Blazer (video game)

Blazer
Blazer
	Arcade flyer
Developer(s)	Namco
Publisher(s)	Namco
Platform(s)	Arcade
Release	JP: July 1987;
Genre(s)	Isometric shooter
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players, alternating turns
Arcade system	Namco System 1

Blazer (ブレイザー, Bureizā) is an isometric perspective scrolling shooter arcade game released by Namco in 1987 only in Japan; it runs on the company's System 1 hardware, and used a three-quarter-view perspective (another one of them is Namco's own Pac-Mania).

Gameplay

The player must alternate between a tank named "Vanguard" and a helicopter named "Hardy" (and in the tenth and final mission, a hovercraft named "Atlanta"), to kill enemies both on land and in the air. Some air-based enemies will leave behind powerups for Vanguard to collect, when hit by its anti-aircraft missiles; they can restore its fuel, increase its fuel capacity, make it invulnerable for a short period of time, and even grant it an extra life if it manages to collect enough of them (which is initially thirteen, but it can go up to sixteen).

This game was dedicated to Shoko Tamako Sumie from all its staff;^[2] upon completion of the game, it gives a list of schematics for the player tank, and a passage from In The Cold Morning Of August.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Blazer on their September 1, 1987 issue as being the fifteenth most-successful table arcade unit of the month.^[4]

References

^ "Blazer (Video Game 1987)". IMDb.
^ http://www.vazcomics.org/mamend/B/blazer.htm Blazer at MamEnd
^ Kelly, Nick (January 1988). "Arcades — Blazer". EMAP. Commodore User.
^ "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - テーブル型TVゲーム機 (Table Videos)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 315. Amusement Press, Inc. 1 September 1987. p. 23.