Shadow Blasters (1990)

Take a good, long look at the cover of this game.  Would you really walk past this in a blockbuster and say, "A game where I can play as a white haired Dog the Bounty Hunter shooting fireballs?  That's something I want to buy!"  This is Shadow Blasters by Sage's Creation.  Sage's Creation is a small Japanese gaming company that released other gems such as Ka-Ge-Ki: Fists of Steel.  I'll get to that awesome game another time.  Shadow Blasters is a 2D action platformer, and for an early Sega Genesis release, it's not awful.  However, it is one of the shortest games in the Genesis library.  I was able to beat it in normal and hard difficulty in a little over an hour.  On that note, there is very little difference between normal and hard.  There may be some slight difference in the boss battles, but the differences are very subtle.

Hyprion the androgynous deity

Story-  If you skipped past the boring cutscene at the beginning, here's a quick rundown.  The evil Ashura is threatening to take over the Earth.  Our hero, Hyprion (who looks like a cross between Sephiroth and Goldust) bestows magical powers to four of the Earth's mightiest heroes.  Unfortunately, you cannot transform into the Megazord in this game.  Your four heroes are Leo, our white mulleted hero on the cover.  He is a master of Kendo.  Horatio and Tiffany are masters of Ninjitsu.  Marco is a Buddhist monk that looks like Bear Hugger from Super Punch Out.  Together they set out to destroy Ashura and bring peace back to the kingdom.  Pretty original stuff.

Now all we need is Bret Michaels.

Graphics- As you can see, the graphics are nothing to write home about.  For an early Sega game, they're okay.  The backgrounds use vivid colors such as shades of purple and red.  However, they leave much to be desired. That being said, the effects on the backgrounds, particularly the sky still hold up pretty well.

  Controls- As with most early Sega games, this game suffers from some pretty stiff controls.  First off, your characters move like they are muddled in quicksand.  Even when their jumping and speed are completely maxed out, they amble along at a snail's pace.  Luckily, this game doesn't require any tricky Ninja Gaiden platform jumps, so it's not a crippling factor.  In addition to jump and attack, there is a Special Attack button.  This attack lights up the screen and damages all enemies, just like something you'd see out of a space shooter like Hellfire or Truxton.  

  

Sound-   The music reeks of 90's Sega synth.  Compared to some of the garbage cranked out for the Sega in the late 80's, early 90's, the music's not bad.  It ranges from fast paced ass-kicking arcade music to slow brooding Casio music that you'd see on the b-side of the Shadow of Beast soundtrack.  Check this rocking number out.  Bet you'll be whistling this song down the halls at work.

  

Gameplay- Despite my earlier criticisms, this game did actually have some innovative features for a generic platformer.  For starters, every character has their own unique attack.  You can charge this attack for four different modes of attack.  Through the course of the game, you'll acquire power orbs to increase your attack without having to charge up your attack.  For example, Horatio starts off with a wussy shuriken as his projectile.  His shuriken then turns into a small fireball, a large fireball, and finally (after collecting 9 orbs), a flame dragon.  Woo!

  Leo has this strange energy boomerang, Tiffany has this homing tornado (you'll find out pretty quickly she's entirely useless.  Kill that bitch off.), and our Canadian boxer Marco has a spread lightning attack.  Marco's awesome.  You should just play the entire game as him.  If you tire of playing Marco, though, you can switch characters midlevel like TMNT for the Nintendo.  This alone makes the game ridiculously easy.

Speaking of difficulty, let's talk about the bosses.  They're all over the place in this game.  From a Metroidlike Mother Brain to a double headed He-Man lizard warrior in to some back alley homey that can vertical leap 30 feet in the air, no boss battle is the same.  However, they all are incredibly easy, especially if you're full powered.  There is one boss that can be a pain in the ass, and that's the ooze boss at the end of the Harbor Level.  He's a cheap prick that likes to fling pink gobs of shit at you.

We're gonna need Kevin Dillon to take on this beast.

Where this game takes a major u-turn is in the final boss battle.  It is one of the most laughable final battles I've ever seen.  All of a sudden, you're thrown in this proverbial fireball throwing match in space with Ashura.  It's like something you would see in an awful Power Rangers game.  The ending of the game alludes up to a sequel, so be sure to look for Shadow Blasters 2 for the Xbox 360 soon.

Final Thoughts- While not an awful game, it is incredibly short and offers virtually no replay value.  At 9 short levels, I've seen people beat this game in under 20 minutes.  That being said, you can get this game for less than $2.  If you paid more for this game, you've been ripped off.

Rating (Out of 5)- ** 1/2