TERARIN GAMES is a well-known prolific developer of many shmups on Steam. Recently they released a demo of their upcoming title, Blaze of Storm, which I was able to spend some time with last week. I’ve covered it before in one of my other posts, but here are my first impressions!
Tutorial Mode
The demo includes both a playable tutorial mode and a 5-minute caravan stage. Let’s begin by discussing the how-to-play portion. It is surprisingly detailed, with 6 interactive sections to complete, and starts with teaching you how to control your craft with either keyboard inputs or a controller. As you go through it, the mode puts you through simple scenarios where you pick up sub weapons, use attacks against enemies, gain extra energy, increase your power level, and the like. While it doesn’t teach anything shocking, the mode looks good, it’s easy to understand, and is a really complete tutorial that is helpful for new players.
Considering that I am a big fan of the developer’s earlier work, specifically ImageStriker 1 (IS1), the tutorial also demonstrates just how far TERARIN GAMES has come in the last several years. Compared to the first game, which I reviewed here, the weapons are more diverse and interesting, the screen layout has some additional functionality, and the gameplay mechanics that IS1 once shared with its inspiration (Irem’s Image Fight) are not present. Specially the pods flying around your ship and the adjustable speed settings. I stress this because in some of Blaze of Storm’s loading screens it describes itself as “Project Image Striker 3”! Since IS1 is one of my favorite beginner shmups, I was stoked to find this out!
Caravan mode
Getting back to the demo itself, the main mode is the 5-minute caravan challenge, which is actually a boss rush! While there are short little 5-second stages, most of your time you’re spent fighting a boss. Many of them were pretty cool, with some interesting, but relatively easy, attack patterns. After playing it a few times, it did make me hope that the developer has multiple difficulty settings for the caravan mode in the full game. Also, if this section has even more bosses to face, then that would be welcome.
Before discussing the graphics, I want to say that the reason I mentioned IS1 so much earlier is because I think it influences the art design of Blaze of Storm a great deal. IS1 has a pretty simple look to it, with a lot of silver, computerized-looking enemies and limited color variation (especially in the backgrounds). This lack of color depth was obviously an artistic choice in IS1, and Blaze of Storm continues that to some degree. While your weapons are larger and have a lot more punch to them with explosions going off often, the caravan mode also has a mostly repeating background of blues and greens that reminds me of an interconnected network of wires. There isn’t a lot of variety in color, with many bosses and enemies seeming to share the same palette. Not that this is intrinsically bad, it just makes a lot more sense when one relates it to what came before.
Turning to the music, I’m glad to say that it is really enjoyable and fits well with the style of the game. On a related note, I also appreciated the quality of voice work. Whenever you pick up a power-up, you’re told what you acquired, and it sounds great without being distracting. The only exception to this is when you are damaged; as the announcer tells you every time you get hit. It seemed more jarring compared to the other sound files. Perhaps it was because I wasn’t expecting to be impacted when I did. From my perspective, it actually feels unnecessary. Still though, at least I know one way I can solve this “problem,” don’t get hit!
Coming to the close, I want to share that I am slightly concerned about some of the sub weapons being imbalanced in the demo. The satellite weapon was way over powered, through which I was able to blaze through most of the bosses in short order just by keeping them at a full distance away from my ship. Moreover, like I mentioned earlier, I’d like to see difficulty settings available in the caravan mode of the game. Not just for the main arcade game. Overall, I am quite excited for Blaze of Storm and I am glad that TERARIN GAMES is continuing the ImageStriker series with it. The demo is also a good choice for introducing new players to the genre, and I think it will be real nice to try out for them.
Cheap Retro Gaming 
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