Blast Wind (Sega Saturn) 3.749.510 Kyo 1CC

Blast Wind (Sega Saturn)
played by Judgment Storm
Default settings
Character: Kyo (1P)
Score: 3.749.510

TechnoSoft originally had created this for the arcades, but it had failed the location test. In 1997 it was revived for the Saturn and given new BGM by Hyakutaro Tsukumo (who also did Hyper Duel and Thunder Force V's soundtracks).

The story has Earth in a post-apocalyptic scenario. Much of the population of Earth is wiped out in a nuclear war. But having prepared for this, there was a man named Noa who built an ark and brought several people aboard. They took refuge from the cataclysm. Far in the future, their descendants came to Earth to start a new civilization. But... a machine race called Gorn (no relation to Thunder Force IV's Orn... well, AFAIK) arises, seeking to conquer. So, Noa's people bring out a couple ancient space fighters to be piloted by Ultimate Destroyers Kyo (1P) and Forn (2P).

You have 2 weapons- a straight shot and a homer. Whenever you take a P item to power up your main weapon, a lighting strike emanates from the sides of your ship. You're invulnerable during this, and can use it to seriously damage enemies. Also there's a supply of smart bombs, which are worth 5000 extra points a piece if you hold onto them at the end of a stage. Sometimes you can hit a switch to alter your route in the stage. Doing so will ultimately lead to an alternate version of the stage's boss. Catching enough coins will get a 1UP item to appear.

Compared to a Thunder Force or Elemental Master (another vertical one) it is kind of short, clocking in under 20 minutes. That may have something to do with it being created originally for arcades. While you can find better looking games of the genre on Saturn and you could say it looks 16-bit, it looks closer to an X68000 game than a Mega Drive one. Still good.

Blast Wind had a short print run and is fairly hard to find. It easily goes for over $250 used... or nearly $1000 if brand new.