Skyblazer

Nintendo exclusive

Arianna, a young sorceress, has been kidnapped by Ashura. Sky has pledged his life to rescuing her. Sky must venture through many colorful stages and nice background effects. Skyblazer is a blend of side-scrolling fighting with magical skills.

Released: 1 January 1994
Platforms: SNES
Genres: Platformer
Developers: Ukiyotei
Publishers: Sony Imagesoft
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Side view
Themes: Action Historical
Country: Japan
Composers: Harumi Fujita

About

Skyblazer is a platform video game published by Sony Imagesoft, released in early 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It involves Sky, the Skyblazer hero (Garuda in the Japanese version) searching for Ashura, the Lord of War, who had kidnapped the sorceress Ariana (Vishnu in the Japanese version).

›Story

Before the dawn of history, in an age when great sorcerers walked the lands and mystic creatures abounded, the world existed in a constant state of turmoil and war. The evil Ashura and his powerful warlords waged an eternal war to crush the Mystic Pantheon and stamp out the light of reason once and for all. Eventually a great sorcerer, Sky-Lord, arose and defeated Ashura, banishing him from the realm forever. Centuries passed, cities rose and fell and eventually even the great deeds of the Mystic Pantheon and the evil Ashura passed into legend.

Until one day, a gifted apprentice sorcerer inadvertently freed Ashura from imprisonment. One by one Ashura began to capture and irrevocably transform the descendants of the Mystic Pantheon, making them his evil warlords. As the last free descendant, you are Sky, set upon a quest to free the young sorceress Arianna and face Ashura in mortal combat to end his tyrannical rule once and for all.

Keywords

medieval
magic
mythology
religion
abstract
climbing
collectibles
buddhism
hinduism

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

There are a total of 17 levels with a few more stops on the map where the elder (Brahma in the Japanese version) gives passwords to the player and ten bosses including the final boss, Raglan (Ravana in the Japanese version). Four of those must be fought twice, since they reappear immediately before Ashura, who appears before Raglan. An overhead map allows for movement between levels, including back to ones already completed, and its slight non-linearity allows the player to skip some levels (at the cost of the magic spells and other powerups obtainable in them).

Most of the levels are side-scrolling, but there are some levels involving flight, either automatically scrolling or in Mode 7, where the player can grab crystals towards extra lives but will exit the level upon touching a spike and falling. Also, some levels expand on the usual platform structure by including waterways whose paths can be varied with switches, and there are areas with rotating towers. Two of the bosses also use extensive Mode 7, expanding and rotating around the screen or coming in the form of rotating walls.

Reception

Skyblazer received generally favorable reception from critics. GamePro's Manny LaMancha lauded it as "a great mix of side-scrolling action, puzzle solving, special powers, and tactics." He praised the game's high challenge, mythological setting, simple controls, and inventive use of Mode 7. Electronic Gaming Monthly's Mike Weigand commended the game's graphics and controls.