Whenever you have a game genre that is often criticized for being too repetitive and generic across many of the titles within it, sometimes it is often best not to try to expand upon the concept, but instead, stick to what works and elevate the base features to make it much more enjoyable for the player, and that was exactly what happened when it came to Thunder Force III. It may have completely abandoned the original gimmick that made it stand out from others, but in return, it managed to deliver a much more focused, fun, fast-paced, and explosive romp through plenty of stages that I managed to have a great time with, making for one of the best shmups that you could find on the Sega Genesis, and painting a bright future for the series as it would progress from here. It made me eager to get to the next title as soon as I could, so I figured it was about time that I did just that by checking out Thunder Force IV, or as its known as in America, Lightening Force: Quest for the Darkstar………… because I guess Thunder Force IV just sounded too boring for us.

I didn’t really know much about this entry in the series going into it, and I didn’t bother looking anything up much about it before going into it, since I wanted to be surprised by what I got with the game. I figured it was gonna be great, since after seeing what Thunder Force III had given us, I thought that this series would try to one-up itself again by making some tweeks and adding some new weapons that would make this title the best in the series by far. After playing though, I would soon find out that it… doesn’t do that at all, but despite that, it still managed to be a great time regardless, and while it is VERY close in quality to that of the third game, I would say that this is definitely the best entry in the series so far.

The story is, what a shocker, the ORN Empire is back, doing evil bad things and wanting to destroy humanity once again, so it is up to you in your new fangled ship to go on out and show them a thing or two once again, which is a story that is lazy as all hell, but who cares at this point, because I have come here primarily to shoot stuff, and ain’t no lazy story gonna stop me from doing that. The graphics are, once again, pretty great, being as flashy, bright, and bombastic as the previous game, while also still maintaining a great look and great sprites for all of the enemies and bosses, which definitely gets points from me, the music is incredible, having plenty of rocking tunes to jam out to while you are blasting down everything that stands in your way, which is essential for any shmup, so I am glad they didn’t skimp out on that, and the gameplay/control is the exact same as the previous game, opting for refining its primary gimmicks rather then adding in any real new ones, and in this case, that makes it work in the best way possible.

The game is a horizontally scrolling shmup, where you take control of the Rynex ship, go through a set of ten different stages that take place across many different planets throughout the galaxy, shoot down the many different foes and obstacles that are coming your way while making sure to dodge enemy fire and avoid smacking into a wall like an idiot, find plenty of different power ups that can be used in various situations while swapping in-between each of them, along with different shields and options to help you out along the way, and fight plenty of bosses that are just as crazy and hard to face as the rest of the game, which makes them fit right at home with everything else. For those who played Thunder Force III, you know exactly what you are going to get with Thunder Force IV, and it still manages to be very fun, feels incredible to play, and is extremely satisfying to get through a lot of these challenges.

When I said earlier that this game doesn’t change anything up, I mean it, as there is virtually no new mechanics here whatsoever, which could probably upset some players, but thankfully, they managed to keep all of the great features that they introduced in Thunder Force III. The ability to swap between your weapons and your ship’s speed, the power ups you can get to obliterate foes, while also being able to shoot in different directions, being able to select the order of the stages you go through for some of themall of that is back here, and it is handled just as wonderfully as before. Everything works as wonderfully as you would hope for, and the game makes sure that you not only make sure to keep on your toes and try to deal as much damage while avoiding all the gunfire, but also to determine what is the best means of action to use whenever approaching an oncoming threat. There were plenty of moments where I had to switch through my various weapons to face a specific challenge, rather then going through the whole thing with just the homing shot, and while some could certainly see this as an annoying feature, not only does it allow you to get accustomed to the many weapons you can get, but it challenges you in other ways that other shmups wouldn’t challenge you a lot of the time, and it is a nice change of pace.

Unfortunately though, if you just couldn’t get into what Thunder Force III gave you (and you have bad taste), then this game won’t change your mind whatsoever, as due to having no major changes to the gameplay whatsoever, it is basically just another Thunder Force romp, which can be great for some, but understandably tedious for others. There weren’t too many problems that I could point out about the gameplay, visuals, music, or any of that, but one problem that I can point out is the length, as I think this game does drag out for quite a bit. The game only have 10 levels, which doesn’t sound that bad, even for a shmup, but these levels are quite lengthy, full of plenty of challenges to face, and MANY boss fights ahead of you, and granted, while a lot of these boss fights can be pretty fun, it gets to the point where you start thinking to yourself “Oh my god, how are we not done yet?!”, and for a game like Thunder Force IV, that is the last kind of thing that I want to be saying to myself.

Overall, despite not changing up the gameplay whatsoever and lasting a little too long, Thunder Force IV manages to once again bring another wonderful round of shmup goodness to us, refining the gameplay to an almost perfect package that still manages to be just as fun, crazy, and addicting as its predecessor, being yet another one of the best shmups that you could ever play on the Sega Genesis. I would absolutely recommend it for those who were big shmup fanatics in general, as well as those who were big fans of Thunder Force III, because what you get from this is an incredibly solid shmup package that you can blaze through in an afternoon, and that’s all one can really ask for at the end of the day. Although, quick question before we end this off, what exactly was the Darkstar that we are apparently on a quest for in this game? Yeah, I know, that’s just the dumb American title that we got for this game, but if that is what we are stuck with, I at least want some answers about that! All you TF aficionados can inform me about all that down in the comments, where I will then promptly look at the explanation and realize how much of a fucking idiot I am.

Game #563