Road Blaster

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with RoadBlasters.
Road Blaster
Japanese arcade flyer
Developer(s)
Publisher(s)
Data East
  • Wolf Team, Renovation, Sega (Mega-CD)
    Ecseco Development (Saturn/PS1)
Composer(s)
Michael K. Nakamura
Motoi Sakuraba (Sega CD)
Platform(s)
Release
August 1985
  • Arcade
    • WW: August 1985[1]
    MSX
    Sega CD
    LaserActive
    • JP: January 25, 1995
    • NA: 1995
    Saturn & PlayStation
    X68000 & Windows
    iOS
    January 15, 2011[9]
multiplayer

Road Blaster (ロードブラスター) is an

Thunder Storm
). The Sega CD and Mega-LD versions were released outside of Japan under titles of Road Avenger and Road Prosecutor respectively.

Gameplay

As with other

full motion video animated footage of high-speed chases and vehicular combat. The player controls the crosshair from a first-person perspective
, to steer their car toward the correct directions according to the green arrows flashing and beeping beside it, while controlling the gas pedal, brake and booster whenever they light up.

The game has nine stages. Upon successfully completing a level, the player is graded on the reaction time. Different difficulty levels can be selected. In Normal Mode, pop-up icons and audio tones signal when to turn left or right, brake, hit turbo, or hit other cars. In Hard Mode, there are no on-screen icons to guide the player.[11]

Plot

The story of Road Blaster is inspired by revenge thriller films such as Mad Max.[12] In the late 1990s United States, the player assumes the role of a vigilante who drives a customized sports car in order to get revenge on a biker gang responsible for his wife's death on their honeymoon. After recovering from his own injuries, he upgrades his car and goes on a rampage through nine areas. His goal is to seek out the gang's female boss and complete his vengeance.

Development

Road Blaster uses animation provided by the

hand-painted cels to produce over 30 minutes of animation.[11] Game director Yoshihisa Kishimoto, who previously worked on Cobra Command, later directed the arcade version of Double Dragon
, where the car from Road Blaster can be seen inside the Lee brothers' garage at the start of the game.

The chopper from Cobra Command/Thunder Storm can also be seen at the beginning of Road Blaster.

Releases

Road Blaster was originally released in 1985 as a

OCS and AGA) and the CD32 was also released unofficially.[17]

Other variations included one-shot reproductions for VHS cassette players such as Takara's Video Challenger which was a limited interactive port of the Road Blaster arcade game. The Sega Saturn and PlayStation ports were compilations of Road Blaster and another laserdisc arcade game developed by the same team titled Thunder Storm (known outside Japan as Cobra Command).

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Road Blaster on their January 15, 1986 issue as being the fourteenth most-successful upright/cockpit arcade unit of the month.[24]

animated movie."[11]

On release,

Famicom Tsūshin scored the Sega Saturn version a 25 out of 40, and the PlayStation version a 23 out of 40.[20] Famitsu would later give the Mega CD version a score of 32 out of 40,[4] while MEGA rated it at 86%.[25] The iOS port was released to generally favourable reviews,[9] including the scores of 8 out of 10 from IGN[21] and 7 out of 10 from Pocket Gamer.[23]

Legacy

A novelization of the game was announced in 2009.[26][27] The project was officially authorized by G-Mode of Japan (the rights holder to most of Data East's catalog) to be written by Mary Margaret Park.

References

  1. ^ "ライセンス一覧表". Data East. Archived from the original on 2001-04-23.
  2. ^ "ロードブラスター まとめ [MSX] / ファミ通.com". Famitsu.com. 2014-11-27. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  3. ^ a b c GameFan, volume 1, issue 3 (January 1993), pages 11 & 26-27
  4. ^ a b c d "ロードブラスターFX まとめ [メガドライブ] / ファミ通.com". Famitsu.com. 2014-11-27. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  5. ^ "COMING UP on the MEGA-CD". MegaTech. No. 16 (April 1993). April 1993. pp. 28–29.
  6. ^ "サンダーストーム＆ロードブラスター まとめ [セガサターン] / ファミ通.com". Famitsu.com. 2014-11-27. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  7. ^ "サンダーストーム＆ロードブラスター まとめ [PS] / ファミ通.com". Famitsu.com. 2014-11-27. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  8. ^ a b "― X68対応ゲームが新発売？「ロードブラスター」（1985年発売）をWindows/X68kに移植した同梱版を5月4日発売". 4gamer.net. 2009-03-23. Retrieved 2015-05-21.
  9. ^ a b c "Road Blaster for iPhone/iPad Reviews". Metacritic.com. 2011-02-01. Retrieved 2015-05-21.
  10. ^ "Yoshihisa Kishimoto's website (熱血硬派！)". Yoshihisa Kishimoto. Archived from the original on 2008-09-05. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
  11. ^ a b c d GamePro, issue 45 (April 1993), pages 52-53
  12. ^ Buchanan, Levi (2010-08-12). "Laser Craze Alert - Road Blaster's Coming - IGN". IGN. Retrieved 2015-05-21.
  13. ^ "Modern Review: Road Blaster (Apple iOS Devices)". RetroCollect.com. 2012-07-04. Retrieved 2015-05-21.
  14. ^ "VIDEO: Toei Animated "Road Blaster" Offered on iOS". Crunchyroll.com. 2011-10-09. Retrieved 2015-05-21.
  15. ^ "Road Avenger – Now this is a special game". Planetarbitrary.com. 2013-02-01. Archived from the original on 2015-12-27. Retrieved 2015-05-21.
  16. ^ "― Windows版「ロードブラスター」のアップデータ兼体験版を4GamerにUp。モンスターマシンを乗りこなし，復讐を遂げろ". 4gamer.net. 2011-07-01. Retrieved 2015-05-21.
  17. ^ "Road Blasters : Hall of Light - the database of Amiga games".
  18. ^ "Road Avenger for Sega CD". GameRankings. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  19. ^ a b Lesser, Hartley; Lesser, Patricia & Lesser, Kirk (July 1993). "The Role of Computers". Dragon (195): 5764.
  20. ^ a b c NEW GAMES CROSS REVIEW: サンダーストーム&ロードブラスター. Weekly Famicom Tsūshin. No.358. Pg.31. 27 October 1995.
  21. ^ a b "Road Blaster iPhone Review - IGN". Uk.ign.com. 18 January 2011. Retrieved 2015-05-21.
  22. ^ Electronic Games, volume 1, issue 9 (June 1993), page 84
  23. ^ a b "Road Blaster review - iPhone reviews". Pocketgamer.co.uk. 2011-01-18. Retrieved 2015-05-21.
  24. ^ "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - アップライト, コックピット型TVゲーム機 (Upright/Cockpit Videos)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 276. Amusement Press, Inc. 15 January 1986. p. 21.
  25. ^ "Out-of-Print Archive • Mega Drive reviews • Road Blasters FX (Mega CD)". Outofprintarchive.com. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  26. ^ "The Road Avenger Novel, First Public Demo Debut". Reuters.com. 2009-08-26. Archived from the original on 2012-09-11. Retrieved 2015-05-21.
  27. ^ "Green-Light Received for 'The Road Avenger' Novel; 'Road Blaster' Roars Into 2009 in MMP Publishing's Novelization of". Reuters .com. 2009-01-13. Archived from the original on 2009-01-20. Retrieved 2015-05-21.

External links

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