Blazing Chrome - an Indie style Contra Game

Blazing Chrome is a run and gun shooter influenced by shooters like Contra and metal Slug. Developed by JoyMasher, a Brazilian gaming studio that specializes on making Retro inspired games. The game is published by the Arcade Crew, CE Asia. The game pays homage to the 16 bit shooters and often pushes it further.

It's as pulse pounding and exciting as the most famous run and gun shooter games today. Since it is 16 bit it can practically run on any pc platform available today.

In Blazing Chrome, the world is now controlled by an AI robot army and humans are nearly extinct with only a handful of human resistance fighting for survival. The humans mount a suicide mission to destroy the AI power plant and save humanity from their mechanical overlords resulting in massive casualties and a lot of destruction. The game was released last July 2019 for the PS4, XBox One and other gaming platforms.

Sure the story is pretty much the typical Terminator movie rip off cliche but most folks don't play these type of games for the story anyways. They play these type of games for the gameplay and as a run and gun shooter in the veins of Contra and metal Slug this game delivers in spades.

In Blazing Chrome you can control one of two characters to choose from. Marva, the badass resistance super soldier, or Doyle the deadly insurgent soldier. You can go guns blazing solo or with a friend. There's also two hidden characters you can unlock one being a ninja and a female brawler type character. Both can shoot long range and change attacks via their fist and sword.

Marva and Doyle can pick up to four power types and each of the four power type has a rapid and charge attack option and mastering what to use is key to success. The two hidden characters don't have four character types giving these other two characters a different type of gameplay approach.

In addition to weapon drops you get droid assist that can either speed up and the ability to double jump, provide you limited shield or a small droid that has a gun that shoots at enemies giving you that added damage. Plus there's the roll button that can help you slide out of enemy fire.

There are 5 post apocalyptic stages vary enough ranging from a military base, a bike among others. Each stage with their own unique Boss and mini Boss respectively. if you play a lot of metal Slug and Contra you will no doubt find similarities in the bosses.

Like later Contra games you can choose which of the first four stages which to tackle first. The music for each of the stages has that nice high techno beat to it too. There's even a stage that feels right out of an Omega Boost and a Stage that is inspired by a Megaman X Boss.

The game isn't perfect though as a lot of the stages and bosses feels ripped out of other existing games so if you want something different and unique you won't get anything here that hasn't been done before.  Then again I think the nostalgia feel is part of what the developers are going for. Also the game will kill you...a lot. So unless you get your game on and master the controls you will be seeing the continue and game over screen a lot even at the most easy game setting.

Also the graphics a bit unrefined at some areas but not too much noticeable since most of the time your too busy dodging bullets and trying not to fumble a jump. Hit boxes are also an issue as you tend to take damage when you clearly have dodge certain attacks. It rarely happens mind you but it's still there and is frustrating specially during certain area stages.

There's a difficulty option that changes how many lives you got or how many continues you are given. Sadly the difficulty option also changes the attack patterns of bosses so be up on your toes. Also with 6 stages it's a little short and you can finish it in under an hour if you are really good.

Still the game isn't impossible to beat and its quite a lot of fun once you mastered your controls and pretty much sharpened your ability to react to certain surprises like the floor suddenly collapsing beneath you while you're trying to dodge fire from two different directions.

You can also get the game through Steam here.

Overall Blazing Chrome is a perfect homage to 16 bit run and gun shooter games like Contra and Metal Slug. The game is clearly not perfect but its shortcomings isn't bad to turn off players. In fact I'd happily recommend this for any fan of Contra and the likes  If you are a fan of run and gun shooting genre and don't mind the somewhat steep difficulty this game offer then this game is definitely for you. A must play for any fan of Contra and run and gun games.