Final Blaster [Model NC90007]

Final Blaster © 1990 NAMCOT.

Final Blaster is a vertical-scrolling shooter by Namco. The player is on a mission to save the Earth against a swam of alien invaders - on board the Blaster Mark-II Phoenix, a powerful winged space fighter, he must battle through seven stages, from the surface of the moon and progressing later to space and to planet Bosconian, the alien's main stronghold. The ship comes equipped with a standard Vulcan blaster gun and red power-pods can be collected along to way to increase its fire power. It also has secondary weapon-pods at its disposal - blue pods can be picked up and give additional upgrades to the ship, such as laser rings or laser beams. But the space fighter has a powerful secret weapon - holding down the fire button for a short amount of time slowly builds up energy around the ship, and eventually focuses it into a raging firebird, melting down everything that lays on its path. This accumulated power can also be unleashed in a destructive flash of energy, causing damage to all enemies on the screen. But there is a catch, and this particular maneuver also melts down the secondary options collected by the ship. Another unique feature of Final Blaster is the 'dynamic scrolling' - the playfield is larger than the screen, so moving up and down actually slows down or speeds up the scrolling. Finally, the game adjusts the difficulty level according to the player's progress - at the end of each stage, a difficulty meter shows how difficult the next stage is (from a scale of 1 to 4). The better the player's performance, the more difficult Final Blaster becomes.