Blazing Star

One or two players proceed along levels, each with a boss enemy at the end, trying to redeem the humankind. There are six ships to choose from, each with its own pilot (four of them female), weapons and characteristics of movement.

Play Blazing Star online (Neo Geo)

Blazing Star is a side-scrolling shoot ’em up similar to its predecessor Pulstar (1995) and the classic shooter R-Type (1987). The story revolves around cyborgs that, remembering their humanity, team up to destroy artificial intelligence systems developing the cybernetic armies they were once a part of.

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-ups 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.