Soldier Blade

1992 · Vertical Shooter · TurboGrafx-16

About Soldier Blade

Soldier Blade (1992) is Hudson Soft's fast vertical shoot 'em up for the TurboGrafx-16, the fourth Star Soldier game, rushed out in six months for the company's Caravan tournament and now seen as one of the system's best.

Soldier Blade in Depth

The player flies the starship Soldier Blade through seven "operations" to wipe out the Zeograd Army, an alien race bent on conquering Earth. It shares much with Super Star Soldier but puts heavy emphasis on speed. The ship starts with a Vulcan shot that kills most enemies in one hit, and coloured power capsules change it to a wave gun or a devastating laser, each also adding a pod that gives extra firepower. Collisions with enemies or bullets destroy the ship, but up to three capsules let it absorb three hits. Three power-ups can be kept in a storage box at the bottom of the screen and deployed at any time, and a weapon can be sacrificed for a screen-clearing superweapon. Each stage has a mid-boss and a boss, destroyed by hitting a weak point.

As in other Star Soldier games, two Caravan time-attack modes, of two and five minutes, challenge players to score as many points as possible. Finishing the main game unlocks a stage select.

Making Soldier Blade

Designer Ukiuki Uribo conceived the game in conversations about what to use for Hudson's upcoming Caravan tournament; Hikaru Aoyama suggested a new shooter, and though Uribo hesitated with the event only six months away, executives pushed it forward. Uribo was also working on Game Boy games, and the team worked under constant time and memory pressure, adding ideas on the spot. Keita Hoshi and Makiko Tanifuji composed the music, Atsushi Kakutani designed the Caravan mode almost alone and Yuji Kaida painted the cover. Uribo wished they had had more time to refine it, and a planned Soldier Blade II never happened.

It was released on the PC Engine in Japan on 10 July 1992 and the TurboGrafx-16 in North America that September. Contemporary reviews were mixed: GameFan compared it favourably to Blazing Lazers, while one EGM reviewer called it "a hastily crafted title" and Player One found it too easy. The 2007 Wii Virtual Console release drew much more praise, Eurogamer calling it "twitch gaming in its purest, most basic form" and IGN singling out its speed.

Soldier Blade Trivia

It was first called Sonic Blaster F-92, after the player's ship, but was renamed for trademark reasons.
Development began on a 6-megabit HuCard, later cut to 4 megabits.
Miscommunication made the first stage's large "Bay Wolf" battleships nearly defenceless and the sixth stage's missile pods fire spread shots instead of homing missiles.
A diagonally scrolling asteroid belt stage was cut for time and hardware reasons.
The tournament-only Soldier Blade Special Version, with just the Caravan modes, now fetches high prices.