Summary
Great platformer. If you liked Actraiser or Ghouls 'n Ghosts, you should definitly try this one out (if you haven't already).
The Good
Let's start with the technical aspects to get them out of the way. Graphically, Skyblazer looks great. It's not up there with the best like, for example
Actraiser 2, but it comes pretty close. The backgrounds are varied and beautiful, and hardly any background is used twice in the game. The same applies to the enemies, which are designed very originally (how about flying elephant-like creatures with four tusks or a boss that looks like a mixture of dragon, elephant and turtle?). The main character can perform lots of different moves and spells and the animation is very varied and smooth.
Skyblazer fares equally well in the sound department. And while the Indian(?)-inspired music is not necessarily for everyone, it creates a unique atmosphere and suits the action nicely.
Gameplay-wise, Skyblazer is packed full with gameplay-elements that we have come to know and love from numerous other games. The main character can jump and perform several punches and kicks. What's more interesting however, is the fact that he can also climb up walls. This feature is nothing earth-shatteringly new, but it works better than in most other games and is frequently made use of in the game's level-design, which lends a unique flavor to most levels. There are also lots of different spells to be found. In the beginning, only a relatively weak fireball is available, but with every defeated boss a new spell becomes available, which adds a lot to the games motivation. Most of these spells are attack spells, but there is also a healing spell, a spell to stop time (for a while ...) and one attack spell that lets the hero fly a short way and can therefor also be used to reach secret areas. Speaking of secret areas, there are a good number of secret power-ups and extra-lives to be found in the game, as most levels are quite large and, especially with the ability to climb, it's really fun looking for hidden items.
The levels are not only large, but also varied and this is probably Skyblazer's biggest strength: variety. Without forgetting to include enough "traditional" Jump'n Run- and action-elements, almost every level offers a new challenge. In some levels there are moving walls or ceilings in another one, a "rotating" tower has to be climbed (similar to
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, but much better). In one underwater level, the water stream can be controlled by different switches, which turns the whole level into a (not too difficult) puzzle. Another level consits primarily of destroyable blocks, some of which have to be destroyed in order to progress, whereas destroying too many blocks makes the level unnecessarily difficult or uncompletable. Apart from all that, there are also some fun, side-scrolling Shoot'em Up-style levels and a few (forgettable) 3D-bonus-levels. Finally, no decent, action-oriented Jump'n Run is complete without some cool boos-fights, and Skyblazer does certainly not disappoint in this regard, as all boss-enemies have to be defeated with a unique strategy and are just as originally designed as the rest of the enemies.
The Bad
There is nothing that really distracts from enjoying the game, just a few minor flaws.
The biggest problem is perhaps the fact that the difficulty-level feels a little unbalanced at times. The game's difficulty-level is relatively high to begin with (though it's nothing that "pros" need to worry about), but there are a few passages that can be quite frustrating, for example in the tower-level where a series of difficult jumps has to be performed and only one mistake might force the player to repeat half of the level.
Another minor problem is the collision detection. There is nothing wrong with it actually, it's only that it might be a little too perfect and merciless.
The last quarrel that I have with the game is not really a fault in its gameplay, but it just seems to me that there is an Action-Adventure trying break out of this Jump'n Run. All the gameplay-elements such as the ability to climb, the different spells and large levels would easily add up to a great, Metroid-style Action-Adventure; the game even features a world map and gets slightly non-linear towards the end, but there are no real adventure-elements to be found, and visiting completed levels is primarily done to collect extra-lives. But this is just my personal feeling and nothing that could be hold against the game.
The Bottom Line
Skyblazer is one of the best of it's kind on the SNES (or any other platform for that matter) and while it doesn't introduce anything new to the genre, it is certainly not unoriginal and combines so many different elements with such an ease and brilliance that any fan of the genre should play it.
