Skyblazer (Super NES, 1994)

Skyblazer is one of the forgotten gems of the SNES era. It went largely unnoticed at the time of its release, overshadowed by all the huge era-defining games that dropped in 1994. That's unfortunate, because it's a unique and memorable little game. If it weren't for Nintendo Power devoting a couple of pages to it, I never would have known it existed. What is Skyblazer? Read on.

Originally posted June 2012, now with Nintendo Power scans and other new stuff

That's right, SONY made this game for Nintendo. This was before they were mortal foes.

This intro blurb sets up the story. Raglan is the villain of the game, but Ashura is his main minion. The Goro to his Shang Tsung, if you will.

Ah yes, got memories rushing in already. I wish there had been a Skyblazer II, and after this post you might wonder about the potential of that as well.

The intro stage is pretty sweet right out of the gate. Rain is pouring down as the main dude, the aptly-named Sky, charges through a temple. He's some sort of monk slash sorcerer, and fights with punches, spin kicks, and energy attacks. It's rad to the max. This stage is notable because for whatever reason Sky has infinite lives and a measily four ticks of energy... this is the only stage in the game with those characteristics.

Also noteworthy: The awesome music for this stage, which sets the tone for the game right away. It's also fitting music for going with the rain and lightning that dominate the screen.

This has all the hallmarks of a good intro stage in that it teaches you how to play without you realizing it. Sky has a wall-grab, which is one of the cooler things about the game. Since the grab keeps him stationary, wall-jumping is easier than it is in Mega Man X or (especially) Super Metroid. The tradeoff is not having as much wall jump control or momentum.

The first of a number of spells Sky gets in the game is the aura wave, seen here decimating one of those weird sorcerer dudes from the box art.

Sky stumbles in on Ashura kidnapping some princess. He even has four arms like Goro. This guy has been the bane of my existence, as I followed him across the entire SaGa series.

He then proceeds to easily dispatch our hero. This is one thing I don't like: for whatever reason, you can't move during this "fight" as Ashura pummels Sky with fireballs. Compare this to other intro bosses: in Mega Man X you can at least fight back until Vile beats you. In Super Metroid, you can actually beat Ridley in the intro stage.

Forcing the player to stand still? Baffling. Not sure what Sony was thinking on this one. The only real explanation I can think of is that Sky was frozen from fear. However, Sky being too terrified to move doesn't fit his brash, cocky character, so it makes little sense.

Either way, we quickly get over that part as Sky wakes up in some shrine. Old Man here is the other real protagonist of the game, following Sky around and giving him sage advice. He's one of the more memorable Old Men in gaming thanks to lines like this.

So it turns out that Sky is descended from a guy named Sky-Lord, which is why he has super powers. No relation to Star Lord of Marvel fame. Ashura kidnapped the land's most powerful sorceress so he could sacrifice her to Raglan, and only Sky can stop them. Fair enough, let's go.

The overworld. At first it's linear, but once you get to the mainland about a quarter of the way through the game it opens up. I like it when action games have an overworld. Very few of them do, and it's a good alternative to a straight stage select.

The first "real" stage is Faltine's Woods. It has more good music... too bad the track is so short (which is the one issue with the music in this game, the music repeats quickly)

It's an odd choice for a first stage, though... not a traditional level at all. You spend most of the level leaping around in treetops, which you sink through if you stand still. Then again, none of the stages in this game are "traditional", really. It's got some of the more inventive level design I've seen from a SNES platformer.

Next stage? The Temple Infernus, which is incredibly atmospheric.

The music here is one of my favorite tracks in the game, if not my favorite. It conveys so much mood, and it fits the look of the area perfectly. When great game music actually fits the game it hails from, it's a magical thing.

Life is full of choices. Grab the magic meter restoring potion and risk getting hit, or just jump over?

Here's the first true boss of the game, a genie. It's invulnerable on offense, but when it retreats into the lamp for a round that's the player's turn to attack.

It's one of the easier fights in the game, and it's actually possible to one-round this fight if you're aggressive enough in attacking the lamp.

One of the coolest powers in the game is this air-dash. It does a huge amount of damage, but it gets less potent as the game goes on. Still stays useful for soaring over foes, right up to the end.

Next up is an odd auto-scrolling flight stage. Odd because it doesn't really fit the rest of the game. There's only one other stage like this. It's innovative, regardless, and pretty fun. It gives the impression that this game could have been a lot bigger; the range of stage ideas on display could have amounted to a pretty expansive game.

Next up is the Tower of the Tarolisk, notable for how it rotates on screen as you climb it. This is how we did "three dimensional gameplay" back in the day, kids.

Comet Flash in action as Sky blazes past a bunch of gargoyles and platforms.

Here's the boss, who I presume is the Tarolisk in question. This fight is much harder than the first boss, and coupled with the difficulty of the stage that preceeds it, I can see this being the end of the line for some inexperienced players. It's too bad, because this is the last stage before the overworld opens up.

 

The boss gets bigger and bigger as the fight goes on. I DON'T THINK HE'S GONNA STOP!

A close win, and Sky gets the power of Heal. That's another good one, for obvious reasons. Back in the day I'd just use regular attacks for the rest of the game and save spell power for heals alone.

The brash young Sky is all up in the Old Man's grill now that he's met with some success.

The next level is a sweet Mode-7 flight level as Sky flies to the next continent. It's possible to collect numerous extra lives here, but the stage ends (permanently) when you take a hit. Even if that happens you still continue with the game.

The second continent. This one has most of the remaining areas, and you have more choices as to where to go and when. So the game totally opens up now and you can move between the various areas if one is giving you issues. It's too bad the difficult tower level was before this because it probably filtered out a fair amount of players.

Quick tangent: this is the password screen of the game. It's one of the more majestic password screens I've ever seen.

Next up is one of my favorite stages in the history of anything, the sand falls. This place is outright otherworldly, and the music is great. Too bad the stage (and the track) are so short. The stage itself is over in about a minute or two.

Here's the music. Shortness aside this is amazing, and somebody in the music world should sample this for a modern track.

Comet Flash is a huge help in this area, which consists mainly of soaring over pits and grabbing on to sinking pillars. It's hard to make a judgment like this, but I think this is my favorite area in the game.

The second autoscrolling flight stage in the game is a spike-filled corridor. This is probably the most unmemorable stage, since it doesn't particularly stand out in any way and ends in about a minute. It's basically just an entrance area for other stages.

The Gateway of Eternal Storms has an awesome background, but the stage itself is kind of lame. You spend most of it breaking blocks and proceeding slowly. This game is all about momentum, so slowing things down doesn't fit very well.

Western overworld, showing more areas. There are four major areas that are the real goal here, each one with an elemental theme. All of them (except Earth, which is available early on) have other stages blocking them. Having cleared most of the lesser areas, the elemental areas are open.

The wind shrine is majestic. There are no floors here... all you have are gusts of wind suspending you precariously at any given time.

Yet another unique stage design, as you have to use the momentum of the gusts to propel you through the air. This area is a lot of fun, and I just wish there were more of it.

The boss of this stage is some sort of wind god. This fight can be tricky since it's easy to get knocked down to your doom.

It splits into three and they all bum-rush Sky. Luckily, this isn't one of those "mirror image" fights where you can only damage one of your foes, so you can wail on any of them at any given time. Winning this fight nets Sky the Lightning Blast spell, one of the most useful in the game since several bosses are weak against it. It calls down three huge bolts of lightning that strike whatever they can. More on that later.

Next up is what I consider the fire area. This is one of the longer stages, and it isn't particularly interesting. The boss is, though.

It's a demonic chimera. What the heck is this thing? Not only does it have a huge amount of health, it is only vulnerable for short amounts of time. This leads to a pretty lengthy fight. I'm sure there's a trick to this fight (there usually is in this game) but I don't know what it is.

Jumping spin kick! Man, what a great game.

The sand river theme plays again in the next stage I take on, a shrine of waterfalls. This stage isn't anywhere near as cool as the sand river, unfortunately, since it's short and consists of a few jumps across planks.

Oh yeah, what did I get for beating that last boss? Warrior Force, which makes Sky invincible temporarily. This definitely has its uses, but it runs out too quickly for me to find myself going back to it much.

The water temple is next, which looks more like a sewer. This area is a confusing maze, and it isn't my favorite stage.

The boss is one of the tougher fights in the game. Four pods release fish that, if not defeated within a couple seconds, mutate into giant attack fish that are very difficult to kill.

Once they mutate, they proceed to totally tear our hero apart. The only way to survive this is to avoid them while damaging the four pods when they open. The Lightning Blast spell is incredible here, since it can take out multiple fish while also hitting the pods. It's the key to victory. I've heard that Star Fire (which i don't have yet) also works well, but I doubt it works as well as lightning does.

There's a secret flight stage if you move off the beaten path on the world map. This results in myriad lives, and leads to...

...a secret shrine. Sky isn't afraid of water.

The next "stage" is another unique one. It's one screen, and Sky has to grab onto the thing in the middle of the boat to keep from being washed away by...

...the water waves that intermittently crash down. This is actually a fairly tricky "stage" and most players likely miss it entirely on their way through this game. It's very much a secret level.

You can see the secret stage up north. I wish the game had more secret areas... to my knowledge, this is the only one. It serves little purpose besides being exciting to find.

The next area has more amazing music. Here's Petrolith Castle, the earth area. Curious if there was a second Earth area that got cut from the game, since all the other elemental shrines with major bosses have another level that leads into them and this one doesn't.

As it's one of the longest and most difficult stages, it isn't recommended to tackle this stage right away on a first playthrough (despite it being the first thing you see on the overworld of the second continent).

Crushing ceilings make their debut here. This is one of my favorite stages, largely because the music has a certain "pure" feeling about it, and the icy look of the place jumps off the screen.

I said I'd talk more about Lightning Blast at some point. Well, here it is. Possibly the most useful power in the game aside from Heal.

The boss of the castle is this wall face. It has three hit-able components, which is just right for Lightning Blast.

It's a weird fight because the boss has no real offense aside from spinning the room around and trying to crush you every so often. More innovation from this game.

For winning, I got Star Fire, which shoots fireballs in all directions. Here's an uncharacteristically awful screenshot of Star Fire in action. I've heard that this power is better than Lightning Blast against some of the bosses, but I've never been a fan of it. LB seems more formidable and just LOOKS cooler.

The next stage is a confusing forest maze that loops back on itself. It's sort of a redux of Faltine's Woods, only with an added dose of annoyance. The eventual exit is hidden under a cliff midway through the level.

The next area is the second-to-last level, more or less. It's another tower, and it's full of these gold knights that are, as far as I can tell, invincible.

The boss is this bad-ass dragon. It's a difficult fight since he can knock you off the platforms (plus he has more health than any other boss in the game) but it's possible to win this without too much trouble if you utilize Warrior Force and line yourself up right.

For my part, I won by bashing it out and using Heal a lot. Winning this gets you the "ultimate power", which is...

...this. It costs half of your spell points, but it makes you invincible, grants power of flight, and causes anything that touches you to take mega-damage. It probably isn't the best spell in the game, but at the point you get it, it might as well be. It's the only spell that is particularly effective against the final bosses.

One last flight stage follows, the last chance to grab some lives.

The final stage is Raglan's Citadel, and it starts with a tricky auto-scrolling vertical climb. This is almost like something out of a Mega Man game.

Inside the citadel itself, you have to fight all (or most of) the bosses again. They're all surprisingly easy at this point with an extended life meter and all of the spells. If all else fails, Fiery Phoenix makes short work of most of them.

After going through the bosses again, it's time for the rematch from the intro stage. This time Sky isn't forced to inexplicably stand there while Ashura pummels him!

Sky isn't the only one with new powers. Ashura now has a shield that makes him invulnerable, but Fiery Phoenix goes right through it.

You can use the move twice and if you get all of it each time, Ashura won't have much health left. The fight still isn't easy, but it isn't difficult either.

It looks like the sorceress is rescued, as Ashura's severed head looks on creepily. She thanks Sky politely but also makes sure to not give him any sign that she's interested in any way, because he's a couple inches shorter than her. THANKS BUT NO THANKS.

BUT WAIT! There's one battle left...

...and that's the awesome-looking Raglan. This is the hardest fight in the game, which is fitting since it's the last one. Even Fiery Phoenix isn't much help here.

Here's a shot of me taking one of the several losses I took on this fight. It's a matter of figuring out his counterattack timing so you can avoid it and use his arm as a platform to strike the head. Either way, I barely won after a few tries.

Sky takes off without another word to anyone.

Upon the revelation that Sky is not only brash, but also kind of a dick, Arianna is now into him. Unfortunately, with Sky out of the picture, she must settle for the Old Man.

Where did Sky go, you ask? He flew away, not wanting to deal with these unsufferable people any more.

Nintendo Power coverage. They didn't give it a ton, but they did give it enough to pique my interest as a kid. Glad they did, because a universe where I missed out on this game would have been a little less magical.

All in all, the design of this game is pretty much "generic action game" without taking many risks, but it has so much heart that it punches above its weight. Especially the music, which adds so much to it.

It's cool that the bosses got their own section, and they used maps judiciously for this one: You get a map for the maze in the water temple, which is the game's one real convoluted area.

Great game here, deserves to be remembered, no doubt.