Blazing Trail

I thought it would feel like playing Jackal on NES but it's more akin to an arcade game that takes your quarters. > You get a health bar because the enemy shots move faster than you can dodge. > The screen is more zoomed in than the screenshots, which means you'll be shot at before you can register that there is an enemy there. > The level begins with a long unskippable animation of the boat dropping you off; not even ESC works. In Jackal, the action started within 5 seconds and a respawn after death was instant. > There are an unnecessary amount of bullets on screen for what is shooting them. Blazing Trail is trying too hard to be a bullet-hell.

Played until the first boss. Then it became a bullet hell game instead of a shoot 'em up. Controls with keyboard and mouse is abysmal. You can't aim with you mouse. Machine gun always shoots up, Rockets always shoot from your front and has low reach, while the laser is a long range one and you can't spam it (but it's not needed since every enemy usually dies in 1-2 shots from it). Why release the game on PC and not make it so that you could aim with the mouse? it's beyond my understanding. The vehicle controls are strange. The way it turns around makes you involuntarily kiss most of the mines on the ground, which eats your precious hp and then you usually die before reaching the checkpoint. I didn't like the gameplay overall. It's a copy-paste of Jackal formula from NES, but everything was made worse. Could have been a cool little game, but this is not it.

It's like Jackal, but terrible in every way. Just go play Jackal on the NES.

4.5/10 This does have the intensity of old arcade shooters, but this really needed way more time in the oven. I got it in a bundle for 2 bucks and even that isn't worth it. The game looks alright but I've seen better pixel art. The sound sounds like stock sounds and the music loops are short and repetitive. The controls suck, and there's no way to change them. PC gaming in the 2020 for you. They should have gone with more of a twin stick setup, or maybe something like shock troopers. It's really annoying that weapons, apart from the machine gun that can only shoot upwards for some reason, only shoot ahead when the game feels like you should be able to strafe and shoot. The worst part is the way the cranked up the difficulty feels cheap, rather than a fun and genuine challeng. For example, on the first stage they decided to slow your progress with mines. Who thought that making you sweep invisible mines in a vehicle shooter was a good idea? And your vehicle is so slow that it feels impossible to dodge a lot of attacks, especially from bosses. And while there are checkpoints, if you die you lose all your weapons and laser batteries, making bosses even harder. You're better off re…

Blazing Trail is a compact yet intense top-down action shooter that wears its arcade inspirations proudly, delivering a focused experience built around relentless forward momentum, explosive encounters, and retro-styled presentation. Developed and published by Gamenergy Studio, the game places players in control of a heavily armed combat vehicle tasked with escaping a hostile, enemy-controlled region under constant fire. The narrative setup is straightforward and functional, serving mainly as a framework to justify the nonstop barrage of enemies, fortified positions, and boss encounters that define the journey. Rather than leaning on story complexity, Blazing Trail commits to the idea of pure action, evoking the spirit of classic arcade cabinets where survival and skill were the only real objectives. Gameplay centers on navigating vertically scrolling battlefields packed with enemy units, environmental hazards, and destructible elements. The perspective and pacing are reminiscent of old-school run-and-gun shooters, but with a vehicle-based twist that changes how movement and combat interact. Your arsenal includes multiple weapon types, each designed for specific situations, from r…

The pixel graphics are nice, and that's all the pro. The weapons are unsatisfactory. The auto cannon can only shoot upwards, the missiles have low reach, and the laser has a cooldown time. On a keyboard, you can't really shoot diagonally, so you need to use a gamepad. And because the guns can only shoot where you point with the car, you can't even run and gun. So you will die a lot. It is not a very accessible game.