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!
Reviewed on Mar 19, 2023
6 Comments
Yes, glad you played it! I've been playing a lot of shoot em ups the last couple of years though I'm terrible at them. I loved this one though, the soundtrack and atmosphere just hit surprisingly hard.
Once in a while I feel like I may give this game a bit too much credit just for having sick riffs in the OST that I really enjoy, since some of the bosses are very spongey and sometimes obtuse on a first playthrough. I still remember taking ages to beat the final boss despite using game genie codes on my physical Japanese copy that I own.
Yes, I despise the localized name enough to get a game genie to play an owned Japanese version on my console lol.
Yes, I despise the localized name enough to get a game genie to play an owned Japanese version on my console lol.
@Angel_Arle Yea, that makes sense. The slowdown seems intentional. Slowdown in a lot of shooters is helpful anyways, so I normally don't mind it with these games.
@FallenGrace Thank you for the recommendation! Shoot 'em ups are like fighting games for me. I love playing them despite me being abysmal at them.
@Vee Some of the bosses taking a bit too much damage to defeat is probably the only real issue I have with this game but surprisingly the final boss went down pretty quickly for me. These two took me forever though.
@FallenGrace Thank you for the recommendation! Shoot 'em ups are like fighting games for me. I love playing them despite me being abysmal at them.
@Vee Some of the bosses taking a bit too much damage to defeat is probably the only real issue I have with this game but surprisingly the final boss went down pretty quickly for me. These two took me forever though.
The fact Thunder Force has a wiki brings me great joy.
@MobileSpider I recommend playing the space walk stage first for the Homing weapon. It is very effective against that boss. Surprised that was too much but the desert one was fine!
@Vee you should read some of the wiki. There's some pages written in very bad English and it is funny. I don't know there's just something about this wiki that really gets to me I love it.
"Trivia
He is left-handed, and blood type is O.
He have a daughter, but no wife : He is divorced at 1998.
He is a fat person : His weight is around 90kg, and exceeded 110kg sometime."
at least it's in the spirit of the series. Booby Master and My Home Papa are my favorites. THE SORTIE OF RYNEX WAS NOTHING MORE THAN A RECKLESS ACTION. INEVITABLY, HUMANBEINGS WILL FACE ADDITIONAL HARDSHIPS...
@Vee you should read some of the wiki. There's some pages written in very bad English and it is funny. I don't know there's just something about this wiki that really gets to me I love it.
"Trivia
He is left-handed, and blood type is O.
He have a daughter, but no wife : He is divorced at 1998.
He is a fat person : His weight is around 90kg, and exceeded 110kg sometime."
at least it's in the spirit of the series. Booby Master and My Home Papa are my favorites. THE SORTIE OF RYNEX WAS NOTHING MORE THAN A RECKLESS ACTION. INEVITABLY, HUMANBEINGS WILL FACE ADDITIONAL HARDSHIPS...
Angel_Arle
1 year ago