Thunder Force II [Sega Genesis]

1 rating: 4.0

Video Game

Thunder Force II is a scrolling shooter developed by Technosoft. It was first released in Japan in 1988 for the Sharp X68000 computer. A year later, it was ported to the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis game console and released in Japan (under the name Thunder … see full wiki

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Thunder Force II - Among the finest shooters for the Genesis.

Jun 12, 2011

by Madpenguin

Rating:

Seeking revenge for their earlier defeat, the ORN Empire attacks the Galaxy Federation using their newest battleship called Plealos and causes them serious damage. The ORN even captures one of their planets called Nebula during the onslaught. The Galaxy Federation fight back by sending in their well equipped, small ship called the Excelizer to find and destroy Plealos. -summary

If someone was to ask an old school Sega Genesis fan what they thought was the greatest, or among the greatest space shooters ever. I'm sure the Thunder Force series would more than likely come up. I owned the Sega Genesis when it first hit the market, so I was able to enjoy it during its heyday, and the very first shooter I played for it was Thunder Force II. Now, I don't hail the game as one of the greatest shooters of all time due to nostalgia, that really has nothing to do with it. I hail it as among the greatest shooters because it's great to me, in just about every category imaginable, and I think it still holds up well today. The game possesses the right amount of style to go with the challenge, creating a riveting experience that later shooters could only wish they had.

Game Play:

Thunder Force II is a single player game with a dual stage set up. The stages are made up of two levels with the first level being played from a free-roaming, over head top view of the ship. Here, the players objective is to locate four bases and destroy them by blowing up the cores. While searching for these bases, there is constant retaliation from airborne craft trying to get rid of you. These stages vary in set up, as some contain a force gate that must be opened by shooting a switch to activate them. While others will have no obstacles at all, or another stage will be very similar to a maze, where the player will have to guide the ship through a rocky cavern, and blast a path through rocks. Some players I know found these stages to be tedious for some reason, but I never had an issue with them.

The second level features a horizontal set up, that isn't as free roaming as the former. However, there is still a great amount of space to navigate when fighting the enemies, and trying to maneuver through their relentless fire. These stages are very fun and can be challenging. Some of them will feature traps such as shutting gates, gun mounts appearing out of nowhere, or the stage will pick up speed and become really quick pace. This is also where the player will encounter tough boss battles in the form of larger ships, a tank, and even an oversized mechanical maggot. Some of these battles get easier due to memorizing the bosses patterns of attack, while one heavily relies on eye coordination.

The ship commands many weapons that are activated by obtaining power ups. The weapons are very interesting and they heavily enhance the game play. In addition, the ship handles two sets of weapons list for the two different stage types. This way, the player can enjoy different weapons. The ship begins with a twin and a back shot that can be swapped at any time, the other weapons consist of beams that fire in a wave like pattern, a side blaster that fires from the top and bottom sections of the ship, and heat seeking bullets called the hunter, which lives up to its name sake. Adding to the weapons list, the ship can pick up a force field that lasts for a limited time, along with objects that float around the ship firing small laser blasts known as the CLAW. The ship can carry up to two of these, and they also block small arm weapon fire.

Also keeping the game interesting, when the player is killed, the ship will reappear right then, and you will not have to do the stage over unless your game completely ends. However, when the player is killed, every last weapon is taken away and you must begin from scratch. Like most games, the difficulty increases as you progress. Although some of the enemies, bosses in thise case, follow a certain pattern, the challenge is still pretty high, and there's at least one boss battle where the slightest mistake will result in a very quick death. The only issue I have with the game is the final boss. Even though the stage takes a bit of time to complete, I just found the final boss to be completely unappealing when compared to the earlier ones.

Controls:

Thunder Force II doesn't really have a learning curve to it at all. It's basically a pick up and play, with buttons to shoot and swap weapons. Everything performs smoothly from directional pad to button presses.

Graphics/Sound/Music:

The visuals were very good for its time, and I remember thinking there was no space shooter like it. I feel they hold up very well today, with some nice and creative vehicle designs. The bosses are very big and most of them look awesome. I think the movements for the robotic maggot are the best, you can see the ripples in the metallic skin as it squirms into battle. The sound effects are very good, with the ship sounding off the name of the weapons as they are picked up. There are also different sound effects for the weapon fire. In what would become a staple in the franchise, the soundtrack is no doubt incredible, and it would only get better from here. The BGM is made up of synthesized techno beats, that capture the intensity of the stages.

Replay:

This is quite possibly the only area where the game is dealt a blow. Since there's no two player feature, outside of listening to the soundtrack, there's no real reason to keep coming back to it. Still, Thunder Force II is a fine shooter, and if you consider yourself a diehard fan of this genre. Then this is something that should be looked into it.

Pros:
-Dual gameplay
-Incredible soundtrack
-A variety of weapons
-Challenging

Cons:
-Uninteresting final battle
-Not much replay value

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