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ファイナルブラスター
©1990 Namco Ltd.
Release: 1990-09-28 (¥6800)
HuCard (3 Mbits) NC90007
Shooter / Vertical
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Final Blaster is a vertical-scrolling shooter by Namco. The
player is on a mission to save the Earth against a swam of alien
invaders. On board the Blaster Mark-II Phoenix, a powerful
winged space fighter, the player must battle through seven levels, from
the surface of the moon to the outer limits of space, and to the
mission's ultimate target objective - planet Bosconian where
the alien main stronghold lies.
The Blaster fighter comes equipped with a standard Vulcan gun
and red power-pods can be collected along to way to increase its firepower.
Secondary blue weapon-pods are also available for the taking and give
additional upgrades to the ship, such as laser rings or laser beams.
But the Blaster Mark-II has a powerful secret weapon in its arsenal -
the player can hold down the fire button for a short
amount of time and slowly build up energy around the ship, and this technique
eventually turns the fighter into a raging firebird. In this mode, the Blaster can
melt through anything that lays on its path of destruction, and
this devastative power can also be unleashed into a powerful flash of energy,
causing damage to all enemies on the screen.
But there is a catch and this
particular maneuver also melts down any secondary options still active on the
ship...
Another unique feature of Final Blaster is its 'dynamic
scrolling' - the playfield is larger than the screen, so moving up and down
actually slows down or speeds up the scrolling. Finally, the game adjusts the
difficulty level according to the player's progress - at the end of each stage,
a difficulty meter shows how difficult the next stage is (from a scale of
1 to 4) - in a nutshell, the better the player's performance, the more difficult
the game becomes.
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Final Blaster is apparently related to the arcade game Blast Off (picture on the right)
released by Namco in 1989 (itself related to Bosconian originally released
in 1981). Although the references are not immediately obvious (despite being mentioned in
the game's instruction manual), there are a couple of clues that tie Final Blaster
to these early games, such as the last level of the game which takes place on planet
Bosconian itself, or the unmistakable green Bosconian space stations that
appears in the background as part of the fifth level's scenery. Final Blaster is
most probably set in the U.G.S.F (United Galaxy Space Force) universe that ties
Bosconian, Blast Off, Star Luster, Galaxian and several other
Namco games together. Although the game seems to describe the events of the third
Bosconian invasion, Final Blaster can't be really qualified as a direct
sequel to Blast Off or Bosconian, but as a different game set in the same
universe. As a side note, Final Blaster also contains references to other
Namco games - such as the rotating gray squares (called "Bacuras")
and Nazca lines from Xevious.
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Game Staff (Copied from the end credits) :
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STAFF
Game Design
Take
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Program
D.Hisaya
Graphic Design
Koji 78
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Music Compose
Noririn
Music Program
Kaeru.T
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Special Thanks
Arg
S. Kobayashi
Presented by
Namco
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K
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Click on picture to enlarge |
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LK
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Add your Pov here !
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P
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V
s
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Final Blaster is a fun but very difficult shooter... well, as
long as you can master the 'phoenix attack' which seems to be the
only effective weapon later in the game (I only wish it was faster to
charge up). The soundtrack and graphics are overall really correct, and
controls are actually fairly responsive. The "dynamic scrolling"
is a questionable feature though - I find it a bit too awkward, especially
when offscreen enemies start shooting at you. Finally, I'm not a big fan of
the difficulty meter - the game actually checks the ship's power-up level at
the end of each stage and then increases the difficulty accordingly. I
personally think this feature is frustrating, unfair and unnecessary in a
game that is already considerably difficult. Nonetheless, Final Blaster
is an enjoyable and fun shooter, and in my opinion, it does get better as
you progress further into the game.
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