Thunder Force IV / Lightening Force: Quest for the Darkstar - Genesis (1992)

American Cover

European Cover

Thunder Force 4

After the success Technosoft had with Thunder Force III, they decided to up the ante with the next installment, and push the Sega Genesis to its limits. The results of their labor cumulated with the release of Thunder Force IV (known in the States as Lightening Force), commonly regarded as the apex of the series. Graphically, TFIV is easily the best looking of the Genesis Thunder Force installments and one of the best looking Genesis games, employing some awesome effects to wow the player, such as those seen the the striking, parallax heavy first stage. Exclusive to this game, many of the stages span heights greater than one TV screen, giving you wider areas to maneuver around in and a sense of vastness from where you're flying. The graphical touches are so high that occasionally it becomes a bit too much for the Genesis to handle and the game suffers from noticeable slowdown at times (which is later fixed in the Thunder Force Gold Pack Saturn re-release). Music wise, to say that TFIV's soundtrack is great is an understatement. As far as Genesis soundtracks go, TFIV's is one of the best on the system from both and aural and technical standpoint, standing among greats such as Streets of Rage 2, and further demonstrating the masterful skill Technosoft had at handling the Genesis sound chip. It's basically a combination of fast paced, guitar driven, power rock themes, such as the ass kicking intro and boss themes, and more reserved, laid-back, jazzier themes, like stage 3's "The Sky Line". As an added bonus, beating the game and then going into the config menu allows you to access some nice Omake tracks. The gameplay for the most part remains unchanged from TFIII with a few slight modifications. Like in TFIII, you can choose where you want to start first, but now you can pick the order of the first few stages. Your standard Thunder Force weapon system also returns, but the weapons are very balanced here, as each one has their advantages and drawbacks depending on the situation. After the game's halfway point, you get the ability to use Thunder Sword, a devastating frontal lighting attack. The two requirements for using it is to have CLAWs and to wait for it to charge by refraining from firing. After a few seconds, the Thunder Sword will charge to full power, however it can be fired beforehand to discharge a lesser blast. The drawbacks to using the Thunder Sword is that it leaves you vulnerable while you wait for it to charge since you can't fire, and it has major recoil, so you can very easily smack into something behind you if your not careful. Despite your impressive arsenal, the game is very challenging, much harder than TFIII. You'll not doubt be dying frequently during attempted playthroughs as the game can lay it on you pretty hard. On top of that, the bosses aren't pushovers this time around and the harder ones can take quite a beating before they finally go down. While difficult however, the game is beatable. Its just a matter of memorizing the enemy patterns, learning where to position your ship, finding the best weapon to use in various sections, etc. It will take some replays to figure all this out, but the game is long and fulfilling enough to keep you playing. Without question, this is one of the must play shooters on the Genesis. Other than the title change (and the moronic misspelling of the word "lightning"), the American version has a bug in the options screen that grants you 99 lives if you set your ship count to zero. MP3s Fighting Back Boss 1 Metal Squad Stand Up Against Myself

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Compilations: Thunder Force Gold Pack 1 and 2

A little bit before Thunder Force V was released, Technosoft decided to re-release previous Thunder Force games on the Sega Saturn and bundled them together in two compilation packs along with a few extras, such as CG sequences. The first gold pack contained the Genesis version of Thunder Force II along with Thunder Force III, and are pretty much the same as their original counterparts. The only minor issue is some shifty sound emulation. Thunder Force Gold Pack 2, containing Thunder Force IV and Thunder Force AC, is the same deal as the first pack. As mentioned earlier, TFIV has the added bonus of having the slowdown problems which sometimes plagued the Genesis version removed. It also contains a neat bonus for those skilled enough to beat it on one credit - the ability to play as the TFIII ship. It also suffers from slightly degraded sound.

Thunder Force Gold Pack 1

Thunder Force V - PSOne / Saturn (1997)

American PSOne Cover

Japanese Saturn Cover

Thunder Force 5 (PSOne)

After a five year hiatus, the Thunder Force series returns with its fifth title, gracing the 32-bit consoles. The console update brought about a new change to the series, and the game sprites are now done in 3D, similarly to other shump franchises at the time. Unfortunately, the 3D designs have aged a bit poorly, due to having blocky polygons and pixelation issues, though the sprites animate well and the backgrounds look nice to somewhat compensate for this. The major addition to the gameplay is that you now have ability to use Over Weapons. By using the energy of your CLAWs (or CRAWs as there now called), you can combine them with your weapons and create powered up versions of them, which lay waste to everything in their path. The Over Weapons drain CRAW energy though, and when depleted, you either have to wait for them to recharge or replace them in order to use the Over Weapon again. In their weakened state, the CRAWs will disappear if hit by enemy fire. The game also has a new scoring system that rewards you for killing larger enemies as quickly as possible via score multipliers. One of the standout things about TFV is its really cool boss battles. One such boss, A3 (Armament Armed Arm), changes between a walker tank, hovercraft, and flying aircraft. Another, Guardian's Knight, is a Macross like transforming mech that slashes at you with its huge sword and relentlessly fires at you with a screenful of bullets and a large laser cannon. Some of these are named after heavy metal bands like Deep Purple and Iron Maiden, and each have weird Engrishy intros. The text was cleaned up for the US release but the text is still the same as the Japanese release. But no doubt the coolest moment in the game is when you rocket into space, where your forced to fight the original Vasteel, a.k.a Fire Leo 4 "Rynex" - the ship you piloted in Thunder Force IV, with a remix of TFIV's intro theme rockin' in the background! The difficulty level is easier than TFII and IV, but a bit harder than III. Much of the difficulty is lowered by the absolutely devastating Free Range weapon that can cut down even the strongest of enemies without much of a problem. Mastery of it will pretty much guarantee an easy play through (except for the very last boss who's a bastard no matter what and who you have to fight on a time limit to see the good ending). Without the free range, the game becomes more challenging but still remains at a manageable level. As expected from Technosoft by now, TFV has an soundtrack worthy of the series. The style is full of catchy melodies and copious amounts of synth rock composed by Tsukumo Hyakutaro, your standard Thunder Force fare. As a treat for fans, the first stage theme "Legendary Wings" contains a nice little homage to "Back to the Fire" from TFIII. The two versions are fundamentally the same, but have a few differences. The Saturn version has the edge in the graphics department, since some of the graphical tricks and touch-ups found in it are missing in the later Playstation release. For instance, in the third level of the Saturn version, the ground is transparent and reveals a city underneath the rubble. This is completely absent in the Playstation version, as the ground is completely solid. While the Saturn version generally has more detailed backgrounds, the Playstation version has slightly better texturing on the bosses, but it's barely noticeable. In the long run, though, both look pretty ugly. The Playstation version also adds little bits of computer code in between the loading segments. The Saturn version also had two releases, a normal version and a special version containing an extra CD full of remixed Thunder Force music. The Playstation version (subtitled "Perfect System") expands the game a bit with some added features. Among them, an unlockable boss rush mode, an image viewer, and extra CG scenes. It also improves on some of the slowdown present in the Saturn version, although the Saturn version's minimal slowdown wasn't a huge deal to begin with. Purists tend to prefer the Saturn version, but both are suitable enough to play. Working Designs brought the game to America under the Spaz label, and made it so you couldn't truly "beat" the game unless you set it to the default difficulty level or higher, making "easy" mode a waste of time. Amusingly, the Japanese Game Over says "Try to Next Chance", as opposed to "Pilot Error" in the English PSOne version. MP3s Download here Legendary Wings Rising Blue Lightning Steel of Destiny Duel of Top

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Screenshot Comparisons

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Thunder Force VI - Playstation 2 (2008)

Japanese Cover

Thunder Force VI

Thunder Force VI

After Thunder Force V, the fate of the series has been in limbo, due to Technosoft having all but disappeared a few years back. Initially, before they bellied up, Technosoft began work on Thunder Force VI, to be released for the Sega Dreamcast. Unfortunately, development of it stopped in the early stages, and proof of its existence only remains from a video of the proposed intro sequence that later circulated on the Internet. Several years ago, an album entitled "Broken Thunder: Noise Image Soundtracks Vol. 3" was released featuring tracks that were intended to be used in TFVI. The tracks on this album were recently re-released along with some new arrangements of past Thunder Force songs on the album "Broken Thunder -project Thunder Force VI-". Sega producer Tez Okano was so enthusiastic about the series that he incorporated its basic mechanics (and even its music) into the final stages of the Dreamcast parody/sim Segagaga. Another CD was released called "ABSOLUTE AREA -project THUNDER FORCE VI-", although most of this music from Hyper Duel, another Technosoft shooter. In 2006, a doujin studio announced a game called Broker Thunder, that was to be a tribute to the Thunder Force series, utilizing the released soundtrack. However, it was very poorly made, and quickly pulled from store shelves, under the promise that it would be "fixed". That never ended up happening, because in 2008, Sega eventually picked up the license from the departed Technosoft, and designed a new Thunder Force VI, this time from the ground up. Many of the basics have been carried over from Thunder Force V, mostly its level design and speed. The graphics are once again all 3D, and its uses this to its advantage, zooming and panning around the ship for dramatic effect, while the action still takes place entirely in the 2D plane. This might bring back nightmares of the early PSOne shooter Philosoma, but it's pulled off much better here. The visuals themselves are really just average - there's a lot of blurry, repetitive textures and noticeable fog. It's not bad, but it's a step back from Gradius V, or even earlier PS2 shooters like R-Type Final. At least it keeps a lot of the silly Engrish from Thunder Force VI, although a lot of the text is written (and spoken) in what is apparently Mongolian. The major difference is from its immediate predecessor is that all five weapons are available at all times, even when you die, and you'll continue right where you left off whenever you use a credit, as opposed to restarting the state. The overdrive system is also powered by greens orbs left by fallen enemies, so you no longer need to sacrifice a CRAW to use it. Even though these seem to be some welcome changes, the initial impression of Thunder Force VI really isn't all that great. The first few stages lift too many sections from previous games - the opening section of the third stage is taken almost directly from the first level of Thunder Force V. During one of the final encounters, you fight the ship from Thunder Force IV, which is cool - too bad Thunder Force V already did it too. There's very little originally, and it seems bent far more on homage than innovation. At the outset, it's also a bit too easy, at least on the default difficulty levels. On the plus side, the Kids difficulty allows pretty much anyone to practice, while the availability of the Hard and Maniac levels provide a much larger and more satisfying challenge. Multiple playthroughs will unlock a couple of extra ships. The Rynex, the ship from Thunder Force IV, actually has a different weapon set, and loses its weapons when you die, making for a more traditional experience. The second unlockable ship, alas, is just a variation on the first. There are several "documents" to unlock too, although they're all in Japanese. The music is something of a disappointment, as it doesn't use any of the songs from the Broker Thunder release. Despite assembling a squadron of shoot-em-up music veterans, including Tamayo Kawamoto (Rayforce), Go Sato (Raiden) & Motoaki Furukawa (Gradius), the soundtrack is a bit too laid back, sounding more appropriate for a trippy Darius game as opposed to the hard rocking themes of the previous Thunder Force games. It's still good, but it just doesn't fit with the lineage of the series. Though it's a bit disappointing that Thunder Force VI feels so recycled, at its core, it's still a well-made shooter that pulls off the difficult task of appealing to both casual and hardcore shooter fans. MP3s Download here Broken Thunder - Fire-Leo-05p Syrinx Broker Thunder - Arc Angel Absolute Area - Cyber Fleet Thunder Force VI - Ruined Green

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Notably, one fan who goes by the handle of Garow decided to take matters into his own hands and has been working on an unofficial follow up to the series entitled "Thunder Future". Screenshots and diary entries of his progress are posted on his fanpage Thunder Force Forever (linked below). Links Wikipedia Wikipedia entry for the series. Thunder Force Forever (Japanese) Japanese fanpage for Thunder Force. Also the home page for the fan made sequel Thunder Future. Sega-16 Article Sega-16 article about the series done for there features section.

Thunder Force 5