Thunder Force II
System: Genesis
Release Date: August 14th, 1989
Developer: Technosoft
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Shoot ‘Em Up
Thunder Force II is a port of a Japanese home computer game, but it fits right in on Sega’s 16-bit console. This is a direct sequel to an earlier Japanese home computer release and the manual says the situation is the same, but the dates have changed. The peaceful planet Nebula is under siege by the Lone star system led by Emperor Reficul and it’s up to you to stop him. Hop in the Thunder Force II through nine stages of shoot ‘em up action!
There are two stages to each of the first four levels. The first is a free roaming top-down stage. Here, your goal is to destroy fortifications on the surface, while avoiding and destroying airborne enemies. As you blow stuff up, upgrades appear on screen, giving you access to new weapons that you can cycle through with the A and C Buttons. You can hold down the B Button and keep shooting, which is quite useful. I didn’t really understand what I was doing at first, but once I stumbled into the objective, I didn’t have the same problem on any of these top-down stages and was able to complete them quickly.
You always have the Twin Shot and the Back Fire at your disposal. But wait, that’s not all! You can also get the Five wave, which covers a large area. The Destroy shot, which sends a steady stream of balls. The Clash rings circle in front of you in a pattern. The Hunter shoots balls that seek flying targets and would be the best weapon, but it doesn’t also shoot a bomb that hits the ground. The twin shot can be upgraded to a Laser, which shoots a line in front of you. The back shot is upgraded to the Wide shot, which shoots forward, back, and at about a 60 degree angle to either side.
The second part to the levels are an auto side-scrolling level. Avoid constant enemy fire and make your way to the end. Nothing new or special here, except the screen can push a little bit up and down, meaning enemies can sometimes be hidden. The Twin Shot and Back Fire return as your default weapons, but are accompanied by some different armaments. The Laser upgrade covers more range and shoots through enemies. The Mega Flash replaces the Back Fire and shoots a spread in front and back. The Wave Shot shoots through walls in a sine pattern. The Side Blaster shoots forward, up, and down to take out those hard to reach enemies. The Nova shoots ring projectiles in the opposite direction of your last d-pad press. The Hunter returns as your heat seeker, this time attacking everyone.
At the end of the side-scrolling levels are a boss. If you have multiple lives left, you can figure out their pattern, or throw yourself at them and take advantage of a generous invincibility period upon respawn. If you run out of lives, you can continue from the beginning of the stage with one of your many continues. I was feeling pretty good until Stage 8, where I spent probably thirty lives trying to learn the level. Once I finally made a clean run, the scrolling picked up speed and forced me into a path choice that led to my death. I uttered many banned words under my breath and cheated to the boss.
The final level was a battle against the giant mothership. The goal became destroying all of the destructible pieces on the perimeter of the ship. Turrets were quite prevalent, but power cells shooting large circles were the main target. Killing them granted a power up, which became invaluable. The final obstacle was a giant fire laser down a narrow passage, which was a massive pain to attack, as the ship would rock back and forth, trying to cause me to crash. I don’t know how I did it, but I finally blew the damn thing up and saved the day.
Graphics: 3.0
Graphics are pleasant enough. There’s plenty of color and the detail isn’t bad.
Sound: 1.5
Music is alright, but shooting sound effects are constant and rather annoying. There is a lady’s voice that calls out the powerups as you collect them. It doesn’t sound so great.
Gameplay: 2.5
There are two modes of play. Plenty of weapons available for you to choose from. The top-down levels are very quick and seem kind of tacked on.
Difficulty: 2.5
The first seven stages took about 25 minutes to get through. The last two stages took about a half hour each thanks to making a save at the beginning of the level. If it wasn’t for the garbage difficulty of those last two stages, this would have scored higher.
Fun Factor: 1.0
The challenge was just about right until the last two stages. My level of fun also dropped precipitously at this point and was replaced with anger.
Overall Grade: 2.1
Thunder Force II earns a C. There are some rough edges present here that make it difficult for me to fully recommend this title, but you may enjoy it.