Skyblazer (Europe) ROM

Clobbering ruthless enemies with his iron fists in the heavy downpour, while avoiding clever obstacles such as spike beds, Sky - the protagonist of Skyblazer - eventually comes face-to-face with the beast he'll evidently pursue throughout his entire adventure - Ashura. A vengeful and repulsive demon indeed, Ashura captures the young princess Arianna. He wants her to be sacrificed to Raglan, his lord. Observing this terrible event, Sky bravely tries to do whatever it takes to save Arianna, but unfortunately, the evil Ashura blasts him with a barrage of fireballs. Upon witnessing a wounded Sky on the ground, an old man comes to his aid and heals him; however, he also informs Sky to stay away from Ashura, as he'll get smoked to smithereens once more. After hearing this advice along with a couple of cheap insults, Sky goes out on an adventure to prove the geezer wrong - that he is indeed courageous and powerful enough to defeat Ashura and rescue the princess. Welcome to the world of Skyblazer - definitely one of the most unnoticed games on the SNES. Sure, the story is nothing great - completely clichéd and unoriginal. Fortunately though, Skyblazer contains many redeeming qualities that definitely make up for its lackluster storyline. At least Sky isn't a typical average Joe; he can bash the crap out of enemies with his shocking punches and kicks, and can employ an arsenal of unique magic spells ready for avail. His most interesting attribute though, is the ability to climb walls and cliffs whenever he pleases. It's always fun reaching new plateaus in soaring towers and gloomy caves, as Sky can easily scale them using his remarkable wall-climbing powers. As already mentioned, there are a handful of spells Sky must learn to survive his battle with Ashura. Equipped with a weak aura attack at the beginning, where an arc of energy is blasted in a straight line across the screen, Sky must progress through the entire game battling the many challenging bosses that await him. Should he be successful, he will be able to learn new and more potent spells. Some of the later spells Sky must learn include the all-important heal spell, and “Fire Phoenix,â€� which transforms him to a powerful flaming bird capable of destroying any enemy upon contact. Unfortunately, while there are many diverse spells available for Sky to learn, some will eventually become redundant as he progresses through his quest. For instance, Sky's basic aura attack is only efficient for the first couple of levels; it then becomes too much of a burden to use against stronger enemies in the later portions of the game. Luckily there are a handful of thrilling levels Sky must successfully accomplish to complete his quest. The best aspect of Skyblazer's level design is diversity, where almost all stages share distinct qualities from one another in terms of terrain. How many times have other platformers feature the main character jumping from one tree branch to another in a forest stage? Well, I can think of a couple, but none have been presented as well as in Skyblazer. For example, to successfully complete the scenic “Faltine's Woodsâ€� stage, Sky must bravely jump from tree to tree through their extensive foliage. He must act and jump very quickly when traveling through the growth, since he'll ever so slowly descend to the ground below as if he's actually caught in quicksand. In the “Lair of Kharyon,â€� Sky must battle the treacherous currents of the water sweeping him when swimming. Actually, this entire stage is heavily interpreted as a real maze, where Sky must cleverly travel by switching the flow of the water currents in his favor, or else he'll end up lost in a whirlpool of confusion. I never knew how challenging - yet so entertaining - it was to navigate these treacherous currents. The “Sand Rivers of Shirolâ€� stage is another scenic adventure, where Sky, using his ever so talented wall-climbing technique, must cling onto the logs tumbling down an immense cascade of falling sand. He must quickly act or he'll be rapidly swallowed by the surge of sand as well. Finally in the “Storm Fortress of Kh'lar,â€� Sky must navigate through currents as well, but this time being gusts of wind. To complete the entire stage, he must strategically travel through the correct wind currents that will blow him to the next location; failing to do so will consequent in him getting blown off-course - in this case, back to the beginning of the stage. That's not all, folks. The levels also contain beautiful visuals in their surroundings, rather than a single shade of one color. The first level alone displays a thunderous background, complete with storm clouds and lightning that are bound to be quite shocking. As soon as you enter “Faltine's Woods,â€� you are greeted a picturesque background full of lush trees and a mountainous landscape. The “Gateway of Eternal Stormsâ€� level probably has my favorite background, as it features a violent wind storm complete with vigorous red clouds traversing through the skies above; it's like you're situated right in a heavy storm on Jupiter. In correlation to Skyblazer's magnificent level designs, the bosses presented are definitely impressive. Unlike in platformers such as Mario Bros. 2 or Super Mario World, none of the bosses are rehashed in later stages of the game. Furthermore, unlike in Mario Bros. 3, the many bosses in Skyblazer require a completely different strategy to defeat them, whether it is by a certain magic attack or evading technique. I've never seen such a boss as the one located in the icy “Petrolith Castleâ€� before, which features an evil wall trying the squash our hero on the side of the screen during each revolution. Sky's only chance of survival against this maneuver is to jump through an opening once the wall is in rotation. Another spectacular boss, the Great Dragon, tries to roast Sky on the top of the “Great Towerâ€� with his blazing inferno breath. Sky's only hope of survival is to evade the devastating flames while responding back with a couple of his own hard punches and kicks. Unfortunately, Skyblazer still contains some flaws that need to be considered. While all the level designs and bosses included are terrific, the actual combat system is pretty mediocre. Defeating most enemies can be accomplished by simple button mashing whenever one's approaching you, similar to some lackluster fighting games. In addition, many of the enemies' range attacks (i.e. fireballs, arrows) can be easily blocked by Sky's repeated punches and kicks, thus causing no damage. In fact, most enemies seem to pose only minimal problems to Sky that often they are not really needed to be included in the game. It seemed that I was actually experiencing more troubles controlling Sky to avoid certain obstacles such as pits and walls that move up and down in hopes of crushing the hero to a flat death. A perfect example of this situation is the “Sand Rivers of Shirolâ€� level, where the only hazards that posed a threat to Sky were the logs falling down the “sandfall,â€� rather than the enemies themselves. I had to be more cautious not to lose balance when standing on a falling log, instead of getting hit from an unexpected foe. Sure, all the levels are magnificent and diverse, but the overall game is a bit on the short side. In total, there are only about 20 levels in the entire game, an inadequate amount compared to Mario Bros. 3 or Super Mario World. Thus, Skyblazer can be easily beaten in one or two hours - quite a disappointment. Nevertheless, Skyblazer's impressive aspects - predominantly level design and bosses - still make it worthy enough to be played by anyone interested in the platformer genre, especially by the fact that it is a rare gem on the SNES.