Lost Classics: Power Blade 2 (NES)

What if Taito had made a Mega Man game, but instead of a little blue robot, you played as a Arnold Schwarzenegger look-alike*, and instead of an upgradable arm cannon, you used an upgradable boomerang to fight enemies? Well the end result would resemble Taito’s NES side-scrolling platformer, Power Blade 2. A sequel to 1991’s Power Blade, PB 2 once again casts players as Nova, a secret government agent in the year 2200. The Delta Corporation has created a new cyborg warrior and wants to sell it to the United States. The president refuses, and the Delta corporation is threatening to sell the robot to an enemy power. This doesn’t sit too well with the Department of Defense, so they send Nova on a secret mission to destroy Delta. It’s not going to be easy, as scores of enemy robots will stand in his way. However, Nova has his trusty boomerang at his side, ready to take on anything.

As in the first game, you wield a boomerang, which you can fire in 8 directions. By grabbing certain items, the boomerang’s power increases. Just like in Mega Man, you can select the order in which you play though the game’s levels. By defeating a mid boss, you gain a special suit which grants special powers. For instance, the Newt Suit, found in stage 1, allows Nova to craw on walls. This is a step up from the previous game, where you gained only one suit and it lasted for a short period of time. After finishing the first 4 stages, you unlock stage 5, and after you complete that, you’ll be sent to the final level.

While the game didn’t attempt to revolutionize the 2-d action genre the way games like Mega Man and Ninja Gaiden did, it was definitely a step up from similar games during its period. Hopefully we can see this on the virtual console soon, or maybe Taito will give us a sequel. Either way, Power Blade 2 is an enjoyable, but overlooked NES action game.

*Coincidentally, the Japanese version of the original Power Blade, Power Blazer, actually did feature a little blue robot as the main character. When it was bought over here, the character’s image was changed (possibly to avoid a lawsuit from Capcom) and the gameplay was tightened up a bit. The Japanese version of Power Blade 2 is called Captain Saver. Other than that, there are no huge differences between the 2 games.