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Road Blaster (ロードブラスター) is an interactive movie video game developed by Data East featuring animation by Toei Animation, originally released exclusively in Japan as a laserdisc-based arcade game in 1985. The player assumes the role of a vigilante who must avenge the death of his wife by pursuing the biker gang responsible for her death in a modified sports car. The game would later be ported to a variety of home formats such as the MSX and Sharp X1 (VHD format), Sega CD (under the title of Road Blaster FX), LaserActive (in Mega-LD format), PlayStation and Sega Saturn (in a compilation with Thunder Storm). The Sega CD and Mega-LD versions were released outside of Japan under titles of Road Avenger and Road Prosecutor respectively.

This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. (May 2015)

Road Blaster
Japanese arcade flyer
Developer(s)	Data East Victor Musical Industries (MSX, X1) Telenet Japan, Wolf Team (Mega-CD) Ecseco (Saturn/PS1) Revolutionary Concepts (iOS)
Publisher(s)	Data East Wolf Team, Renovation, Sega (Mega-CD) Ecseco (Saturn/PS1)
Director(s)	Yoshihisa Kishimoto[1] Kazuyasu Yokō (Sega CD)
Producer(s)	Joe Asanuma, Masaaki Uno (Sega CD)
Programmer(s)	Shintaro Kumagai Takatoshi Kato Junichi Nabe Hironobu Mohre & Masa Yoshihara (sound) Shinji Hirachi & Chikaaki Tokuhiro (Sega CD)
Artist(s)	Hideki Takayama Yoshinobu Inano Nobuo Kanuma, Kiyoka Tajima, Masayuki Matsushima, Tadashi Hamada (Sega CD)
Composer(s)	Michael K. Nakamura Motoi Sakuraba (Sega CD)
Platform(s)	Arcade MSX, Sharp X1, Video Challenger, Sega Mega-CD, LaserActive, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, 3DO, VHS, iOS, Sharp X68000, Windows
Release	August 1985 Arcade WW: August 1985[2] MSX JP: 1986[3] Sega CD JP: December 18, 1992[4] NA: March 1993[5] EU: 1993 LaserActive JP: January 25, 1995 NA: 1995 Saturn & PlayStation JP: October 20, 1995[6][7] X68000 & Windows JP: May 4, 2009[8] iOS January 15, 2011[9]
Genre(s)	Interactive movie, Vehicular combat
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Gameplay

As with other laserdisc-based arcade games from the same time, the gameplay consists of on-screen instructions overlaid over pre-recorded full motion video animated footage of high-speed chases and vehicular combat. The player controls the crosshair to steer their car toward the correct directions according to the green arrows flashing and beeping beside it, while controlling the gas pedal, brake and booster whenever they light up.

The game has nine stages. Upon successfully completing a level, the player is graded on the reaction time. Different difficulty levels can be selected. In Normal Mode, pop-up icons and audio tones signal when to turn left or right, brake, hit turbo, or hit other cars. In Hard Mode, there are no on-screen icons to guide the player.[10]

Plot

The story of Road Blaster is inspired by revenge thriller films such as Mad Max.[11] In the late 1990s United States, the player assumes the role of a vigilante who drives a customized sports car in order to get revenge on a biker gang responsible for his wife's death on their honeymoon. After recovering from his own injuries, he upgrades his car and goes on a rampage through nine areas. His goal is to seek out the gang's female boss and complete his vengeance.

Development

Road Blaster uses animation provided by the anime studio Toei Animation.[12] It was animated under the guidance of Yoshinobu Inano, who also directed or key-animated such films such as Gundam: Char's Counter Attack, Macross: Do You Remember Love?, and The Transformers: The Movie.[13] It was animated using 15,000 hand-painted cels to produce over 30 minutes of animation.[10] Game director Yoshihisa Kishimoto, who previously worked on Cobra Command, later directed the arcade version of Double Dragon, where the car from Road Blaster can be seen inside the Lee brothers' garage at the start of the game.

Also in the footage of Road Blaster, we can see at the beginning of the gameplay the chopper of Cobra Command/Thunder Storm arcade.

Releases

Road Blaster was originally released in 1985 as a laserdisc-based arcade game. Various ports were released throughout history, including versions for the MSX, X1 (both in VHD format), Mega CD/Sega CD, LaserActive (in Mega LD format), Sega Saturn, PlayStation, and 3DO Interactive Multiplayer (prototyped as Turbo Blaster). However, only the Sega CD and Mega LD versions were released outside Japan, under the titles Road Avenger and Road Prosecutor, respectively. The titles were possibly changed to avoid confusion with the similarly titled arcade game RoadBlasters by Atari Games, which was ported to the Mega Drive around the same time.[14] Road Blaster was also released for the Sharp X68000[8] and for Windows in 2011, exclusively in Japan.[15] Cobra Command and Road Blaster were ported to iOS by Revolutionary Concepts in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

Other variations included one-shot reproductions for VHS cassette players such as Takara's Video Challenger which was a limited interactive port of the Road Blaster arcade game. The Sega Saturn and PlayStation ports were compilations of Road Blaster and another laserdisc arcade game developed by the same team titled Thunder Storm (known outside Japan as Cobra Command).

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Road Blaster on their January 15, 1986 issue as being the fourteenth most-successful upright/cockpit arcade unit of the month.[22]

Dragon reviewers gave the Sega CD version of the game 4 out of 5 stars in 1993.[17] GameFan noted it has greater interaction compared to Time Gal and Thunderstorm, and praised the "non-stop control of the vehicle," graphics, smooth animation, and "andrenaline rush" experience.[5] GamePro praised the highly detailed animation and stereo CD sound, and called it a "masterpiece" that is "like participating in an intense, action-packed, animated movie."[10]

On release, Famicom Tsūshin scored the Sega Saturn version a 25 out of 40, and the PlayStation version a 23 out of 40.[18] Famitsu would later give the Mega CD version a score of 32 out of 40,[4] while MEGA rated it at 86%.[23] The iOS port was released to generally favourable reviews,[9] including the scores of 8 out of 10 from IGN[19] and 7 out of 10 from Pocket Gamer.[21]

Legacy

A novelization of the game was announced in 2009.[24][25] The project was officially authorized by G-Mode of Japan (the rights holder to most of Data East's catalog) to be written by Mary Margaret Park.

References

External links

• Road Blaster at the Killer List of Videogames
• Road Blaster at Arcade-History
• Road Blaster at Dragon's Lair Project
• MSX version at Generation MSX

На других языках

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- [en] Road Blaster

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[es] Road Blaster

Road Blaster (ロードブラスター, ''Road Blaster''?) es un videojuego de cine interactivo lanzado en 1985 para arcade, el cual fue desarrollado y publicado por Data East , con la ayuda de Toei Animation para ilustrar la animación. Después de que Data East desapareciera debido a su quiebra en el año 2003, G-Mode compró los derechos de propiedad intelectual del juego, así como la mayoría de otros juegos de Data East.

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