PrinceWatercress plays Power Blade - The Longplay

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PrinceWatercress plays Power Blade - Part 7 of 7

We've got all the tape units! Now it's time to take on who is responsible for all of this mess!

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Sector 7

Map (by Tenguman)

There's no contact here, so just make your way to the top of the tower and enter the sector door. So much for the main defense.

The white robots that jump around are pretty fast. They'll follow you around and try to run into you.

The boss here looks a lot like Lenin. He has two forms. The first has him popping in and out, shooting a fireball directly at you. Keep your energy tanks equipped and be ready to use them, because you're probably going to get hit...a lot.

The second form is the Master Computer itself. Fire rockets out of its exhausts below the sides. This boss moves for a bit, then shoots a fireball upwards that splits into several small flames. Stay below the Master Computer, between the exhaust flames, and avoid the fireballs as you do so, throwing the boomerang upwards as much as possible. Be ready to use your energy tanks here, too.

When you beat the second boss, congratulations! You did it!

PrinceWatercress plays Power Blade - Part 6 of 7

The contact is in an easy place this time around. Would be nice if the sewers were a little easier to get out of once when you find them, though. Also, Mega Man platforms. Yeah, those are nice.

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Sector 6

Map (by Tenguman)

For once, the contact has long hair. Finally, they didn't dump the same set of tiles for the contact in the last normal level. You'll see her near the beginning in the sewers. She's not that hard to find. It's a bummer that the game always brings you back to where you found the contact upwards; I'd rather start back at the beginning due to the jumping you have to do. When you make your way back out of the sewers after finding the contact, you'll find invisible platforms that pop back in and out every few seconds. Once again, the game is being unoriginal and taking a page from Mega Man.

The white humanoid robots that crumble when you hit them make a return appearance here.

The flying blue robots will get in your way and fire at you, and will even drop down on top of you if you're going too fast. If you see them, take them out as soon as possible.

The boss here is a giant walking robot. Hit him in the upper half of his body with the boomerangs, and use the platforms that fade in and out of existence to get over him when necessary. When he does a cannonball jump, be ready to run under him. The Power Blade makes this battle much easier and faster.

PrinceWatercress plays Power Blade - Part 5 of 7

You're now on a ship! You'll have to explore the place to figure where to go to find the contact and make your way out of here!

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Sector 5

Map (by Tenguman)

The contact is underneath the Sector 5 door, and to reach them, you'll have to go all the way to the top of the ship, make your way down and then to the other side that you can't reach at the start. Thankfully, the ladder next to the one that does that leads you to the contact, so it's not that big a deal.

The vents at the top of the ship are actually missile pods that shoot out bullets. They usually come out of the middles of the pipes, so be careful when jumping onto them.

You cannot destroy the blue spheres that move around the platforms, so don't even try.

The boss here is a robot that teleports in and out. Stay on the move and watch out for the five-way shot, and remember that you can duck down to avoid the shots if the robot is at ground level.

PrinceWatercress plays Power Blade - Part 4 of 7

It's a long way up, but you'll have to go down into cold storage to find the contact here. Once you pull that off, the ascent begins.

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Sector 4

Map (by Tenguman)

You'll have to make your way down into the refrigerated section of the middle building of Sector 4 to find the contact.

There are two Power Blades here. The first Power Blade is above the middle building, while the second one is past the ladder leading down to the contact and can be easily spotted and claimed.

You'll have to jump on platforms that move up and down at various speeds before you can enter the Sector 4 door. Wait for the platform you're standing on to get as high as it can go before jumping off the edge to the left, and make sure that the next platform is low.

The boss here is a green droid. It will fly back and forth between the upper corners of the room, swooping down and trying to shoot you as it goes by. Stay in the center, duck the dive attacks, keep to the ground and continue throwing boomerangs. Attack when the droid stays still. If you have the Power Blade here, you'll be able to take this thing out in now time at all.

PrinceWatercress plays Power Blade - Part 3 of 7

This level has more of a "natural" look to it in parts, and not surprisingly, there are a few biomechanical enemies here, too. You're even fighting bees at the end!

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Sector 3

Map (by Tenguman)

If you go down at the beginning, you can get the Power Blade. Of course, you'll have to find another way up...by going to the right and accurately jumping on a bunch of platforms. There's another Power Blade below the other side of that area.

Most of the enemies here are some sorts of biomechanical freaks. Then again, so are parts of this sector. One of the enemies is an android that will fall apart when you hit them.

The white humanoids come back a couple of seconds after you hit them, much like Dry Bones in...you guessed it...Super Mario Bros. 3.

The contact will be found at the top of the level.

To beat the boss, just keep destroying all the bees. Work your way counter-clockwise from left to right as you destroy all the closed-off hexagons, but don't forget to fight off the bees. You'll eventually destroy the doors that the bees keep flying in from.

PrinceWatercress plays Power Blade - Part 2 of 7

Sector 2 shows us some new things, such as projectile-spitting wall faces with goatees, Rotodiscs that seems to have come from Super Mario Bros. 3 and a giant dragon robot!

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Sector 2

Map (by Tenguman)

Believe it or not, you can attack the face on the wall that shoots bubbles and get rid of all the bubbles. If the mouth stays open, you know you've defeated it.

Take the top route and stay there when you start the area.

The brown platforms fall much like the donut blocks in Super Mario Bros. 3 after you stand on them for a second. You'll have just enough time to make it to the edge and jump to the next platform.

The blue worm enemies will jump at you if you are a fair distance away from them.

The contact will be in a dead end to just right the top of the waterfall.

If you see the X-shaped enemies show up and surround you, be ready to throw boomerangs every where to get them away from you as they gang up on you.

This sector also marks the debut of the rotating balls that look like they come straight out of Super Mario Bros. 3.

To beat the boss, attack at full power, and avoid the fireballs. When the dragon robot coils into a ball after a while, be ready to either jump over it or duck under it. You'll have to alternate between jumping and ducking.

PrinceWatercress plays Power Blade - Part 1 of 7

Are you ready to throw boomerangs at robots and jump off the edges of platforms like your life depends on it in non-linear stages? Then this is the game for you!

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The Story So Far...

In 2191, the Master Computer governs the entire planet of New Earth. One day, however, the Master Computer malfunctions somehow, and widespread panic and chaos ensues.

Nova, some guy with a boomerang who looks a lot like Duke Nukem, is called up to search for six agents hiding in the six sectors that protect the Master Computer. You'll need to meet up with them, get their ID cards, and defeat the boss in the security room to get the secret tape units. These tape units will disarm the sectors and allow security clearance. Getting all six allows entry into the control room.

From there, Nova has to make it to the control room and destroy the master computer to bring peace back to society. That's the game in a nutshell.

Stuff

As you'll play the game, you'll notice that you'll never see the names of the contacts again, yet their faces look somewhat similar when you see them in-game.

Also, the game uses a lot of ideas from both the Mega Man series and Super Mario Bros. 3, particularly with enemies and obstacles. You were warned.

Normal difficulty gives you 999 seconds to get through each stage, and you don't take knock-back when you get hit. On Expert, you only get 300 seconds, and you receive Castlevania-style knock-back when you get hit.

You'll start on the world map, and you can pick the first six sectors in any order. I'll be doing these first six sectors in order.

Sector 1

Map (by Tenguman)

The Control Pad lets you move left and right, duck, open doors and climb ladders. B attacks, and A jumps.

When you begin the game, you'll be able to throw only one boomerang. It won't be very strong, and it won't go very far. You cannot throw boomerangs through walls, so don't even try. You can, however, throw boomerangs in eight directions. Every time you throw the boomerang, the power meter empties and then fills up again. The more it fills up, the farther your boomerang will go.

Picking up stars gives you distance, while the two boomerang and three boomerang icons allow you to throw more than one boomerang at any given time (allowing for more onscreen boomerangs). The red boomerang icons make your boomerangs stronger.

The boomerang can hit enemies twice: one after you throw it and again on the way back to Nova.

The grenades destroy all enemies currently on the screen.

The hamburgers restore a little of your life, while the health containers act like Energy Tanks from the Mega Man games - pause the game, use Up and Down to select the health containers, then press Select to use one of the four that the game lets you pick up and store, and you'll fully replenish your health. The grenades work the same way.

The guy that looks eerily similar to Nova is your contact. Talk to him and he'll give you the ID card. You'll find the first contact somewhere around the space shuttle.

Whenever you die, you lose one of each power-up. Keep destroying enemies to get them back.

You're going to be climbing a lot of ladders in this game. Thankfully, you can throw diagonally while you're on them.

The helmet and the three squares next to the time indicate the health meter for the Power Blade, the suit of armor that beefs Nova up dramatically. For three hits, Nova won't be able to take damage, and he can fire through walls by throwing energy blasts that travel the length of the screen. After three hits, you lose the Power Blade. You cannot repair any damage done to the Power Blade, but if you beat a sector with the Power Blade, you'll be able to start in another sector with all three hits again.

The enemies in this game are nothing to ride home about. They're really easy to destroy and it appears that some of them take a page out of the [i]Mega Man[/i] series.

It is pretty easy to find the contact for this stage and find the ID Card for the boss door for the stage. If you lose a life after getting the ID card, you'll start back at the spot where you got the ID card instead of back at the beginning of the stage.

The boss behind the Sector 1 door (which will happen if you have the ID Card, which you should definitely have by this point) is really, really easy if you've been collecting power-ups. Duck to avoid being shot at, then run under it and stay on the move when it floats upwards to avoid being shot at. Sometimes the boss will have a shield up; attack when the boss has its gun out instead.

Power Blade Longplay and OST

Here's the longplay...

...and here's the soundtrack.

DeceasedCrab plays Power Blade - Part 6 of 6

We've made it to the central tower! It's a rough climb to the finish as Nova makes his way to the Master Computer control panel!

All maps by TenguMan.

Sector 7

Map

There's no contact here, so just make your way to the top of the tower and enter the sector door. So much for the main defense.

The white robots that jump around are pretty fast. They'll follow you around and try to run into you.

The boss here looks a lot like Lenin. He has two forms. The first has him popping in and out, shooting a fireball directly at you. Keep your energy tanks equipped and be ready to use them, because you're probably going to get hit...a lot.

The second form is the Master Computer itself. Fire rockets out of its exhausts below the sides. This boss moves for a bit, then shoots a fireball upwards that splits into several small flames. Stay below the Master Computer, between the exhaust flames, and avoid the fireballs as you do so, throwing the boomerang upwards as much as possible.

When you beat the second boss, congratulations! You did it!

DeceasedCrab plays Power Blade - Part 5 of 6

At this point, the game throws some curveballs at you...

All maps by TenguMan.

Sector 6

Map

For once, the contact has long hair. Finally, they didn't dump the same set of tiles for the contact in the last normal level. You'll see her near the beginning in the sewers. She's not that hard to find.

When you make your way back out of the sewers after finding the contact, you'll find invisible platforms that pop back in and out every few seconds. Once again, the game is being unoriginal and taking a page from Mega Man.

The white humanoid robots that crumble when you hit them make a return appearance here.

The flying blue robots will get in your way and fire at you, and will even drop down on top of you if you're going too fast. If you see them, take them out as soon as possible.

The boss here is a giant walking robot. Hit him in the upper half of his body with the boomerangs, and use the platforms that fade in and out of existence to get over him when necessary.

DeceasedCrab plays Power Blade - Part 4 of 6

You know, one of the most interesting things about this game is that you were to map it out, the game mostly makes sense. I'm surprised.

All maps by TenguMan.

Sector 5

Map

The contact is underneath the Sector 5 door, and to reach it, you'll have to go all the way to the top of the ship. Thankfully, the ladder next to the one that does that leads you to the contact, so it's not that big a deal.

The vents at the top of the ship shoot out bullets. They usually come out of the tops of the pipes, so be careful when jumping onto them.

Behind The Box Art: Power Blade

It's not much of a secret that Nova from Power Blade looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger. He even looks like "Ahnuld" on the box art. But what not many people know about the box art is that it may have looked too much like him. Thankfully, that was not the case and it was easily proven.

Believe it or not, the box art is a rendition of the artist himself, Mike Winterbauer. According to page 38 of Classic Game Covers: Confessions of An Art Junkie, (shows up as page 40 on .pdf readers) where Mike talks about the many works of art that he has made for video games in the 1980s and 1990s, Mike used a picture of himself carrying a T-stick while standing underneath flourescent lights to get the overhead lighting effect, and used it to draw and paint the cover. (The T-stick was obviously replaced with a boomerang.)

So when "a certain movie star's lawyers" (according to Winterbauer) contacted him with a letter accusing him of ripping off their client's image, Mike still had the photo of himself that he used for reference and sent it to them. Needless to say, that was the end of it.

DeceasedCrab plays Power Blade - Part 3 of 6

The action heats up with flying platforms of death!

All maps by TenguMan.

Sector 4

Map

You'll have to make your way down into the refrigerated section of the middle building of Sector 4 to find the contact.

The first suit of armor is above the middle building, while the second one is past the ladder leading down to the contact and can be easily spotted and claimed.

You'll have to jump on platforms that move up and down at various speeds before you can enter the Sector 4 door. Wait for the platform you're standing on to get as high as it can go before jumping.

The boss here is a green droid. It will fly back and forth between the upper corners of the room, swooping down and trying to shoot you as it goes by. Keep to the ground and continue throwing boomerangs. If you have the Power Blade here, you just might be able to take this thing out in now time at all.

DeceasedCrab plays Power Blade - Part 2 of 6

The battle continues as we kill two birds with one stone!

All maps by TenguMan.

Sector 2

Map

Believe it or not, you can attack the face on the wall that shoots bubbles and get rid of all the bubbles. If the mouth stays open, you know you've defeated it.

The brown platforms fall much like the donut blocks in Super Mario Bros. 3 after you stand on them for a second. You'll have just enough time to make it to the edge and jump to the next platform.

The contact will be in a dead end to just right the top of the waterfall.

This sector also marks the debut of the rotating balls that look like they come straight out of Super Mario Bros. 3.

To beat the boss, attack at full power, and avoid the fireballs. When the dragon robot coils into a ball after a while, be ready to either jump over it or duck under it.

Sector 3

Map

If you go down at the beginning, you can get the armor. Of course, you'll have to find another way up...by going to the right and accurately jumping on a bunch of platforms. There's another armor below the other side of that area.

Most of the enemies here are some sorts of bio-organic freaks. Then again, so are parts of this sector.

The white humanoids come back a couple of seconds after you hit them, much like Dry Bones in...you guessed it...Super Mario Bros. 3.

The contact will be found at the top of the level.

To beat the boss, just keep destroying all the bees. You'll eventually destroy the doors that the bees keep flying in from.

DeceasedCrab plays Power Blade - Part 1 of 6

It's time for some more NES platforming action!

All maps by TenguMan.

The Story So Far...

In 2191, the Master Computer governs the entire planet of New Earth. One day, however, the Master Computer malfunctions somehow, and widespread panic and chaos ensues.

Nova, some guy with a boomerang who looks a lot like Duke Nukem, is called up to search for six agents hiding in the six sectors that protect the Master Computer. You'll need to meet up with them, get their ID cards, and defeat the boss in the security room to get the secret tape units. These tape units will disarm the sectors and allow security clearance. Getting all six allows entry into the control room.

From there, Nova has to make it to the control room and destroy the master computer to bring peace back to society. That's the game in a nutshell.

Stuff

As you'll play the game, you'll notice that you'll never see the names of the contacts again, and their faces don't look the same when you see them in-game, either.

Also, the game uses a lot of ideas from both the Mega Man series and Super Mario Bros. 3, particularly with enemies and obstacles. You were warned.

Sector 1

Map

When you begin the game, you'll be able to throw only one boomerang. It won't be very strong, and it won't go very far.

You cannot throw boomerangs through walls, so don't even try. You can, however, throw boomerangs in eight directions.

Every time you throw the boomerang, the power meter empties and then fills up again. The more it fills up, the farther your boomerang will go.

Picking up stars gives you distance, while the two boomerang and three boomerang icons allow you to throw more than one boomerang at any given time (allowing for more onscreen boomerangs).

The red boomerang icons make your boomerangs stronger.

The boomerang can hit enemies twice: one after you throw it and again on the way back to Nova.

The grenades destroy all enemies currently on the screen.

The hamburgers restore a little of your life, while the health containers act like Energy Tanks from the Mega Man games - pause the game, use one of the four that the game lets you pick up and store, and you'll fully replenish your health.

The guy that looks eerily similar to Nova is your contact. Talk to him and he'll give you the ID card. You'll find the first contact somewhere around the space shuttle.

Whenever you die, you lose one of each power-up. Keep destroying enemies to get them back.

You're going to be climbing a lot of ladders in this game. Thankfully, you can throw diagonally while you're on them.

The helmet and the three squares next to the time indicate the health meter for the armor suit, which beefs Nova up dramatically. For three hits, Nova won't be able to take damage, and he can fire through walls by throwing energy blasts that travel the length of the screen. After three hits, you lose the armor. You cannot repair any damage done to the armor, but if you beat a sector with the armor, you'll be able to start in another sector with all three hits again.

The enemies in this game are nothing to ride home about. They're really easy to destroy and it appears that some of them take a page out of the Mega Man series. 

The boss behind the Sector 1 door (which will happen if you have the ID Card, which you should definitely have by this point) is really, really easy if you've been collecting power-ups.