I picked this for my SPY spot in the Retro Achievements Challenge. A fun and challenging run & gun game that punishes you for going too fast unless you've died a few times and you learn the patterns. But be forewarned, one shot kills on you. Unless its a grenade (Which you don't get i-frames and they will spam grenades) or they punch you. You can walk into the enemies to push them back and not lose health. But its very quirky.
The game starts mild mannered until round 8. Where there's a huge spike in difficulty because of the boss. Having to shoot in four corners whilst a crosshair is jumping around the screen can really take a toil on a person. The final stage of the game is the worse because in order to have enough bullets to even have a shot of the boss, you have to play the whole stage flawlessly. The only check point is at the final elevator where you have to use at least 10 of your 40 starting bullets and the first phase of the boss takes close to 40 shots. I'm glad I am done with this game.
At least the music is fantastic.
The game starts mild mannered until round 8. Where there's a huge spike in difficulty because of the boss. Having to shoot in four corners whilst a crosshair is jumping around the screen can really take a toil on a person. The final stage of the game is the worse because in order to have enough bullets to even have a shot of the boss, you have to play the whole stage flawlessly. The only check point is at the final elevator where you have to use at least 10 of your 40 starting bullets and the first phase of the boss takes close to 40 shots. I'm glad I am done with this game.
At least the music is fantastic.
For the first eight stages, Rolling Thunder 2 is honestly a four out of five stars. It's basically Shinobi in spy getup and works oh-so-well when played slow and methodically. The music, even after this point, absolutely slaps and as far as Namco on the Genesis goes...it may be the best sounding of their games. Clearly, the developers thought so too as there's a snazzy music test on the title screen complete with a band made up of the game's enemies.
Unfortunately, it all goes to shit after round 8. It's as if they wanted to make the game as annoying as humanly possible with obnoxious enemy placement, platforming in a game where the jumping is even more crippling than classic Castlevania and time limits that butts heads with the slow/methodical pacing that the level design established up to this point. There's difficulty spikes, there's difficulty land mines and then there's difficulty atomic bombs. Rolling Thunder 2 suffers from the last of this last category. Think Comix Zone and Ghouls n Ghosts are difficult? This game makes those look like Kirby.
I'm glad I got around to finishing it on a real cartridge as my first win of 2024, but I don't see myself coming back to it the same way I would some of Namcos other Genesis titles such as Marvel Land or Phelios.
Unfortunately, it all goes to shit after round 8. It's as if they wanted to make the game as annoying as humanly possible with obnoxious enemy placement, platforming in a game where the jumping is even more crippling than classic Castlevania and time limits that butts heads with the slow/methodical pacing that the level design established up to this point. There's difficulty spikes, there's difficulty land mines and then there's difficulty atomic bombs. Rolling Thunder 2 suffers from the last of this last category. Think Comix Zone and Ghouls n Ghosts are difficult? This game makes those look like Kirby.
I'm glad I got around to finishing it on a real cartridge as my first win of 2024, but I don't see myself coming back to it the same way I would some of Namcos other Genesis titles such as Marvel Land or Phelios.
Rolling Thunder 3 might have a little more finesse and polish, but this one might just be a little cooler.
+ or -
Namco improved the sequel to Rolling Thunder in every way. You get tighter controls and more forgiving enemy placements. Thankfully, platforming sections are kept to a minimum in this one. Plus you get to visit exotic locations with great graphics and a nice soundtrack. Last but not least you get to play with Leila - the damsel in distress of the first game, who's a damn fine upgrade over that boring male spy. The twat is available in the game if you want him, but why would you…
Namco should've brought over valkyrie densetsu or some shit to genesis instead of rolling thunder. sorry rolling thunder, you're fine, but you can't compete on the same system with three fucking shinobi games.
This was a major improvement over the first I wouldn't recommend playing this without cheats though it is way to difficult and has a whole entire second quest to go threw that is more difficult than the first quest, like I said it is enjoyable with cheats and has a decent enough story to it.
(Genesis version)
More of the same from the original, just a bit longer and with more varied environments. Difficulty/enemy placement felt about the same as well. The addition of a female playable character is pretty cool at least.
More of the same from the original, just a bit longer and with more varied environments. Difficulty/enemy placement felt about the same as well. The addition of a female playable character is pretty cool at least.
I don’t like the original Rolling Thunder at all. Sure, it wasn’t completely terrible, but it was a clunky, slow, frustrating, and incredibly repetitive experience that could’ve been better with a wider selection of weapons or more interesting foes, but lacks in both of those departments. Even if it did introduce numerous elements that would go on to inspire future (and better) games, it wasn’t enough for me to really have too much fun with it. So, as you can imagine, I was not looking forward to playing the sequels at all. When it comes to Namco sequels of their arcade games, most of the time they usually just retain the same gameplay while only changing a few things, and only on the rare instance will they make drastic changes to the formula, such as with Super Pac-Man and Dig Dug II. But hey, in the best possible outcome, maybe they could improve on what they have here and make this type of game a hell of a lot better with the sequel, but I could only find out by properly checking out Rolling Thunder 2.
So, now that I have played through it, I can say that they did improve on what they had originally… but not by much. A lot of it remains largely the same, and as such, still has the same problems that the original had, making it not one that I am ever gonna want to replay again. With that being said though, I will give credit where credit is due, as there are elements that are genuinely better about this installment when compared to the original, and I will admit, I did have a little bit of a good time (key word being a little). That being said, I still didn’t like it.
The story is thankfully different from “guy saves girl”, and features a more typical story for this type of game, but hey, the change is nice, the graphics are a great improvement over the original, looking a lot better and having a lot more depth, the music is still good, but it didn’t stick with me, the control is still solid, and the gameplay is still about the same as the original, which means it is extremely lacking compared to other games.
Most of the game remains unchanged in comparison to the original. It is still a 2D side-scrolling shooter, where you move through various stages, shooting a seemingly endless supply of goons with several weapons, get more bullets along the way from marked doors, and avoiding obstacles. In terms of new features, there isn’t really any, aside from the fact that you can play the game in co-op, which is always appreciated, but for someone like me who has no friends, that doesn’t really mean too much. Where most of the changes come in are in terms of the presentation and difficulty of the game.
Of course, being made five years after the original, everything looks and sounds much better, and this time around, the gameplay is a little more fair in terms of the level design and enemy attacks. Sure, movement is still pretty clunky, but the level designs aren’t too stressful to get through this time around, and there are no enemies that are incredibly annoying to take down this time around, like with the bats from the last game. On top of all that, this time around, instead of making you play through the same stages twice, with little difference in the second go around, this time you only play through the game once, with each stage being unique from the last, and honestly, thank god for that. I don’t know why so many games back in the day thought that multiple playthroughs was essential to reaching the conclusion of the story, when you really don’t need to do that at all, so thankfully this game does away with that shit.
Having said that, a lot of the problems from the last game are still present. Arcade syndrome is still in effect, and while it isn’t as bad as before due to the less bullshit enemies, you will still need to take on a lot of enemies at once in order to even have a chance at making it to the end, especially in later stages. Not to mention, the game is still repetitive as fuck, which was my main problem with the last one, and clearly they learned nothing from that game. You still mainly do one thing: shoot a bunch of goofy, colorful looking motherfuckers, and granted, you do need to mix up your strategy to take down some specific types of enemies, but the strategies that are needed to do so are just “duck down” or “shoot more”, so it gets really mind numbing after a while.
And just like with the last game, there is only one boss in the whole game, that being the boss on the final stage, and it’s pretty terrible. He just sits in one spot, shoots a laser at you that rotates back to him, and that’s it. You can take him out pretty easily if you have enough ammunition left, but in case you have no ammunition at all (which I didn’t my first go around), then you notice the big problem with the boss: at a certain point, it is IMPOSSIBLE to avoid getting hit by his laser and land shots at the same time. The beam is way too long to jump over, and you can’t always duck under it to avoid it. Yes, I get it, it’s an arcade game, and they wanted to squeeze as much money out of the player as possible, but not only is that a shitty excuse, but it is also thrown out the door when you play the game on modern hardware like I am. So, just saying, Namco, maybe get your shit together for the next game? This was a good start, but we have a long ways to go.
Overall, while this is better then the original Rolling Thunder, and a good improvement in terms of progression, presentation, and difficulty (in some areas), it is mostly just more of the same repetitive nonsense that plagued the original, and it isn’t worth checking out any more then the original. But, from what I have seen and researched, the third and final installment in the series does change things up somewhat from these other two games, so hey, who knows. Maybe the third game will actually be good? We will just have to wait and see.
Game #221
So, now that I have played through it, I can say that they did improve on what they had originally… but not by much. A lot of it remains largely the same, and as such, still has the same problems that the original had, making it not one that I am ever gonna want to replay again. With that being said though, I will give credit where credit is due, as there are elements that are genuinely better about this installment when compared to the original, and I will admit, I did have a little bit of a good time (key word being a little). That being said, I still didn’t like it.
The story is thankfully different from “guy saves girl”, and features a more typical story for this type of game, but hey, the change is nice, the graphics are a great improvement over the original, looking a lot better and having a lot more depth, the music is still good, but it didn’t stick with me, the control is still solid, and the gameplay is still about the same as the original, which means it is extremely lacking compared to other games.
Most of the game remains unchanged in comparison to the original. It is still a 2D side-scrolling shooter, where you move through various stages, shooting a seemingly endless supply of goons with several weapons, get more bullets along the way from marked doors, and avoiding obstacles. In terms of new features, there isn’t really any, aside from the fact that you can play the game in co-op, which is always appreciated, but for someone like me who has no friends, that doesn’t really mean too much. Where most of the changes come in are in terms of the presentation and difficulty of the game.
Of course, being made five years after the original, everything looks and sounds much better, and this time around, the gameplay is a little more fair in terms of the level design and enemy attacks. Sure, movement is still pretty clunky, but the level designs aren’t too stressful to get through this time around, and there are no enemies that are incredibly annoying to take down this time around, like with the bats from the last game. On top of all that, this time around, instead of making you play through the same stages twice, with little difference in the second go around, this time you only play through the game once, with each stage being unique from the last, and honestly, thank god for that. I don’t know why so many games back in the day thought that multiple playthroughs was essential to reaching the conclusion of the story, when you really don’t need to do that at all, so thankfully this game does away with that shit.
Having said that, a lot of the problems from the last game are still present. Arcade syndrome is still in effect, and while it isn’t as bad as before due to the less bullshit enemies, you will still need to take on a lot of enemies at once in order to even have a chance at making it to the end, especially in later stages. Not to mention, the game is still repetitive as fuck, which was my main problem with the last one, and clearly they learned nothing from that game. You still mainly do one thing: shoot a bunch of goofy, colorful looking motherfuckers, and granted, you do need to mix up your strategy to take down some specific types of enemies, but the strategies that are needed to do so are just “duck down” or “shoot more”, so it gets really mind numbing after a while.
And just like with the last game, there is only one boss in the whole game, that being the boss on the final stage, and it’s pretty terrible. He just sits in one spot, shoots a laser at you that rotates back to him, and that’s it. You can take him out pretty easily if you have enough ammunition left, but in case you have no ammunition at all (which I didn’t my first go around), then you notice the big problem with the boss: at a certain point, it is IMPOSSIBLE to avoid getting hit by his laser and land shots at the same time. The beam is way too long to jump over, and you can’t always duck under it to avoid it. Yes, I get it, it’s an arcade game, and they wanted to squeeze as much money out of the player as possible, but not only is that a shitty excuse, but it is also thrown out the door when you play the game on modern hardware like I am. So, just saying, Namco, maybe get your shit together for the next game? This was a good start, but we have a long ways to go.
Overall, while this is better then the original Rolling Thunder, and a good improvement in terms of progression, presentation, and difficulty (in some areas), it is mostly just more of the same repetitive nonsense that plagued the original, and it isn’t worth checking out any more then the original. But, from what I have seen and researched, the third and final installment in the series does change things up somewhat from these other two games, so hey, who knows. Maybe the third game will actually be good? We will just have to wait and see.
Game #221
Side scrolling action game. Slight graphic downgrade compared to the arcade but more levels, weapons, powerups, and story scenes between levels. Duck, jump, high jump, shoot, and make use of doors and a few cover spots to back into or platforms above to high jump onto. Decent enough shooting but limited enemy variety and likes to go from being no challenge at all to putting you in awkward positions to be hit by attacks that often kill in one blow, often requiring aggression of jumping into enemy so that you are both slightly stunned but avoid damage.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1589622629283299330
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1589622629283299330
Kind of like a weaker Shadow Dancer, which is not particularly standout to begin with. Starts getting really unfair as it progresses. Would probably benefit greatly from being able to fire in eight directions, or even four. Instead you can only fire directly in front of you, which isn't particularly helpful when you're getting jumped from all corners. In every level.