Thunderbirds
System: NES
Release Date: September 1990
Developer: Pack-In-Video
Publisher: Activision
Genre: Shoot ‘em Up
Pilot the five greatest weapons on planet Earth in Thunderbirds! The Tracy Boys are led by their father as the pilots of these sweet shooting machines. With their genius engineer Dr. Brain, they seek to thwart the evil plans of Hood. In particular, this time he is gathering energy to launch a barrage of meteors at the Earth to cause its destruction. But with the Thunderbirds’ crack piloting skills, there’s no way he can succeed! You need to pass nine levels within 60 days to save the Earth and be the heroes.
Dr. Brain has found the location of three of Hood’s possible bases. It’s up to you to choose which one you’d like to take on. Each of them play the same way, as a vertical scrolling shoot ‘em up. Shoot with the A Button and hope you can either tap really fast or have a turbo controller. Enemies can take multiple hits to destroy, making them dangerous. Red and white colored enemies hide a powerup within them. You can restore some life, increase the power of your weapon, or gain an option or Orbital Device. Be careful not to shoot them, though or you may lose them.
By default, the Orbital Device shoots forward, but its position can be altered by pressing the B Button. If you only have one option, you can choose which side it rests on by scrolling through the possible configurations. You start with only forward and backward, but can also find three other configurations. One circles the options around your ship, one shoots forward diagonally, and the final shoots sideways. Each of these are useful in different ways.
Your Thunderbird has three life points when you begin the game. I believe I got an extra point by continuing once. Every time you’re hit, you lose a life point and a level of energy. Somewhat luckily, there are only three levels of energy you can gain, so it’s possible to get them back. After completing one of the first three levels, more open up. These get pretty difficult to defeat on your first try, (19:00) and you may have to take several passes before you learn the layouts and enemy spawn patterns.
Each time you die, you lose three days from your time limit. Dr. Brain gives you a little lecture, but you get your Thunderbird back for another try. Otherwise, it only takes one day if you beat the level. At the end of some levels is a boss of some sort that you have to destroy, most of them being pretty easy. Beating all eight levels on Earth sends you to space to put an end to Hood once and for all.
Graphics: 2.0
The graphics are fine, but sometimes it gets in the way more than I’d prefer.
Sound: 3.0
Music is not offensive and borderline good, and the sound effects aren’t the worst.
Gameplay: 2.0
Very simple shoot ‘em up. The gimmick here revolves around the orbital device configurations.
Difficulty: 2.0
What I tend to expect from a game like this. You’re not getting through it on your first couple tries because the spawns are odd.
Fun Factor: 1.5
It’s not a particularly fun game, but it’s short, so it doesn’t hurt too much to play.
Overall Rating: 2.1
Thunderbirds earns a C. This is an average game that I can’t say I recommend, but if you like vertical scrolling shoot ‘em ups, you can find worse.