(10/17/2015 - 10/23/2015) Game of the Week: Lords of Thunder

[SamIAm]

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October 17 - October 23: Lords of Thunder
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(chosen by SamIAm)

Lords of Thunder is my favorite Turbo game. It's what got me hooked on the system in the first place. It's what goes in when a guest wants to see what a Turbo game looks like. If I could make a close sequel to anything on the system magically appear, it would be to this one. It's among my favorite games of all time. The term “video game” inspires images of it in my head.

What gets me is the stage design. Try and describe with words the environments you progress through during any stage in the game. They're all so fantastic, so dynamic, and so detailed even at the conceptual level. Then, when you get down and look at the actual in-game art, you can instantly appreciate how beautifully realized these concepts are. The stages are colorful, intense, and damned exciting to watch.

Then there's the music. I'll go ahead and out myself as a guy who listens to video game music more than anything else. While it's not quite the most important thing, a game's soundtrack alone can make me love or hate it, and there's nothing better than finding a game with an excellent music. It's the seasoning on the steak. Well, to cut to the chase, Lords of Thunder is a high point in game music history. If I'm playing it next to someone, I'll periodically turn my head, smile and say “Can you believe this music? It's INSANE!”

The game itself is a totally solid shooter. Collecting gems is endlessly entertaining, and aggressively blasting waves of enemies with a powered up armor is more than satisfying, too. Sometimes I curse its difficulty when I get hit a few too many times and lose hope of clearing the game smoothly. However, I know that this is simply the result of me becoming shamefully rusty. Good games should be a little hard.

Whether you've played this game to death already or you've never properly cleared it because of the above-mentioned strictness, I implore you to take this occasion to play through Lords of Thunder again and savor how freaking cool it is. You won't regret it. I promise.

Also, listen to the soundtrack.

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GOTW Schedule:
1. 8/22/2015 - 8/28/2015: Override (lukester)
2. 8/29/2015 - 9/4/2015: Rondo of Blood (o.pwuaioc)
3. 9/5/2015 - 9/11/2015: Street Fighter 2 (Nec.Game.head)
4. 9/12/2015 - 9/18/2015: Bloody Wolf (Gentlegamer)
5. 9/19/2015 - 9/25/2015: Kabuki Itoryodan (Sadler)
6. 9/26/2015 - 10/2/2015: R-Type (crazydean)
7. 10/3/2015 - 10/9/2015: Fray CD: Xak Gaiden (nullity)
8. 10/10/2015 - 10/16/2015: Wizardry 3&4 (BigusSchmuck)
9. 10/17/2015 - 10/23/2015: Lords of Thunder (SamIAm)
10. 10/24/2015 - 10/30/2015: TV Sports Hockey (gredler)
11. 10/31/2015 - 11/6/2015: Blazing Lazers (escarioth)
12. 11/7/2015 - 11/13/2015: Genpei Toumaden (VenomMacbeth)
13. 11/14/2015 - 11/20/2015: Hyper Wars (_joshuaTurbo)
14. 11/21/2015 - 11/27/2015: Drop Off (turboswimbz)
15. 11/28/2015 - 12/4/2015: World Court Tennis (grolt)
16. 12/5/2015 - 12/11/2015: Atlantean (jtucci331)
17. 12/12/2015 - 12/18/2015: SideArms (Punch)
18. OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS!

Rules:
-All members are allowed one submission. When there are no further submissions, we will have a reset and everyone will be able to submit another game.
-Each game may only be submitted once.
-If you wish to retract your submission, please do so at least two weeks before your game is due. Your next submission will go to the back of the cue.
-Please don't submit games that have a high language barrier or will take too long to complete (particularly RPGs).

[MNKyDeth]

Lords of Thunder is a great game. It was actually the only game I ever bought on more than one console. SuperCD and SegaCD.

My SegaCD version is mint but I played it so much on my Duo that the disc sustained some scratches. The game plays fine but the music will cut out at times.

This is a game I do go back and play along with Gate of Thunder fairly often since I repaired my Duo earlier this year.

[tbone3969]

The intro to Lords is pure awesomeness.

[shawnji]

I wish I was good at shooters.  I love the game's music, but I just absolutely suck at this genre.  I've gotten close to beating Cotton, but that's the extent of my prowess.  I want to love this game, but I'm the weird guy who loves the PC Engine yet just can't get into shooters (besides Cotton for some reason).

[johnnykonami]

This game is pretty tough, I never played it bitd but picked up my own copy a couple years back.  My friend and I gave it an honest shot one night and didn't make it far.  I'm not a hardcore shooter guy by any means, but I will have to invest a lot more time into this one before I get any results.  Love the graphics, opening cinema animation, colors, just not a huge fan of the music really!  It's good for what it is and has plenty of others to sing its praises, so I'll just leave it at that.  Not really a power metal kinda guy.

[SignOfZeta]

I rarely actually beat a shooter, maybe 1/4 of the ones I have. I've finished Lords though. It's sorta on the easy side. Also, the game is so manic they didn't make you a one hit wonder. You might get hit like 7 times before you die in some stages since you have shields, life bar, and healing items. You even get maxed up before the final boss for free.

I won't be able to finish it if I'm not playing it the exact way I always play it. The way you spend your money will make or break the game, and f*ck anything but the Earth armor after the first two stages. If you die, don't bother to continue, just start over. After dying you are left with a fraction of the resources you had when you started that level last time. If you couldn't beat it then, you're not likely to be much better with no money for shields or bombs.

[Gentlegamer]

Feel free to add this to the OP

[geise]

This was the game I got to rub in all of the Sega CD fans faces...until it got released on that system.  Then I smiled when I found out it wasn't as good. (to me anyways).  I was so excited about this game when I got the video promo vhs in the mail.  I don't even know why the promo showed up in my mail box.  I never let TTi know I had the system nor did they have my parents address.  Maybe my bro sent off for it?  Oh well who knows.
I thought this game was hard when I first bought it at EB, and I am good at shooters.  After quite a bit of practice it got to be on the easy side for me.  So, I would try to challenge myself.  I would use a different set of armor for each stage and keep rotating.  I would also not buy anything in the store or continue.  It made the game much more fun to me.  I still pop this music on when I go to work or while I am working.  Besides Ys Book I & II, Gate of Thunder, and Spriggan, this is on of my favorites and always will be.  This makes me want to load it and start posting in the high score thread again.

[johnnykonami]

I rarely actually beat a shooter, maybe 1/4 of the ones I have. I've finished Lords though. It's sorta on the easy side. Also, the game is so manic they didn't make you a one hit wonder. You might get hit like 7 times before you die in some stages since you have shields, life bar, and healing items. You even get maxed up before the final boss for free.

I won't be able to finish it if I'm not playing it the exact way I always play it. The way you spend your money will make or break the game, and f*ck anything but the Earth armor after the first two stages. If you die, don't bother to continue, just start over. After dying you are left with a fraction of the resources you had when you started that level last time. If you couldn't beat it then, you're not likely to be much better with no money for shields or bombs.

Any more tips on the Armor selection?  You said use the Earth Armor after the first two stages, but you can pick them in any order, right?  Which ones do you mean?  I figured there was some obvious connections like using the water armor in the desert stage and so on..

[geise]

I rarely actually beat a shooter, maybe 1/4 of the ones I have. I've finished Lords though. It's sorta on the easy side. Also, the game is so manic they didn't make you a one hit wonder. You might get hit like 7 times before you die in some stages since you have shields, life bar, and healing items. You even get maxed up before the final boss for free.

I won't be able to finish it if I'm not playing it the exact way I always play it. The way you spend your money will make or break the game, and f*ck anything but the Earth armor after the first two stages. If you die, don't bother to continue, just start over. After dying you are left with a fraction of the resources you had when you started that level last time. If you couldn't beat it then, you're not likely to be much better with no money for shields or bombs.

Any more tips on the Armor selection?  You said use the Earth Armor after the first two stages, but you can pick them in any order, right?  Which ones do you mean?  I figured there was some obvious connections like using the water armor in the desert stage and so on..

Most just use earth armor and be done with it.  It's the strongest no matter what stage.

[SamIAm]

Any more tips on the Armor selection?

I can't remember the name of the stage at the moment, but during that one that starts in the sunset and moves up to a castle in the sky (god I love this game) I think it's best to use the fully powered up water armor. There are enemies that come from behind, and you want to kill them before they shoot homing fireballs at you. Water armor is the only one that makes it really easy to do this.

The rest of the time, I actually prefer fire armor. The lingering fireballs are really powerful when applied properly. Also, it makes the least noise, so you can hear the music all the better. 

By the way, although you can choose any stage, if you go with the one that the cursor defaults on every time, you'll wind up doing them "in-order". Since the first two default stages are fairly easy, it's a good idea start with them.

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I have a question!

Where and when is it optimal to hit the boss of the second stage? She's the only one who beats me up when I play, and it's because I'm always being overaggressive trying to score damage.

[Black Tiger]

Drop Earth armor on her head as she rises.

[johnnykonami]

Cool, thanks!  I will keep monitoring this thread for advice and maybe try again soon.  I remember going with the Desert stage first usually since it felt the easiest, I will try them the rest in the default order now too.

[SamIAm]

Drop Earth armor on her head as she rises.

So she's vulnerable all the time? That's one thing I never quite got with her. It seems like there are times when she is and times when she isn't based on the sound effects.

[csgx1]

She's seems only vulnerable when she opens her mouth.