Thunder Force II is both an overhead and side scrolling shooter.

Basically, every odd level is a free roaming overhead shooter where you take down foes and bases hidden throughout the levels. The cockfighting feels a lot like Fantasy Zone, a mix of front on and evasive back and forth to fell foes. What it badly needs is a map of some sort, I’d take down 3 bases and then be stuck circling around the stage looking for the remaining base hidden out of reach. In addition, the placement of the fighter jet is too close to some edges and the first stage has a hard border.

Every even level is the standard Thunder Force horizontal side-scrolling perspective. These stages are fine, and use some gimmicks but can be difficult without rote memorisation, like beams closing off the level before you can even react to place your jet in a helpful position.

I think from an iterative viewpoint seeing where the series started, and where it later landed as a top-tier shooter Thunder Blade II is worth the price of admission. However III (AC) and IV are clearly better works.

As the start to this forgotten shmup series, the original Thunder Force was… an interesting game, to say the least. Aside from turning me off of Doritos forever (context is for the weak), it wasn’t really anything I could enjoy for more than a couple minutes, due to how fast it went, and how it didn’t really have any reason to want you to come back to keep playing it. In the end, I didn’t really get a good first impression with the series, but hey, the first game in a video game series is rarely ever the best one, so I figured it would only go up from here. So, after a mere five years in-between releases, we would finally get the follow-up, and dare I say the TRUE beginning for the series, Thunder Force II.

Much like the rest of the series, I had no experience with Thunder Force II at that point, but given what we got here, I had a good idea about what I was getting into. We already had the original game to base this off of, and this was one of the launch titles that was released for the Sega Genesis, so I figured that it was gonna be better than its predecessor, but it won’t compare to anything that would come later for this system. So, I went into it with mid expectations, and appropriately, I ended up getting mid results. I would say that it is a good game, and a definite improvement over the original game by a long shot, but it is nothing to get too excited about.

The story continues off of where the last game left off (yeah, apparently that game had story), where the ORN Empire would destroy the Galaxy Federation using a new battleship known as the Plealos, and so it is up to the next fighter craft of the Galaxy Federation, the Exceliza, to go and take it down so it won’t cause anymore havoc, which is about what you can expect from a game like this, and it is good enough. The graphics are what you would expect out of a Sega Genesis launch title, definitely being an improvement over the original and good at showing off what the Genesis can do, but definitely not comparing to what would come later, the music is pretty good, having the right amount of energy and spunk for this kinda game, but also using plenty of that Genesis twang, which could be good or bad depending on who you ask, the control is exactly what you would expect from a shooter, so moving on, and the gameplay does improve upon what was in the original game, while shaking things up to evolve the series.

The gameplay primarily consists of two different types of segments, ones that the player switches between for each stage. The first of these segments is pretty similar to that of the original game, where you take control of the Exceliza, go through several different dangerous environments in a top-down perspective, shoot the fuck out of everything that you come across before they get the chance to kill you, gather plenty of different powerups that you can use to stand a chance against your foes, and destroy the many bases that are located around the area to proceed forward. While I didn’t necessarily like this type of gameplay in the original all too much, I do think that it is greatly improved upon here, with there being plenty of different powerups you can get to help yourself, and with there being a clear objective rather than just “maneuver around and shoot stuff”. It does still suffer from a lack of direction in one or two instances, and it can get pretty difficult when dealing with specific enemies, but all in all, this is at least more enjoyable then what we had previously.

The second gameplay segment is more traditional compared to the other one, where it functions almost identically to the top-down segments, except now it is viewed from a horizontal perspective, and your main goal is to simply just get to the end of the stage and beat the boss. It is pretty generic compared to other shooters on the market, but overall, I do prefer this style of gameplay over the other one. Yeah, it is generic, but at least there is a clear goal and clear fun to have in these segments rather than just maneuvering around this field endlessly, trying to find out where all of these bases are.

Of course though, the main thing that would make this game stand out from others would be with the powerups, and the way they are handled in this game is actually pretty interesting. Rather then only having access to one powerup at a time and going from there like in most shmups, in this game, as you keep gathering new powerups from enemies, you can swap between them at any time with the push of a button, which I really liked. Yeah, there are certain powerups that you will most likely stick to most of the time, because they are just the best, but there are a handful here that work extremely well when faced with certain obstacles, thus having the option to swap between them is much appreciated. And the powerups themselves are pretty sweet, having the types of variations that you would expect, but their range, fire rate, and power definitely make up for how generic some of them can be. Thankfully though, the game does retain a good amount of difficulty to where you won’t feel like you are just mowing down enemies without any proper challenge.

Although, with all that being said, there isn’t much else that the game has going for it. It is pretty unique for 1988, having these different gameplay styles, and its approach to the typical formula is a neat one, but that doesn’t really mean too much when the game itself isn’t all too exciting. It isn’t any surprise, and I wasn’t expecting too much, but the entire game doesn’t really have any unique things to fight or see, with all the stages, enemies, and bosses being pretty generic, looking like most of what you would typically see in this type of game. Not to mention, it can get pretty hard at times, especially in the top-down segments, when you have to go through these VERY small corridors in order to reach some of the bases, and you are going way too fast, meaning that you will be faced with plenty of trial and error. It’s not undoable, but it can get pretty frustrating in several areas.

Overall, despite its lack of identity and really difficult moments here or there, Thunder Force II is still a good game, being a definite improvement over the original, changing things up plenty to where it makes the game more exciting and fun, but it is nothing too noteworthy or memorable at the end of the day. I would recommend it for those who liked the original Thunder Force, as well as those who are shmup fans in general, but for others, there are definitely better titles from this genre from this era that you could check out instead of this. But hey, I will say, out of all of the launch titles that I have played from the Sega Genesis so far, this is definitely the best of the bunch. Take that, Revenge of Shinobi, Golden Axe, Genesis port of Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, and Altered Beast.

Game #476