is a vertical rail shooter video game, developed and published by Sega

Sega

, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...

 and was first released on March 26, 1988 in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 for the Mark III as Gold Cartridge

ROM cartridge

A ROM cartridge, sometimes referred to as a cart, is a removable enclosure containing read-only memory devices designed to be connected to a computer or games console....

, December 31, 1988 in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 and later in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

.

Gameplay

Players fight against hundreds of robot warriors equipped with particle beam weapons. The game is played from the bird's eye view. The players mission is to blast through nine levels of the most unbelievably treacherous 3-D terrain imaginable, shooting aliens and ships on three different planes.
The game requires Sega's 3D glasses.

One of the buttons is used to cycle through the three planes. Along the way, there are several bosses that the player have to defeat. The later ones drop a power-up, which the player can use to upgrade his ship. Some of the power-up

Power-up

In computer and video games, power-ups are objects that instantly benefit or add extra abilities to the game character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a benefit and can be used at a time chosen by the player...

s include double shots and laser beams. Another power-up gives players the ability, to have an extra ship on his side and will join the fight, they'll later serve as a backup. Blade Eagle is designed for play in conjunction with the Sega 3-D Glasses.