Super FamiComplete #101: Battle Blaze

 

 

Title: Battle Blaze (NA)

Release Date: 05/01/1992

Developer: Electronics Application 

Publisher: Sammy Studios

The first game of May 1992 is a bit of a let down. While Street Fighter II's port to the SNES would be out the following month in June 1992, the arcade game had been out for a year and some change by this point; its popularity most definitely led to a glut of cheap knock off fighters hoping to cash in of the craze. Battle Blaze is certainly one of those, and it is fundamentally not a good fighter.

Background

Battle Blaze was developed by Aicom, a developer that had a pedigree for some hidden gems on the NES, like the Mafat Conspiracy (the sequel to the Golgo 13 game), as well as Astynax, and who would go on to make some quality titles for SNK such as Pulstar. The publisher in this case is Sammy, who are well known developer/publishers of panchinko machines. 

Not too much else is known about the development of this game, especially when it comes to the decision to make this a medieval fighter rather than a traditional martial arts fighter. I guess for novelty? To its credit, this is before fighters such as Time Killers and Samurai Shodown. It is weird that this isn't based off of any arcade property: it is a fighting game made only for the SNES. 

The only other weird note about its development was that it wouldn't be released in the United States for another two years. Details are vague about the reasons why, but it is cited that it was due to issues with Nintendo's legendarily stringent approval process. 

Story

This game takes place on the land of Virg, and each year the king of this land holds a Tournament of Champions where he invites the best fighters from across the land to do battle. A demon, though, decides to send phantoms to possess all the participants to help overthrow the kingdom. You play as the son of the king's champion, Kerrell; your father was killed by the phantom, and it is now up to you to defeat the possessed champions and foil the demon's plans. 

The possession angle adds a nice wrinkle, and helps explain why you are fighting the other participants in the tournament, but overall, it's really only as interesting as that conceit. 

Fighters

• Kerrell, the protagonist whom you play in the Hero (basically story mode) mode of the game, looks and fights a lot like Conan the Barbarian. 
• Shnouzer is the werewolf like cat man who was probably the toughest fight in the game. 
• Adrick looks like a dark knight with a big evil sword who can shoot energy beams out of his sword. 
• Lord Gustoff who looks like a really fat Baraka (basically a big Orc with a chompy mouth) who fights with a flail and has horse like legs? He is the weirdest design.
• Tesya who is the attractive young woman dressed like slave Leia. 
• Lang who is only playable in battle mode and looks just like Kerrell.
• Autarch is the main demon whom you fight as the final boss and is just a big red devil looking guy. 

Gameplay

You have a choice of any of the four other champions to fight in any order. Like any fighting game you fight until one fighter's lifebar is diminished, bringing an end to the round. If you win two out of three rounds overall, then you win the match. Once you beat all four champions, you fight the demon last boss and that's the game. All told you can finish the game in about twenty minutes.

As a fighter, the game is extremely basic and makes some really simple but profound mistakes. For one, this feels like the controls are made for the NES. You only have the movement commands as well as a jump and an attack button. It is certainly a weird feeling to press jump as a button in a fighting game, and it gives the game a very awkward feel to play; almost as if you are playing a vs mod in a beat-em-up like Golden Axe. 

You only have four special moves per character, including a grab and a dash, which means you really only have two special moves, as dash and a grab are usually considered standard moves in a fighter. This makes this game a very simplistic and rudimentary fighter, and one that is more about just being as aggressive and as cheap as possible to just overwhelm your enemy. There is not much skill involved at all, and it is relatively easy. I beat the game by continually grab-locking the enemies, and that strategy took me through the final boss.  

Music

The music is one of the better parts of the game, but still nothing too amazing. Check it out.

Ads

Final Verdict

This was a short game to play through, which means it is relatively inoffensive. Overall, though, this is a very skippable game that is immemorable in most every way.