Sunblaze Review

Nice bright colours, relaxing music and a happy looking character must mean this is a pleasant, chill game. Ya no, that’s a lie. Hope you are prepared for the Super Meat Boy level of challenge that is awaiting you in Sunblaze.

The whole game takes place within a facility designed for superhero training that was created by the titular character Josie’s father. Though he is not only a designer, he is also a superhero in his own right. Wanting his daughter to follow in his footsteps he decides to put her to the test and run her through some simple room layouts. This first chapter isn’t only an introduction to the story but acts as a tutorial level. Of course something goes wrong, there wouldn’t be much of a game if it was just a couple levels. Josie is trapped within this training program with neither her father nor her cat, Ms. Pryde, in sight.

With limited training, Josie is forced to take on all the obstacles in these rooms as they continually become more challenging the further she gets. Clearly this is one of those games where death will become very familiar to you. The controls of the game are straightforward and simple at the beginning which is good because of the level difficulty. You start with only having to worry about moving, jumping and dashing. As you progress more moves will become available to you, but by this time you should be familiar with the basics. One of the real strengths in this game is the variety of different rooms you have to get through, with no two exactly the same. As you complete one level, the next level creates itself around the spot you are standing. The training simulator is always evolving and changing. 

To progress onto the next training level you need to collect the microchip in each level. This is not going to be a simple task though. There will be a huge variety of obstacles that will get in your way. Besides huge jumps you need to make, there are lasers to avoid, deadly spikes on blocks, exploding enemies and falling blocks with angry faces reminiscent of Thwomps from a Super Mario game. Makes sense that Thwomp is in this game with there being less work since Mario has been spending so much time on the golf course as of late. 

Just as you get used to maneuvering around one obstacle a new one is thrown at you. Sunblaze will definitely keep you on your toes, so no slacking or being sloppy with your movements because you will die a lot! In the tutorial chapter alone I died over 100 times. Sunblaze has options you can change to make the game a bit easier on yourself. After getting my butt kicked a lot, I turned on the option for unlimited jumps. I didn’t want to make it too easy on myself so I chose only one. I found that being able to jump twice made it incredibly hard. Even with this option turned on, I still died a lot, but at least I have a chance of making it through a level now! Once I do get through the game, I am going to go back with all these options turned off and attempt it again.

Seeing Josie in her blue outfit, blonde hair and high ponytail I can’t help but think of Zero Suit Samus from Metroid and the Smash Brothers games. It is always nice to see a female protagonist and she clearly has some skills! Not just a character who needs someone else to save her, she takes matters into her own hands. Luckily, Josie does have some help and companionship along the way. An AI unicorn shows up to offer advice and encouragement during the different chapters of the story. Josie has decided to give the unicorn a very fitting name, Sparkles McGlitterhoof.

Sparkles informs Josie that she is meant to become a superhero like her father. The name that her dad chose for her account for the training program was Sunblaze, so that will be Josie’s superhero name. Sparkles feels that Josie is good enough to get through all the areas of the training simulation and disable all the backup generators to totally turn it off. To get to these generators you will have to destroy all the battle droids and get through all the obstacles in the way. The machine is always adapting and trying to preserve itself, so they will fight back as the levels go on.

There are six chapters to this game, each with a different look and feel to it. These chapters are broken up into multiple levels. The first tutorial chapter has 40 different levels to get you introduced to the moves Josie can perform and the obstacles she will face. The amount of levels increases from there. Chapter 2 has 55 and Chapters 3-6 have around 67 levels. So in total Sunblaze has around 360 different levels in the training program to test you. Since the game keeps track of how much time each level takes and how many times you die this game is perfect for speedrunners. 

This game is hard, but the developers want to make it accessible to as many players as possible so they have included a Zen Mode. This is a game mode where you don’t get so frustrated that your head hurts and you just want to curse. You get to experience the full story but it is a lot more approachable so players don’t get so horribly frustrated they quit. There are less levels and the difficulty has been decreased. This is great for players who just want a more casual puzzle-platforming game without all the stress! 

The game has a super-cute sense of humour and lots of cheesy dad jokes. Some of them make Josie want to die because she is so embarrassed. I love how they even reference the Pokémon series of games when Josie is trying to convince Sparkles that since as an AI it can choose any form, it should become a Pokémon.

Sunblaze is one of the most challenging games I’ve played in a long time. The ability to change accessibility settings to make it a little less challenging for people getting frustrated was a great idea. I definitely was swearing a lot and getting frustrated, but it’s one of those games that gets you hooked so you just want to keep playing. Plus the cute characters and great sense of humour really add to the story. I just wanted to save Josie, her family and the unicorn Sparkles McGlitterhoof. No matter how many hundreds of times I would be defeated along the way.