Karura Ou (Jpn) - 迦楼羅王
Skyblazer, released in Japan as Karuraou (迦楼羅王), is a platform video game published by Sony Imagesoft, released in early 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It involves the Skyblazer hero searching for Ashura, the Lord of War, who had kidnapped the sorceress Ariana.
Skyblazer was obscure at the time of its release, but has nevertheless received respectable reviews from those who have played it.
There are a total of 17 levels (with a few more stops on the map where the elder gives passwords to the player) and ten bosses (including the final boss, Raglan; the other nine bosses must each be fought twice, since they reappear immediately before Raglan). An overhead map allows for movement between levels, including back to ones already completed, and its slight non-linearity allows one to skip some levels (at the cost of the magic spells and other powerups obtainable in them).
Most of the levels are side-scrolling, but there are some levels involving flight, either automatically scrolling or in Mode 7, where the player can grab crystals towards extra lives but will exit the level upon touching a spike and falling. Also, some levels expand on the usual platform structure by including waterways whose paths can be varied with switches, and there are areas with rotating towers. Many of the bosses also use extensive Mode 7, expanding and rotating around the screen or coming in the form of rotating walls.
There are eight secondary attacks available beyond the basic punch and kick, but unlike those they require magic power:
Skyblazer was obscure at the time of its release, but has nevertheless received respectable reviews from those who have played it.
There are a total of 17 levels (with a few more stops on the map where the elder gives passwords to the player) and ten bosses (including the final boss, Raglan; the other nine bosses must each be fought twice, since they reappear immediately before Raglan). An overhead map allows for movement between levels, including back to ones already completed, and its slight non-linearity allows one to skip some levels (at the cost of the magic spells and other powerups obtainable in them).
Most of the levels are side-scrolling, but there are some levels involving flight, either automatically scrolling or in Mode 7, where the player can grab crystals towards extra lives but will exit the level upon touching a spike and falling. Also, some levels expand on the usual platform structure by including waterways whose paths can be varied with switches, and there are areas with rotating towers. Many of the bosses also use extensive Mode 7, expanding and rotating around the screen or coming in the form of rotating walls.
There are eight secondary attacks available beyond the basic punch and kick, but unlike those they require magic power:
- Dragon Slash — This basic secondary attack is always available with enough magic power, even before completing any levels. It fires a small curved wave with moderate attack power.
- Comet Flash — Sky jets straight forward, allowing him to traverse long pits of spikes, lava and other dangers.
- Lightning Strike — Full-screen lightning blast.
- Star Fire — Shot goes outward in nine directions from the player.
- Heal — Self-explanatory.
- Warrior Force — Temporary invulnerability and doubled attack power.
- Time Stop — Temporarily stops enemy motion; only works on one boss.
- Fiery Phoenix — The only weapons that can penetrate Ashura's defense.
Technical
CPU
- maincpu 5A22 (@ 21 Mhz)
- soundcpu SPC700 (@ 1 Mhz)
Chipset
- SNES Custom DSP (SPC700)
Display
- Orientation Yoko
- Resolution 255 x 225
- Frequency 60.098476 Hz
Controlers
- Number of players 2
- Number of buttons 6
- Kind of controler
- joy (8 ways)
- joy (8 ways)
- joy (8 ways)
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Clones of Karura Ou (Jpn)
Credits
- Game Design — Kenshi Naruse
- Programming — Tadakatsu Makiuchi, Norihiro Tokeshi
- Character Design — Teruo Nagato
- Graphics — Midori Nasu, Michiyo Komura, Sadaki Matsumoto
- Music — Harumi Fujita (who used a similar style, but militaristic as opposed to Indian in tone, in Bionic Commando)