Thunder & Lightning
System: NES
Release Date: December 1990
Developer: Visco Corporation
Publisher: Romstar
Genre: Puzzle
Break all the blocks each level has to offer in Thunder & Lightning! And there are 30 levels of blocks that Mr. Chin is going to have to conquer. You see, Mr. Chin likes food and he’s irritated the Thunderwarrior in his pursuit of culinary goodness. Now in order to earn his freedom, he’s got to breakthrough all of the Walls of Regret.
Thunder & Lightning is basically a reskinned and updated Arkanoid, which is an updated Breakout, which is a modified Pong. Mr. Chin carries a paddle along the bottom of the screen, which must be used to keep a ball bouncing back and forth, hitting bricks above him. Changing the angle of the ball is much more difficult than it has any right being, especially at higher speeds. There are three different blocks. Simple hit them and they’re gone bricks. Ones that break down over multiple hits. And unbreakable bricks that bounce you off them.
The little submarines, UFOs, and airplanes are item carriers that move in a set pattern. When hit by a ball, they will drop a random powerup that you need to wisely use to finish most levels. The 3-arrow splits your ball into three and continues to do so as long as at least one of the balls stays on screen. The 6-arrow is a one time split. The big powerup causes the ball to go through blocks, even unbreakable ones. There’s slow for the ball and long for the paddle. There’s a glove that catches the ball on the paddle so you can release it when you want. The last is the missiles, which can be picked up twice and shot straight up to destroy bricks. Each powerup will last until you pick up another one, but I guess I’ll give them up for a 1up!
There are a number of enemies that exist on stages that will both help and hinder your quest. The sea anemone will suck your ball in and turn it into two smaller balls. The octopus lives in a container and if you hit it, he squirts out and tries to weigh your paddle down, creating momentum based movement to mess you up. There are turtles that climb from the top of the screen and become constantly respawning blocks you must destroy. The bird goes nuts when it gets hit, flying into and destroying blocks. The Thunderwarrior shows up near the end and will throw lightning at you if he’s hit by the ball, but he’ll also destroy massive swaths of the stage, as well. The turtle levels are probably the worst, you need the missiles or big powerup in order to win. They just respawn so rapidly.
Graphics: 1.5
It looks fine, but there’s nothing particularly nice.
Sound: 1.0
There’s very little variety in music and the sounds are rather annoying.
Gameplay: 1.5
I think the angles are not done correctly. At least there are a lot of different powerups.
Difficulty: 1.5
Some levels obscure the ball, which is just mean, but 1ups are prevalent as item drops.
Fun Factor: 1.0
I was ready to quit until I realized I was almost done, then I soldiered on until the end.
Overall Rating: 1.3
Thunder & Lightning earns a D+. It’s a playable, but not great game. Again, it’s alright for what it is and it doesn’t take too long to get through.