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