Wireframe – Issue 20, 2019

60 / wfmag.cc

Review

Rated

GENRE

Arcade

shooter

FORMAT

Switch (tested)

/ PS4 / XBO

/ PC

DEVELOPER

JoyMasher

PUBLISHER

The Arcade

Crew

PRICE

£15.29

RELEASE

Out now

Info

Review

Like visiting a whole new Contra (“country”)

ack in my day, we didn’t have fancy

pants things like unlimited continues

• no, we just grit our teeth and got
  through things one failure at a time.
  None of this snowflake nonsense
  like Blazing Chrome throws at you, no siree. Well,
  unless you were playing the Japanese version of
  Contra: Hard Corps – but who of us were actually
  playing that all those years ago? Only the rich
  kids, and they can do one.
  I mean, this is balderdash; Blazing Chrome
  does offer unlimited continues (and a limited
  save function, allowing you to pick up where you
  left off, though only from the very beginning of a
  level), but in no way does that make it a breeze
  or a Friend To The Millennial. By the way, if you
  were born around 1982-ish to around 1999–
  2000, you’re a millennial, but that’s by the by.
  Blazing Chrome. What is it? It’s a side-scrolling
  shooter that apes Contra so much it would be
  contra-rian to mention anything else, really.
  There’s some Metal Slug in there, sure, and
  probably the odd bit of a thousand other arcade
  shooters from the 1980s and 1990s, before
  everything Went Bad – but the main influence
  slathered all over this delectable little morsel
  is Contra. It’s Hard Corps without the wolf man.

Alien Wars without those dogs eating from bins.

The original Contra without the significantly better

home conversion on NES. If we weren’t getting a

new Contra soon from Nobuya Nakazato – he of

Contra 3 and Hard Corps fame – I’d be hailing this

as the best and only chance of playing a good

Contra game we’ll likely see for a long time.

And to think I promised myself I wouldn’t

mention Contra too much. So, Blazing Chrome:

it’s a handful of levels, each one being significantly

different from the other and presenting the sort

of lengthy ‘Oh crap, I thought that was the end

of it’ challenge you genuinely don’t see much

of these days. Even the git gud crowd tends to

know when it’s approaching an end-point, and

I have to say that obfuscation – is this the final

boss? – does wonders for the tension of each

playthrough. Tension? In a mindless shooter?

Well, of course – it’s hard. Very hard. One-hit-kill

hard, and lose all your lives you’re back to the

beginning of the entire level hard. The weapon

you have equipped (apart from the default

potato gun) is lost when you die hard. Hard-hard.

Sometimes it feels a bit much, and more than

once the Switch risked being flung through the

nearest window. There are times when balance

feels a bit skewed; as though enemies shouldn’t

be able to shoot as quickly as they do, or fire at

that particular angle, but really it’s just frustration

borne of another failure. Blazing Chrome is

great fun. A really surprisingly fantastic riff

on Contra and arcade shooters of days gone.

Its length is inflated artificially because of the

difficulty so your mileage may vary, but for me,

it’s a solid recommendation.

Blazing Chrome

B

VERDICT

A new Contra in all but

name – great fun, though

admittedly rock hard.

79 %

Review

Rated

 Bosses veer ‘large’,

and definitely stick

with ‘challenging’.

HIGHLIGHT
Not to be thoroughly shallow, but
visually, Blazing Chrome is an absolute
delight. It’s closer to Metal Slug than
Contra in motion, but either way that
fabulous 1990s-style pixelated look
does wonders for the whole experience

• it offers a real sense of place, and you
  genuinely can, sometimes, forget you’re
  playing something released in 2019.

REVIEWED BY
Ian Dransfield

 Weapon selection is limited, but

varied, and includes this... thing.