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
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
It has amazing music and a ton of snazzy special effects going on, but I prefer the more balanced difficulty of TF3 even if I don't enjoy its OST nearly as much. I'd even go as far as to say this one is a tad overrated after playing it through, but it's still a good enough time.
Best path for anyone trying to keep shields- ruins>desert>strite>air raid
Best path for anyone trying to keep shields- ruins>desert>strite>air raid
Es una experiencia.
Haberlo disfrutado tanto solo demuestra su atemporalidad.
Haberlo disfrutado tanto solo demuestra su atemporalidad.
Recommended by FallenGrace as part of this list.
I may never gain the ability to be even halfway decent at shooters, but I think I can recognize a good one when I see one. Immediately, this game does something I found interesting in that you can do the first four levels in whatever order you feel like, similar to Mega Man in a way. I started with level three, which I actually found the hardest of the first four levels. Don't get it twisted though, just because I found this the hardest of the initial levels doesn't mean the others are a cakewalk. This game is quite challenging and some of the later levels felt like an endurance test.
I don't know if this is a common feature in a lot of other shooters, but unlike most of the ones I've played, picking up a powerup doesn't replace the one you're currently using, instead with the press of the C button you can switch between all your collected weapons, five in total! Although dying will result in you losing your currently equipped weapon, but don't fret, as it seemed like powerups were quite plentiful, at least for me. I don't know what I'd do without my beloved blade and hunter shots. You can press the A button to adjust your ship's speed by a multiple of 25 up to 100 speed and by holding the A button you can adjust it to a specific number of your liking (I mostly kept it at 80 speed).
Upon starting a level, you might notice that the screen can scroll vertically down. Most levels are like this and it's great as it gives you more of a chance to avoid oncoming projectiles. By the way, this game is gorgeous! That parallax scrolling used on the ocean in the first level looks so good! I do have to mention this though, the game suffers from quite a bit of slowdown, but this might be a blessing in disguise. The Saturn and the Sega Ages rerelease of the game remove most, if not all, of the slowdown, but in return, might make the game even more difficult for you. Lastly, before I close this off, I gotta mention the soundtrack; it rocks just like the rest of the game!
I may never gain the ability to be even halfway decent at shooters, but I think I can recognize a good one when I see one. Immediately, this game does something I found interesting in that you can do the first four levels in whatever order you feel like, similar to Mega Man in a way. I started with level three, which I actually found the hardest of the first four levels. Don't get it twisted though, just because I found this the hardest of the initial levels doesn't mean the others are a cakewalk. This game is quite challenging and some of the later levels felt like an endurance test.
I don't know if this is a common feature in a lot of other shooters, but unlike most of the ones I've played, picking up a powerup doesn't replace the one you're currently using, instead with the press of the C button you can switch between all your collected weapons, five in total! Although dying will result in you losing your currently equipped weapon, but don't fret, as it seemed like powerups were quite plentiful, at least for me. I don't know what I'd do without my beloved blade and hunter shots. You can press the A button to adjust your ship's speed by a multiple of 25 up to 100 speed and by holding the A button you can adjust it to a specific number of your liking (I mostly kept it at 80 speed).
Upon starting a level, you might notice that the screen can scroll vertically down. Most levels are like this and it's great as it gives you more of a chance to avoid oncoming projectiles. By the way, this game is gorgeous! That parallax scrolling used on the ocean in the first level looks so good! I do have to mention this though, the game suffers from quite a bit of slowdown, but this might be a blessing in disguise. The Saturn and the Sega Ages rerelease of the game remove most, if not all, of the slowdown, but in return, might make the game even more difficult for you. Lastly, before I close this off, I gotta mention the soundtrack; it rocks just like the rest of the game!
Thunder Force IV is a frenetic shoot-em-up that can feel a bit cheap at times, especially in the later stages, but that's typical of the genre. The visuals can be confusing, with enemies and scenery blending together, but I enjoyed the verticality of the stages. The 99-lives system is helpful for learning the game, and the OST is pretty good
All it took to finish this masterpiece was 1799747 save states. Half of which on Stage 8.
Ahhhhhh yeah now we're talking!!! I see now why Thunder Force V rocks so hard, and it's because it has IV as an older sibling!
This game is just fire through and through. It's annoying and cheap at times but what do I care? I use rewind anyway so that doesn't bug me.
The weapons are great, the music is absurdly cool and it's g o r g e o u s! Seriously, it's one of the best looking games on the Mega Drive I think!
Gosh, I'll remember that one level with the whole enemy fleet and those tracking turrets for a while. What an absolute treat of a game!
This game is just fire through and through. It's annoying and cheap at times but what do I care? I use rewind anyway so that doesn't bug me.
The weapons are great, the music is absurdly cool and it's g o r g e o u s! Seriously, it's one of the best looking games on the Mega Drive I think!
Gosh, I'll remember that one level with the whole enemy fleet and those tracking turrets for a while. What an absolute treat of a game!
Very ugly, backgrounds and foregrounds and enemies are all generic and all meld together, sprites are much too large making the game feel very cramped, has horrible slowdown without emulated CPU overclock, very poor visual clarity, very unsatisfying gameplay and animations, very dull and uninspired bosses.
Honestly one of the most boring, annoying, and sterile shooters I've ever played. No idea what people see in this game.
Honestly one of the most boring, annoying, and sterile shooters I've ever played. No idea what people see in this game.
This game is so much fun. It’s difficult but it’s just so much fun. The best shootem up on the system. The music is fantastic. The graphics are great for a game in 92. Every time I play this game I can’t stop until I beat. I love this game.
top ost do mundo
With level designs so intricate and spacious and weapon systems so elaborate you will literally never know what hit you!
I’m afraid I have to take points off for the sound effect it makes when your ship blows up. Instead of at least showing us the dignity of a satisfying loud blast, it sounds instead like a popped zit. For how often I had to see my ship blown up in this game I took it as an insult.
I’m afraid I have to take points off for the sound effect it makes when your ship blows up. Instead of at least showing us the dignity of a satisfying loud blast, it sounds instead like a popped zit. For how often I had to see my ship blown up in this game I took it as an insult.
imma be real with you ok
this game fucking sucks to play its only carried by its graphics and ost
this game fucking sucks to play its only carried by its graphics and ost
Really solid game but I know full well that my ass is NOT gonna be finishing it
stop reading this and go play this game rigHT NOW
This game goes very hard.
Having kind of forgotten how this game went I fired it up tonight and was immediately fucking flabbergasted by the slowdown. I did NOT remember it being this bad. Contrasting heavily with Gradius III's actually pretty helpful slowdown, the JP and NA releases for Thunder Force IV are borderline unplayable. It also still crashes on PicoDrive on all versions, including the slightly better EU and Sega Ages ROMs.
Thunder Force IV (aka Lightening Force: Quest for the Darkstar) isn't actually developed by the same team as its predecessors. Some time after completing Thunder Force III, the staff who worked on it (bar the sound team) would leave Technosoft to work under Red Entertainment instead. While there, they would produce Gates of Thunder and Lords of Thunder for the TurboGrafx-CD, and Technosoft would have to hire a new set of people for the next Thunder Force game.
This group didn't have prior experience programming shmups, and their previous endeavor on the Genesis was some pinball port. Supposedly, due to this Thunder Force IV is not slowing down so hard from pushing the console's limits a la Kirby's Adventure, but rather shoddier programming in strange places. Using Blade for example will always slow the game to a crawl, whereas weapons like Hunter seem to do fine despite creating a similar amount if not more sprites. I don't really get how that works as I have no programming knowledge, but it can't go without being mentioned. It comes awfully close to eclipsing the actual quality of the underlying game.
But ultimately, it doesn't. In the scenario where you claw your way past that initial shock, you'll find a damn solid shmup packed with some insane music. It's just more interesting to talk about its major flaw. Grab the Sega Ages version if you're going to play this, it seems to have the slowdown toned down to the best of their abilities save for some moments where it's hard-coded in. Don't use PicoDrive for it either. That shit cannot run Vectorman 2, I don't know why I expected it to magically work this time after failing a year ago.
Thunder Force IV (aka Lightening Force: Quest for the Darkstar) isn't actually developed by the same team as its predecessors. Some time after completing Thunder Force III, the staff who worked on it (bar the sound team) would leave Technosoft to work under Red Entertainment instead. While there, they would produce Gates of Thunder and Lords of Thunder for the TurboGrafx-CD, and Technosoft would have to hire a new set of people for the next Thunder Force game.
This group didn't have prior experience programming shmups, and their previous endeavor on the Genesis was some pinball port. Supposedly, due to this Thunder Force IV is not slowing down so hard from pushing the console's limits a la Kirby's Adventure, but rather shoddier programming in strange places. Using Blade for example will always slow the game to a crawl, whereas weapons like Hunter seem to do fine despite creating a similar amount if not more sprites. I don't really get how that works as I have no programming knowledge, but it can't go without being mentioned. It comes awfully close to eclipsing the actual quality of the underlying game.
But ultimately, it doesn't. In the scenario where you claw your way past that initial shock, you'll find a damn solid shmup packed with some insane music. It's just more interesting to talk about its major flaw. Grab the Sega Ages version if you're going to play this, it seems to have the slowdown toned down to the best of their abilities save for some moments where it's hard-coded in. Don't use PicoDrive for it either. That shit cannot run Vectorman 2, I don't know why I expected it to magically work this time after failing a year ago.
I havent beaten it but this is a hella good shmup and i like it a lot, its music kicks ass specifically mine
good pixel art too
good pixel art too
It's actually called Thunder Force IIII in ancient Greece.
Definitely a weird one to rate for me, as I think the presentation is absolute smash-it-out-of-the-park home run god tier shit, and I could argue that the game is great for that alone… but man, it just flops so hard in some other key areas! Super frustrating, because it really does have GOAT DNA.
The biggest issue here is that the enemy HP is out of whack. It’s fucked. Popcorn ships and destructible enemy fire take a fraction of a second too long to die, creating this weird, repetitive, thudding, subconscious dissatisfaction that builds as you play through a level. Bosses take WAY too long to bring down, especially if you die to one and lose your blade shot (which, uh, you will!)—I swear to god, some of them take between five to ten fucking minutes. Even if they don’t actually, that’s what it feels like—WAY TOO LONG.
Adding to the air of exhaustion is the fact that the game has ten stages. Ten stages of blistering breakneck shooting-em-up! Maybe this is getting more into personal preference than actual criticism, but that feels like one or two too many. When a game does not slow down even for a second, and when it makes you memorize all kinds of crazy bullshit as shmups are wont to do, ten stages feels like an eternity. As much as I love how much content they have and ideas they bring to the table, I’d prefer a more thoroughly edited, tighter experience.
I can’t complain too much though, because more stages in TFIV means more kick-ass crunchy tunes, and more mind-expanding parallax backdrops. Seriously: people call this one of the best-looking and -sounding games on the console, and that is not an exaggeration. The first level’s giant mountain ascending from the ocean into glowing clouds is maybe the most beautiful 16-bit background ever designed.
TFIV is just excessive in almost every way, to both good and ill effect: its stages span two or more vertical screen lengths, creating equal-parts thrilling sense of space and discovery and annoying sense of emptiness and FOMO. Its music drips heavy metal overindulgence. The number of bosses it throws at you could give Alien Soldier a run for its money.
If only this excess had been reigned in just a bit, especially where enemy health is concerned, the game might be perfect.
The biggest issue here is that the enemy HP is out of whack. It’s fucked. Popcorn ships and destructible enemy fire take a fraction of a second too long to die, creating this weird, repetitive, thudding, subconscious dissatisfaction that builds as you play through a level. Bosses take WAY too long to bring down, especially if you die to one and lose your blade shot (which, uh, you will!)—I swear to god, some of them take between five to ten fucking minutes. Even if they don’t actually, that’s what it feels like—WAY TOO LONG.
Adding to the air of exhaustion is the fact that the game has ten stages. Ten stages of blistering breakneck shooting-em-up! Maybe this is getting more into personal preference than actual criticism, but that feels like one or two too many. When a game does not slow down even for a second, and when it makes you memorize all kinds of crazy bullshit as shmups are wont to do, ten stages feels like an eternity. As much as I love how much content they have and ideas they bring to the table, I’d prefer a more thoroughly edited, tighter experience.
I can’t complain too much though, because more stages in TFIV means more kick-ass crunchy tunes, and more mind-expanding parallax backdrops. Seriously: people call this one of the best-looking and -sounding games on the console, and that is not an exaggeration. The first level’s giant mountain ascending from the ocean into glowing clouds is maybe the most beautiful 16-bit background ever designed.
TFIV is just excessive in almost every way, to both good and ill effect: its stages span two or more vertical screen lengths, creating equal-parts thrilling sense of space and discovery and annoying sense of emptiness and FOMO. Its music drips heavy metal overindulgence. The number of bosses it throws at you could give Alien Soldier a run for its money.
If only this excess had been reigned in just a bit, especially where enemy health is concerned, the game might be perfect.
Ost fucks so hard my blood and cum are now jet fuel.
Next on my list of playing retro shoot 'em ups is Thunder Force IV. I've not played a single game in this series but I have a friend who has been talking about this game for literally years so figured I'd start here.
The first thing I will say is this game is seriously intense. The music absolutely sets the tone for the action with some crazy bass and pace to it in a rock synth style and I love it. The action, matching the music, is incredibly fast paced through almost the whole game, One of my complaints about this genre is there is nearly always a level that slows to a crawl with slow music and almost no enemies for some reason, almost every game has it. Thunder Force IV has that for maybe 10 seconds then it ramps back into hitting you in the face again.
It also has some interesting features I've not seen in a shoot 'em up before. At the start you can actually choose the order you play the first four stages for example, sort of like a Mega Man game but you choose the order of all four in one go. Once in the levels I found some of them had more depth than others in the genre giving expanded vertical space to travel between allowing movement to avoid fire without getting screen trapped though equally it can move you into a stream of enemies you weren't aware of. Other features slightly more common involve being able to cycle through weapon pick ups you find. There are 5 different weapons (Blades, Railgun, Snake, Homing and Freeway) plus a shield and claw satellite guns to collect. You can cycle between them at a push of a button once collected as they don't overwrite each other but have specific slots at the top of the screen. The unique feature with these is that you only lose the weapon type you are using at the time of death so in theory if you're quick enough you can change before you die to keep the weapon you like most.
And die you will, this game doesn't hold it's punches. Enemies come at you pretty thick and fast from multiple directions and bosses and sub bosses are a plenty throughout. The game strikes me more as one where learning the level and enemy patterns is the only way to beat it start to finish rather than rely purely on reactions. My only real criticism is that it goes on far too long. It's 10 stages a lot of which are not exactly short, it really feels like it could be cut down to 8 as it does start to drag a bit towards the end.
Still, Thunder Force IV is probably one of the best shoot 'em ups I've played at this time of writing. It looks fantastic, has kick ass music, and is an action packed experience through and through.
+ Fantastic soundtrack.
+ No real slow or boring levels.
+ Some unique ideas.
+ Great visuals and art.
- Far too long for it's own good.
The first thing I will say is this game is seriously intense. The music absolutely sets the tone for the action with some crazy bass and pace to it in a rock synth style and I love it. The action, matching the music, is incredibly fast paced through almost the whole game, One of my complaints about this genre is there is nearly always a level that slows to a crawl with slow music and almost no enemies for some reason, almost every game has it. Thunder Force IV has that for maybe 10 seconds then it ramps back into hitting you in the face again.
It also has some interesting features I've not seen in a shoot 'em up before. At the start you can actually choose the order you play the first four stages for example, sort of like a Mega Man game but you choose the order of all four in one go. Once in the levels I found some of them had more depth than others in the genre giving expanded vertical space to travel between allowing movement to avoid fire without getting screen trapped though equally it can move you into a stream of enemies you weren't aware of. Other features slightly more common involve being able to cycle through weapon pick ups you find. There are 5 different weapons (Blades, Railgun, Snake, Homing and Freeway) plus a shield and claw satellite guns to collect. You can cycle between them at a push of a button once collected as they don't overwrite each other but have specific slots at the top of the screen. The unique feature with these is that you only lose the weapon type you are using at the time of death so in theory if you're quick enough you can change before you die to keep the weapon you like most.
And die you will, this game doesn't hold it's punches. Enemies come at you pretty thick and fast from multiple directions and bosses and sub bosses are a plenty throughout. The game strikes me more as one where learning the level and enemy patterns is the only way to beat it start to finish rather than rely purely on reactions. My only real criticism is that it goes on far too long. It's 10 stages a lot of which are not exactly short, it really feels like it could be cut down to 8 as it does start to drag a bit towards the end.
Still, Thunder Force IV is probably one of the best shoot 'em ups I've played at this time of writing. It looks fantastic, has kick ass music, and is an action packed experience through and through.
+ Fantastic soundtrack.
+ No real slow or boring levels.
+ Some unique ideas.
+ Great visuals and art.
- Far too long for it's own good.
Sega announced a Mega Drive 2 Mini and I thought why not play all the games as they're getting announced. Not sure how far I'll get with this but it doesn't hurt to try. I thought this would be the best one to start off with since I played the Ages version earlier this year.
I still really like this game despite being awful at it. It's no secret that I'm awful at schmups. This game is brutally hard at least for me. Even on easy it can still be pretty tough though I do find after this third playthrough I've gotten a little better. While there are a couple of other schmups I'd rather play on the console, this one is still worth trying. Shoutouts to the presentation as well, it's really great minus the questionable slowdown at times.
Also what's with the US name? Lightening Force is such a dumb name.
I still really like this game despite being awful at it. It's no secret that I'm awful at schmups. This game is brutally hard at least for me. Even on easy it can still be pretty tough though I do find after this third playthrough I've gotten a little better. While there are a couple of other schmups I'd rather play on the console, this one is still worth trying. Shoutouts to the presentation as well, it's really great minus the questionable slowdown at times.
Also what's with the US name? Lightening Force is such a dumb name.
Goes hard as hell, especially the soundtrack. Definitely a fuck of a time. But as pointed out a couple times by others, it suffers pretty horribly from intense slowdown and at least on PicoDrive crashed an absurd amount of times. Some point along the line I accidentally saved after a crash instead of reloading and had to start from scratch bc I have no brain cells and only used one savestate. I highly doubt it happens on original hardware, at least.
This is my FOURTH time reviewing this holy SHIT
Anyway I discovered that TF3's staff (except for the music team) left and they had all-new staff from their Devil's Crash port come in to work on this. It is factually correct to say this is a shmup designed by people who literally don't make shmups.
It's so weird cause like, you got all the mechanics and weapons that make shmups cool. The setpieces, art and style are there. All of its elements come together to create a great sense of speed and universal conflict. But the shmup design is just blatantly not there, and it feels way more like an adventure game than anything. The game is challenging you less on dodging bullets, and more on managing your weapons and memorizing every little scripted event the stage throws at you. It's not an overtly routing-focused game like R-Type, and yet you do way more of it here than any shmup I can think of. It doesn't feel natural within the confines of the genre, but it also has a very visceral, addicting appeal.
It's also a victim of not really having a 'best' version. This game's pushing the genesis to the fucking limit as far as sprite speeds and parallax go, and it causes the game to slow down a lot whenever you have your powered up weapons active. The Saturn and AGES port let you toggle the slowdown off, but there's a lot of enemies that were clearly not designed around it. Biggest offender is the desert boss, whose attacks basically have no telegraph when slowdown's removed.
TF4 is this insane amalgamation of what someone outside the shmup playerbase THINKS a shmup should be. It's this twisted portal of so many clashing visions. It reminds me a lot of Sonic Adventure 2, in the way it has abrasive difficulty and a lot of rough design choices, but also has a totally unique rhythm underneath that kinda clicks when you 'get it' and keeps you hooked. It's not 'good' when you look for anything that traditionally defines the strengths of STGs, and yet it has so much passion put into everything else it does, you can't help but be drawn to it. That, or the music is making me feel biased.
Anyway I discovered that TF3's staff (except for the music team) left and they had all-new staff from their Devil's Crash port come in to work on this. It is factually correct to say this is a shmup designed by people who literally don't make shmups.
It's so weird cause like, you got all the mechanics and weapons that make shmups cool. The setpieces, art and style are there. All of its elements come together to create a great sense of speed and universal conflict. But the shmup design is just blatantly not there, and it feels way more like an adventure game than anything. The game is challenging you less on dodging bullets, and more on managing your weapons and memorizing every little scripted event the stage throws at you. It's not an overtly routing-focused game like R-Type, and yet you do way more of it here than any shmup I can think of. It doesn't feel natural within the confines of the genre, but it also has a very visceral, addicting appeal.
It's also a victim of not really having a 'best' version. This game's pushing the genesis to the fucking limit as far as sprite speeds and parallax go, and it causes the game to slow down a lot whenever you have your powered up weapons active. The Saturn and AGES port let you toggle the slowdown off, but there's a lot of enemies that were clearly not designed around it. Biggest offender is the desert boss, whose attacks basically have no telegraph when slowdown's removed.
TF4 is this insane amalgamation of what someone outside the shmup playerbase THINKS a shmup should be. It's this twisted portal of so many clashing visions. It reminds me a lot of Sonic Adventure 2, in the way it has abrasive difficulty and a lot of rough design choices, but also has a totally unique rhythm underneath that kinda clicks when you 'get it' and keeps you hooked. It's not 'good' when you look for anything that traditionally defines the strengths of STGs, and yet it has so much passion put into everything else it does, you can't help but be drawn to it. That, or the music is making me feel biased.
An innovative multi-plane space ship shooter, though not necessarily the best from the genre. The soundtrack is 5 stars though.