An absolutely ok shmup from PC Engine. If you've had that console, I can see it being good, but nowadays there's access to a whole lot of games that do the same stuff better, and some of them are on NES.

Blazing Lazers has fairly simple power-up system where you have a main weapon you can switch by picking up a corresponding number and a special thing that acts the same - pick up a letter to receive shields or homing missiles.

Unlike, say, Gun Nac for the NES, I question the latter a bit, since picking up a letter for Option completely cancels your other side-weapon, meaning you have to dodge 90% of power-ups coming at you if you like certain weapons and sub-weapons.

I also find that some weapons suck compared to the others. Weapon 2 is a great wave of death spreading into 3, Weapon 3 is a penetrating lightning which if upgraded covers most of the screen, but 1 is a 6 way shot that's completely unremarkable and 4 grants you a moving shield that rarely hits enemies as you have a normal double bullet.

The game's fairly easy until the last stage, which is, for some reason, not only overly long, but also reuses the setting from the first stages. I know the game's based on a movie, so maybe there's some lore to it, but after deserts and bubbly planets I wanted a bit more.

This game isn't bad, but today you have access to stuff like Gun Nac or Super Aleste which have more weapons and better presentation as well as sense of speed to them.