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“Skyblazer – The Quest of Sky”,
a ROM hack for the Super Nintendo

(September the 13th, 2026)

Description

This is a ROM hack of the Super Nintendo game “Skyblazer”.
“Skyblazer” is a game that I like quite well. But unfortunately, this game has a bunch of levels that I cannot stand and that take the fun out of the game. So, I designed this hack from which I removed all the stuff that gets on my nerves.

The ROM analysis, the technical work of finding out how the game functions, was done by kandowontu.
The design choices (which levels to cut, what other alterations to do) were decided by me.

Source Super Nintendo ROM file: “Skyblazer (U).sfc”
MD5 hash: 5dd2c9f0a933e6a43b7e38e6ef0769ba
Intended output file name: “Skyblazer - The Quest of Sky (U) [h].sfc”
Expected MD5 hash: 509b0c0b9ced52467fa2d6100030d42a

These are the levels that we got rid of:

• In the water level, Lair of Kharyon, you have to swim around and activate switches to manipulate the water stream so that you can reach the end. These kinds of riddles are always tedious to me. I want to play an action game, not messing around with switches for 10 minutes.
  Also, the boss in that level is the most bullshit boss in the entire game. Go ahead and try to find a video where the player defeats it without cheesing the opponents’ movement patterns.
• Storm Fortress of Kh’lar is also not really fun to me. You have to jump into the correct wind streams to get to the end and not fall into the ground.
• And the Great Tower has stupid level design: An elevator section where opponents fall from above who take half your energy, and if you don’t already know where they come from, you will get hit. Then a leap of faith to reach a platform with a door where you have no way of knowing whether you’ll actually reach the platform or fall into the gap. And wall jumps from very short walls with stones directly above your head that you bump against if you climbed too high before jumping, so you fall to the ground and have to try again. All while spiked spheres fly from side to side.
• The final level doesn’t have a boss rush anymore since that’s just tedious padding with recycled contents.
• Since we removed so many levels, we also removed one of the three flying bonus levels.
• And we removed all the shrines, except for the first one that is story-relevant, because they don’t really add that much to the game.

More things that we changed:

• Most importantly, besides the level cuts: We removed the map and turned the game into a linear game.
  I don’t get the purpose of the map anyway. This is not “Super Mario World”. There’s no real reason to ever re-visit a beaten level in the same playthrough.
• Removed the password system, as well as the reference to it in the first shrine, and added a Continue option at the title screen after you lose all your lives.
• Removed three magic items due to fewer boss fights: Star Fire, Time Stop and Warrior Force.
• Energy updates are now given after certain levels since the shrines have been cut.
• Removed the level names because some don’t make sense anymore. For example, Gateway of Eternal Storms was originally the level before the Storm Fortress of Kh’lar which we don’t have anymore.

While I was at it, I reordered the levels in a way so that the time of day makes sense. In the original game, the time is all over the place: You go to Gateway of Eternal Storms with a dark red sunset background. And the Storm Fortress of Kh’lar has a regular blue sky background again. In my version the levels go from day to evening to night.

Just like in my last hack, I created a completely made-up backstory for the production of this game.
Last time, I called the hack “The Arcade Game”, as if it originated in the arcade, then the console game was an extended port and my version was a straight port without the extended stuff.
For “Skyblazer”, I couldn’t use the same idea because the game has the Super Nintendo DNA ingrained in itself, being taylor-made for this console by using many of its effects, like Mode 7 flying levels similar to “Pilotwings”.
So, I invented the backstory that this game is the original vision. Not an unfinished prototype. But more like a finished game where the higher-ups then decided that it’s too short for a Super Nintendo game to be published. So, the developers added gimmicky water and air levels as well as a second tower and a boss rush. Plus some bells and whistles like the map, a password system etc.
And just like George Lucas at one time intended to name his movie “The Star Wars – From the Adventures of Luke Starkiller”, then shortened it to just “Star Wars”, our “original” title of the game is “Skyblazer – The Quest of Sky”.

I also put together a minimalistic manual from scans of the original one. But I didn’t bother to put it together like an actual booklet, since, as I said, the game is supposed to be an “original” version that wasn’t released. So, I only did a flyer.
In the manual, I removed a little story detail, namely the idea that the bosses are good guys that were transformed into warlords. I find this a bit nonsensical since one boss is a wall and one (that we cut out) is four fish egg incubators.

Download and links

Since I don’t own the copyright to the game, I cannot provide the ROM file that you need to play the hack on a Super Nintendo emulator. But the download contains an IPS file. With this file and with the program Lunar IPS, you can create the hack if you have the original ROM.

The hack is also hosted on Romhack Plaza, under kandowontu’s account.

• Patch file
• Manual as an image
• Label for reproduction cartridges for personal usage

• Link to the hack at Romhack Plaza
• Link to Lunar IPS Patcher at Romhacking.net

If you like our hack, you might want to support the rights holders by purchasing a legitimate copy of the original game.
Unfortunately, “Skyblazer” is not available in digital form. And buying a used cartridge has become very expensive. If it ever gets available somehow, I would list it here.

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