the chase after a better score and the feeling that this time you will finally push it one level further. It is the essence of why we love 16-bit shooters.

Why play: If you want to see what a textbook vertical shooter with an excellent weapons system and an uncompromising pace looks like, Blazing Lazers is a mandatory stop.