Thunder Rumbles on the Genesis
Thunder Force II Review
Genre: Shoot-Em-Up
Number of Players: 1
Developer: Technosoft
Publisher: Sega (US), Technosoft (JP)
Release Date: June 15, 1989 (JP), August 14, 1989 (US), November 1990 (EU),
December 1990 (BRA)
Platform: Sega Genesis
Also Available On: Sharp X86000, Sega Saturn, Nintendo Switch Online +Expansion Pack
Technosoft’s Thunder Force series began in 1984 when the first game was released on the NEC PC-8801 and several other Japanese computers. The entire game is played from a top-down perspective with free directional movement. The main goal was to pilot your ship and destroy the enemy’s large fortress by taking down its shield generators, using your main shot for aerial targets and the bomb shot for ground targets.
Most notably, the game borrowed heavily from gameplay mechanics introduced in Xevious, specifically, the targeting reticle in front of your ship for dropping bombs on ground enemies. Thunder Force never saw the light of day in the US or other Western countries. Fortunately, this was not the end of what would become a well-regarded series.
1988 saw the release of Thunder Force II on the Sharp X68000 PC in Japan. The game featured significant improvements over the previous entry, including a silky smooth frame rate and a soundtrack to accompany the action. One year later on August 14, 1989, Sega released its new 16-bit Genesis console (aka Mega Drive in Japan and UK).
With its sleek design and curved controller, the Genesis looked like a product from the future. Sega came prepared with a modest lineup of six launch titles highlighting the system’s ability to deliver more of an arcade-like experience on a level that outclassed Nintendo’s aging 8-bit NES hardware. Thunder Force II was primed and ready to lead the charge as the only bona fide 2D shoot-em-up on launch day.
This game's mix of top-down free-roaming areas and horizontal side-scrolling stages gave it a distinct flair uncommon in shoot-em-ups at the time. While not an entirely new concept since Konami’s Salamander/Life Force series also had vertical and side-scrolling stages, the omnidirectional movement in Thunder Force II’s top-down stages gives the player a greater sense of control. Like the first game, these areas are where you search for and destroy multiple hostile strongholds. The side-scrolling sections are where you fly deeper into enemy territory to defeat the boss guardian of that level.
Building on its predecessor, Thunder Force II introduces a weapon system that has since remained a hallmark of the series. You start with the default Twin Shot and Back Shot weapons (mainstays in the series), but you can obtain more powerful weaponry by picking up various power-ups from special small carrier ships.
Interestingly, the overhead and side-scrolling levels have unique upgrades independent of each other, with minor overlaps in the names or utility of a few. The Hunter is the MVP of ordnance with its rapid-fire missiles constantly barraging enemies on screen (except ground targets in the overhead stages). It’s not hard to see why it remained a staple of the series.
Thunder Force II also introduced the CLAW—small orbs that can absorb bullets and fire additional shots while rotating around your ship. They’re an invaluable resource because things get dicey early in the game, and you’ll need them to soak up the hail of bullets constantly threatening to destroy your ship. The game's difficulty is quite formidable, even in the early stages.
While the top-down sections give you a sense of freedom, they can also be your worst enemy. As you progress further into the game, these segments become increasingly maze-like. Spatial awareness is essential as you'll need to be careful of walls, buildings, and other hazards you can quickly crash into if you aren’t paying attention. Certain sections have destructible barriers, but you must do so with a rapid-firing weapon. Otherwise, you will likely crash before you can clear a path for yourself.
The X68000 version of the game included a map that the player could access in-game that showed roughly where enemy bases were located. Sadly, it was removed from the Genesis port, which is a real shame since certain overhead stages start to feel like they go on forever when you can’t be sure of the location of the next base or the best route to get there. While it doesn’t ruin the overall experience, the later overhead stages might cause some vexation at the monotony of blindly searching for the next base to destroy while constantly being inundated with enemies and hazards.
The side-scrolling sections aren’t of much comfort either. You'll be fighting through tricky enemy patterns and constantly dodging volleys of missiles and laser beams. Also, certain stages have sections where it speeds up, requiring you to maneuver around fixed structures protruding from the ground and force fields that suddenly pop up to greet you. At one point, you’ll even go backwards, then forward again to reach the end boss. The side-scrolling constantly throws you little curveballs like that, which will undoubtedly frustrate some players.
Losing a life means you’ll have to start from scratch each time you respawn. It’s an unfortunate dampener for a game that’s already tough enough as it is. On the upside, the game provides copious opportunities to rebuild your arsenal if you can stay alive long enough to reach the upgrades again.
It should be noted that there are no checkpoints in this game. You just respawn back on the screen immediately after being shot down. I consider it to be somewhat of a perk since most games of this genre would restart you at an earlier point in the stage.
The graphics have some nice detail for an early Genesis title. The background colors in some of the side-scrolling levels are dull compared to those in the overhead viewpoint, but not terribly so. Boss enemies can be large and intimidating. The final mothership is so enormous that it takes up the entire screen. You have to blow it up in small sections. Some levels move blazingly fast with nary a hiccup to be noticed. All things considered, Thunder Force II made good use of the graphical capabilities of the Genesis.
The game’s audio quality is uneven. On one hand, the music was a decent early showcase of what the Yamaha YM2612 sound chip could produce on the Genesis. The soundtrack, composed by Tomomi Otani (Herzog Zwei, Thunder Force III), features a blend of electronic and rock motifs, pounding basslines, and sharp FM synth tunes to give Thunder Force II a crisp and distinct sound. The intrepid futuristic tone of the music in the first stage (Knights of Legend) is what attracted me to the game when I saw a demo playing in a game store back in the early 2000s.
Unfortunately, some of the sound effects are dull. It is most noticeable in the poorly sampled digital voices. The game opens with a voice presumably explaining your mission objective, but nearly all of it is incomprehensible, except for the “good luck” at the end. The female voice telling you which weapon you've collected is slightly better, but she still sounds muffled and muddy.
I also noticed that when you pick up a CLAW, it sounds like she's saying "gull". There are instances when she'll announce other power-ups that simply can't be understood. But these faults don’t compromise the enjoyment of the core gameplay elements. The janky voicework adds a bit of charm in a way.
Technosoft did a respectable job delivering a shoot-em-up that blended overhead and side-scrolling viewpoints. Granted, not everyone loves the overhead stages since they tend to be chaotic at times, and a few of them drag on thanks to the lack of a map that benefited the X68000 version. But Thunder Force II is an otherwise solid choice if you can overlook the omission. Outside of owning a Genesis and hunting down the cartridge, the easiest way to play this game (as of this writing) is via the Nintendo Switch Online +Expansion Pack. It is an enjoyable history lesson on Sega’s first steps into the 16-bit generation.
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