Blazing Star

Blazing Star is a scrolling shooter for the Neo Geo home game system and the sequel to the acclaimed Neo Geo shooter Pulstar, itself a close cousin of the R-Type franchise. The 346 Mb Neo Geo ROM makes extensive use of pseudo-3D prerendered sprites, brief anime and CGI cutscenes, primarily during the intro, plus frequent Engrish voice samples and captions. While Blazing Star improved on earlier shooter games in many ways, some fans compare it unfavorably with Pulstar because they consider it too easy or prefer simpler 2D sprites over the prerendered visuals used in many later shoot-'em-ups.

In the past, the planets Remuria and Mutras began an interplanetary war with no end in sight. The human-like inhabitants of both worlds fought for so long that weapon development entered dangerous territory through Organic Weapon Production combined with alien technology. This created Brawshella, a sentient weapon. Brawshella gathered all animal life from both planets, forcing it to obey its commands and attack humans. Within a week, the humans were assimilated by Brawshella. However, after assimilation, they found no purpose beyond continuing to fight one another. Eventually, six assimilated fighter pilots regained their consciousness and remembered their pasts. After rediscovering their humanity, they must choose between obeying Brawshella or fighting it to regain their independence. The pilots ultimately turn against the machine in a battle to reclaim their identities and their planets.