In a remote corner of the galaxy, there lives a race of super-brains known as the Burai. For thousands of years, their vast mental capabilities have been focused upon one goal: the conquest of the universe! To accomplish this, they are creating huge armies of robo-mutants - bizarre creatures, half robot and half living flesh. With their seven manufacturing bases producing thousands of robo-mutants each day, the Burai armies will soon overrun the galaxy - unless you can stop them! Strap on your proton pack, charge up your laser cannon, and prepare to do battle with the deadliest army of mutant rogues in the universe. You must somehow penetrate the seven bases of the Burai, where you will confront a super-mutant guarding each base - monstrous creatures like the Giganticrab, Jawsipede, and Fangskull - until finally, you face the terrifying Slimedragon! But with the awesome arsenal of weapons at your command, victory may still be within your reach. It's up to you to rid the universe of the evil Burai once and for all!
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One of the coolest games on NES.
Apologies for getting a little too personal in this random review but lately I’ve been feeling down about how many games I kind of just don’t find good. Like it feels wrong for a lot of games to be in the decent to bad rankings. It made me think if I even enjoyed doing what I did so I decided to play a game that I thought maybe I’d enjoy and that’s where we get to Burai Fighter, a shmup made in the last year before the Super Famicom would come in and make the Famicom old news. This one was developed by Kid who made stuff like Banana Prince, Recca, and Super Bowling. Time to talk about the game.
This Famicom game is a shmup but an interesting take on one. Burai Fighter has you take the role of a person flying around shooting in up to 8 directions. You can even hold a direction once you start shooting, letting you be able to aim at a direction you want while you still dodge. You must go through 7 stages and fight a boss at the end of each one. Your character has 3 different attacks which are the laser, ring, and missile. The laser can shoot a more powerful shot of what you normally shoot and fully leveled up can have it shoot 4 lasers in different directions. The ring can go through walls making it great for tight spaces and you can shoot up to 4 of them at once with it fully powered up. The missiles do a little more damage than your normal shot but specialize in always aiming to the right and with it fully powered up can have them go all four cardinal directions. You also can fill up a meter that with each segment filled can let you use a bomb that will delete every projectile and enemy on screen. It’s best you use them if you get in a situation that you’ll think will make you lose a life but if you’re confident in your skills then you just let the bar fill up for a free extra life. You can also get speed ups and this is one of those shmups I don’t mind being fast in. Lastly there’s an item you can get that circles around you that hits anything it goes in contact with, you can only have one of these so don’t expect to get more if you grab another.
Stages are pretty interesting as they don’t always go to the right or even just up. You’re going many directions in them and while that may seem annoying, the game is well designed for you to never get crushed by bad design. The only time you’ll get crushed by the scrolling is if you get greedy with those upgrades and items they put in hard to reach areas. The level design is very well made and it helps the game stick out from the many shmups that existed at the time. I really love how you can touch the walls and not die because the game would be a nightmare if you couldn’t. The game also loves to put setpieces especially before a boss starts and for the most part it works well but there is one level where they have these giant spike skewers that can catch you off guard on the first playthrough. Thankfully if you die you only lose the levels of the weapon you were using as it switches depending which one you grab last. This means it's easier to get through the game without having to worry about dying just once and losing everything though just make sure not to lose everything by dying multiple times obviously. There’s also three difficulties and the higher it goes, the more enemies and patterns you have to deal with and Burai Fighter can be tough but doable especially after a few playthroughs. There’s even a password system with 4 letter English words though I can’t tell you if it saves upgrades. I should point out there's also hidden rooms in this game, 10 in fact. I could never find them though, even after trying to research I couldn’t get a good idea. Not even the longplay finds them which annoys me.
Now there are two stages that are unique, this game tries to do what Thunder Force II did where there’s also top down stages. Sadly these are very simple and offer very little of interest. You are given a very simple map before the level starts to show where you and the boss are. There is no setpieces in any of them and with full power ups it can be a breeze going through both. You can use these stages for grinding power ups but otherwise you’ll get through them without any problems. Easily the low point of the game but at least they are short and are only 2 in the game.
Bosses in Burai Fighter are probably the toughest part of the game for me. They cross that line of I feel like I could beat them no problem but you can always make that one mistake and be gone since you die in one hit. I do feel like at times the hitbox can be a bit off for your character especially on the final one. I do think they can be a good challenge and they are all beatable with practice and learning where to shoot. The ones in the top down areas are also pretty boring though as it just requires you to hit the eyes until they’re all gone, wow this really does remind me of Thunder Force II. Now I think about it though, this game kind of reminds me of Battle Mania for some reason
The game graphically is good for 1990 though I find those top down levels unremarkable looking. I could argue that the colors could be a bit better but it never really bothered me when playing. I do like how big some things are like those skewers and the final boss. The music is sadly forgettable and while it works when playing the game, you probably won’t remember any of it when I’m not playing the game. Apologies for this section being short, for some reason I can't think of much to say…
This game really surprised me, I enjoyed it a lot. The level design is well made and the gameplay is never dull when it’s just the side scrolling gameplay. This game would get a handheld version on the GB and GBC though oddly it was only called Burai Fighter on the GBC in Japan. Was given the new name Space Marauder here. Burai Fighter is also not well remembered in Japan, though it is called a hidden gem from the people who have played it. Honestly I agree with them, it really is a hidden gem. It’s a shame an actual sequel never got made because it has a lot of potential, I guess there are shmups similar to it like Final Mission and Battle Mania but what could have been. Also I just wanna point out the US cover lies about multiple endings. Play on Ace if you want an ending and you’ll even get awarded something else but I won’t spoil. At the end of the day, I’m just glad I played it and will gladly replay it someday.
This Famicom game is a shmup but an interesting take on one. Burai Fighter has you take the role of a person flying around shooting in up to 8 directions. You can even hold a direction once you start shooting, letting you be able to aim at a direction you want while you still dodge. You must go through 7 stages and fight a boss at the end of each one. Your character has 3 different attacks which are the laser, ring, and missile. The laser can shoot a more powerful shot of what you normally shoot and fully leveled up can have it shoot 4 lasers in different directions. The ring can go through walls making it great for tight spaces and you can shoot up to 4 of them at once with it fully powered up. The missiles do a little more damage than your normal shot but specialize in always aiming to the right and with it fully powered up can have them go all four cardinal directions. You also can fill up a meter that with each segment filled can let you use a bomb that will delete every projectile and enemy on screen. It’s best you use them if you get in a situation that you’ll think will make you lose a life but if you’re confident in your skills then you just let the bar fill up for a free extra life. You can also get speed ups and this is one of those shmups I don’t mind being fast in. Lastly there’s an item you can get that circles around you that hits anything it goes in contact with, you can only have one of these so don’t expect to get more if you grab another.
Stages are pretty interesting as they don’t always go to the right or even just up. You’re going many directions in them and while that may seem annoying, the game is well designed for you to never get crushed by bad design. The only time you’ll get crushed by the scrolling is if you get greedy with those upgrades and items they put in hard to reach areas. The level design is very well made and it helps the game stick out from the many shmups that existed at the time. I really love how you can touch the walls and not die because the game would be a nightmare if you couldn’t. The game also loves to put setpieces especially before a boss starts and for the most part it works well but there is one level where they have these giant spike skewers that can catch you off guard on the first playthrough. Thankfully if you die you only lose the levels of the weapon you were using as it switches depending which one you grab last. This means it's easier to get through the game without having to worry about dying just once and losing everything though just make sure not to lose everything by dying multiple times obviously. There’s also three difficulties and the higher it goes, the more enemies and patterns you have to deal with and Burai Fighter can be tough but doable especially after a few playthroughs. There’s even a password system with 4 letter English words though I can’t tell you if it saves upgrades. I should point out there's also hidden rooms in this game, 10 in fact. I could never find them though, even after trying to research I couldn’t get a good idea. Not even the longplay finds them which annoys me.
Now there are two stages that are unique, this game tries to do what Thunder Force II did where there’s also top down stages. Sadly these are very simple and offer very little of interest. You are given a very simple map before the level starts to show where you and the boss are. There is no setpieces in any of them and with full power ups it can be a breeze going through both. You can use these stages for grinding power ups but otherwise you’ll get through them without any problems. Easily the low point of the game but at least they are short and are only 2 in the game.
Bosses in Burai Fighter are probably the toughest part of the game for me. They cross that line of I feel like I could beat them no problem but you can always make that one mistake and be gone since you die in one hit. I do feel like at times the hitbox can be a bit off for your character especially on the final one. I do think they can be a good challenge and they are all beatable with practice and learning where to shoot. The ones in the top down areas are also pretty boring though as it just requires you to hit the eyes until they’re all gone, wow this really does remind me of Thunder Force II. Now I think about it though, this game kind of reminds me of Battle Mania for some reason
The game graphically is good for 1990 though I find those top down levels unremarkable looking. I could argue that the colors could be a bit better but it never really bothered me when playing. I do like how big some things are like those skewers and the final boss. The music is sadly forgettable and while it works when playing the game, you probably won’t remember any of it when I’m not playing the game. Apologies for this section being short, for some reason I can't think of much to say…
This game really surprised me, I enjoyed it a lot. The level design is well made and the gameplay is never dull when it’s just the side scrolling gameplay. This game would get a handheld version on the GB and GBC though oddly it was only called Burai Fighter on the GBC in Japan. Was given the new name Space Marauder here. Burai Fighter is also not well remembered in Japan, though it is called a hidden gem from the people who have played it. Honestly I agree with them, it really is a hidden gem. It’s a shame an actual sequel never got made because it has a lot of potential, I guess there are shmups similar to it like Final Mission and Battle Mania but what could have been. Also I just wanna point out the US cover lies about multiple endings. Play on Ace if you want an ending and you’ll even get awarded something else but I won’t spoil. At the end of the day, I’m just glad I played it and will gladly replay it someday.
A fantastic shoot'em up on the NES, with multiple weapons and varied levels and enemies.