Blazing Chrome

I got my copy via Xbox Game Pass. Honestly, the game is so good that I will re-buy it here on GOG just to have a copy on my PC. Only issue is that it has not a Linux version and my PC is, well, Linux only. Anyway, Blazing Chrome is a run n' gun game that looks exactly like Contra, Metal Slug, or Gunstar Heroes. It is fun and not too hard. Among some modern amenities, the game remember how far you are reach, so you may have short seasons of play and not lose your progress. All this makes the game easy to pick up after a workday but, maybe, a little too easy if you come in plan of hard core gamer.

Blazing Chrome plays ALOT like my old cart of Contra Hard Corps for the Sega Genesis. And that's a dang good thang! Let's get the CONS squared away, because they're meager anyway. No Linux support...yet. No online co-op, but a game of this ilk is best played across the couch anyway. Now that those are outta the way, let's roll! The PROS of Blazing Chrome are aplenty! Couch co-op is included and advised. Controller support, which is best for a 2D side scroller, is defaulted right outta the box. The hardware requirements are extremely LOW, making Blazing Chrome netbook friendly. The gameplay is fast and frenetic. The difficulty is tough, but fair: if you get killed it's probably your own carelessness. The boss battles are epic: on par with Contra, Gunstar Heroes, or Metal Slug. The weapons are fun to use and all serve a real purpose. The graphics lend to the atmosphere and harken to Blazing Chrome's 1990s influences. Blazing Chrome is a retro gamer's wet dream.

Great job from joymasher! Congratulations to those involved! Graphics, gameplay and soundtrack brought me to the times of contra hard corps! IRecommend :D

The game takes a lot, and I mean a lot from Contra Hard Corps for the Sega Genesis. It looks, sounds and plays almost identical, wich is a very good thing since Contra is so awesome. You play as 4 characters, 2 uses guns and are available from the start, while the other 2 use a sword and can be unlocked afeter beating the game. The gun ones have 4 different weapons (they are same 4 for both characters unfortunately), while the sword ones only have one weapon but have more moves like charging their attacks or jumping higher. Must of the time it is a run and gun game, but in two level you will be riding a vehicle, (once again similar to the Contra HC one), while in others you will be inside of a robot like in Megaman X series. The game is only 1 hour long but it has coop, 3 difficulty levels, leaderboards, lof of achievements, Boss Rush mode and Mirror Mode (go from right to left instead of the regular left to right). So it is wothy to finish the game at least two or three times. Blazing Chrome is hard, one hit kills and all. Nevertheless, since it has difficulty settings, checkpoints, and unlimited continues (on easy and hard) selectable levels (except for the fifth and sixth ones, you hace to clear first four to unlock those two) it can be played by casual or hardcore gamers. While the game is not as good as the game in which it is inspired (that one has multiple endings, 4 weapons per character (instead of 4 for both gunners and 1 for sword ones like the game we are reviewing right now), more levels and a better soundtrack) and it is short, Blazing Chrome is still a blast thanks to its fast paced action, fluid controls and a great combination of retro elements.

I saw this game getting tons of hyped reviews, so I took a shot at it, hoping for some fun in the mood of good'ole days. What I got instead was a game that wasn't just made to look retro. It's a game that literally was made in early nineties, along with all the deficiencies of technical shortcomings and gameplay annoyances. Navigation through the menu and control configuration requires some teeth clenching. Using limited color palette for the retro-look is one thing, but using sprite blinking for destructions just dilutes clarity. Enemies come at you fast in large numbers from angles your weapons don't readily cover, which results in death. Your basic weapon is ineffective. Other weapons work in ways that require you to change how you play the game, which makes them feel more like a downgrade than aid, and often ends with death. Generally gunplay feels overcomplicated and half-useless. Melee attacks seem to be much more effective at least against cannon fodder enemies, except when they not kick in, which equals death. There is considerable emphasis on forward-roll dodge, which is activated in the same way that dropping down a level works in many games, including this one. I'm not sure if this was a design overlook, or an awfully misguided conscious decision, but trying one often activates the other, leading to lot of stupid deaths. Let's couple it with touch-insta-death, atrocious level design, enemy sequences ranging from boring to clusterfυck, bosses with single-frame half-screen slashes, lack of checkpoints and general lack of balance and all of this boils down to needlessly unforgiving, unfair, hard gameplay, that's supposed to be fun, but instead is just frustrating and depressing. There is a difficulty setting, but don't get fooled. It doesn't change the game's difficulty at all, it just gives you more lives, so that the game can punish you longer and mop the floor with you even more. It's just borderline sadism which was banned by the Geneva Convention.