In 1993, Technosoft prepared an overhead / vertical shmup called Blast Wind for the arcades, but ultimately never released it. When the time was right, a 1997 limited release conversion for the Japanese Saturn was done.
In Blast Wind, nuclear explosions have wiped out nearly all of humanity, and years later, the survivors return to Earth in the hopes of restarting civilization, only to encounter an enemy alien force known as the Gorn. One or two players choose to control either the Hayate or the Reppu ships, piloted by ancient AI-like weapons named Kyou and Form, and engage in six levels of vertically scrolling shmup action. At various points in the levels, optional branching paths become available to the player, promising extra bonuses and power-ups to help advance the player’s just cause.
Most shmups aren’t usually buried behind mountains of Japanese text, so when hacker / translator CF and his team had had enough of the Gorn Empire and chose to accept their destinies as Ultra Destroyers, they released a Blast Wind patch in mid-2024. Not only was the sparse Japanese translated, but an English intro voice-over was added, the Gorn Empire leader’s voice was dubbed, BGM volumes were rebalanced, and a special 1CC guide was included. Solid.
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