Join Jay as he flings his boomerang into the face of Dr. Wiley's evil robot... what? We're not talking about Mega Man? Sure looks like a Mega Man game. Anyway, grab your power suit and let's embark on a pixelated journey filled with boomerangs, robots, and a whole lot of retro gaming goodness!

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Episode Transcription

Get ready to power up your nostalgia! In this solo episode of The Waffling Taylors, we're diving head-first into the 8-bit wonders of the NES classic, Power Blade (or its Japanese counterpart, Power Blazer). It's time to explore the highs, lows, and everything in between in the latest instalment of our 'Worth a Try' mini-series.

So, grab your power suit and let's embark on a pixelated journey filled with boomerangs, robots, and a whole lot of retro gaming goodness!

Let's do this.

What Is It?

Power Blade is a NES game that I genuinely think that Mega Man fans should check out; if they haven't already that is. I mean, imagine if the Mighty Kid himself was less a robotic boy created by Dr. Thomas Light (or Right, if you're Japanese) and more a tank-top wearing 80's action movie hero very much akin to Arnold Schwarzenegger? And what if Mega Man's trust arm cannon blaster was replaced with a boomerang?

I feel like I'm getting ahead of myself here, so let's dial it back a bit.

Back in 1990, Natsume/Taito wanted to make a Mega Man II clone; their clone would be called Power Blazer, and would be very much like the second outing for the Knuckle Kid himself. It used a similar design aesthetic, similar enemies and similar level layouts. And looking at the critical reviews of Mega Man II, you can see why they wanted to - Famitsu gave it a 28/40, Mean Machines a 95%, and Total! an 83%, and it has sold 1.5 million copies worldwide. Who wouldn't want a piece of that action.

And so Power Blazer was released to the Japanese public.

Power Blazer was slightly different to Mega Man II in that it had a linear story - where the Mega Man games would traditionally allow you to pick any starting stage - and the main character had a boomerang, rather than an arm cannon blaster - as I said earlier.

Between its Japanese and North American releases however, the game had a full rework. The design aesthetic was changed from the cutesy Mega Man II-inspired look and feel to that of an 80s action movie. Almost everything about the game changed, except for the UI, the music, and the story. The player character, named Nova in both versions, was swapped from a Rockman look-a-like to an Arnold Schwarzenegger style hero.

In either game, it's the player's job to collect 6 computer tapes (this was a game made at the tail end of the 80's after all), and use them to override the security around the Master Computer's Control Center. Once there, the player simply needs to beat the Master Computer.

In the Western Release of Power Blade, the player could choose the order of the stages (even replaying some of the completed stages if they wanted), but also had to meet with double agents in the stages before they could take on that stage's boss and nab the security tape.

Sounds simple, eh?

Well, Power Blade is a pretty tough game and rewards players who know the routes around the stages.

Full Show Notes

Check out the full show notes for some extra stuff, and some links to related things.

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Links of Interest

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• Power Blade — Not a Mega Man Clone, At All
• Power Blade soundtrack

Signing Off... For Now

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