Thunder Force

[runinruder]

Well, here's how I view them..

Thunder Force - Er, never played it.  Has anyone?

Thunder Force II - This is my personal favorite.  The speedy overhead stages bring out the crybaby in many players, but I love challenging myself to complete them as quickly as possible and find them highly enjoyable.  The side-scrolling strips are underrated masterpieces. Serious influence for Gate of Thunder here.  The eighth stage is one of the greatest shooter levels ever, boasting lots of action, tight maze-like segments that definitely call for strategy in weapon selection, Aero-Blasters-like speed tunnels, and a monster of a boss. 

Thunder Force III - This is the only one that I don't like.  The enemies and bosses are meek and uninspired, and the level of difficulty would insult a toddler.  There's no intensity, no fear of dying is evoked, and the few brief parts that might call for a bit of memorization/strategy (like the rock shifting and changes of direction in Haides) are laughably facile.  Some of the background visuals are dull and ugly.  The only thing I like about this game is the Haides music.  Take away the wavy flames and the Thunder Force name, and no one cares about this cart.

Lightening Force - This would have been my choice had I judged the games "objectively," as it's one of the greatest side-scrolling blasters of all time.  I was immediately blown away by the rock music and parallax-heavy visuals, and my amazement still hasn't subsided.  The bosses are BEASTS and can take an absolute pounding, and the adventure is long and pretty tough.  Lots of slowdown, but it's forgivable considering how ambitious Technosoft was with this project. 

Thunder Force V - More great music and some fantastic bosses (Armament Armed Arm, Guardian's Knight, the TF4 ship, etc.).  Free Range is a cool weapon but it makes the game too easy, and I don't dig the graphical style. (16-bit Lightening Force looks much better.) 

[Digi.k]

TFV for me simply cause I got it on the saturn ^__^

[Tatsujin]

never played thunder force as well. my fav. ist part III followed by II and IV.

[Michael Helgeson]

Ive played them all but part 1 cause its a crappy shooter on 1984 computers in Japan. I liked TFV more on Saturn then PS1. My favorite is Part 4.

[esteban]

They all rule (well, I never played the original), but IV is my fave. I even get some enjoyment from the SNES version, even though it pales in comparison to the TRUE ONE.

TF II is right up there, though. I just love the frenetic action of IV, something that TFII's design prevents it from achieving in as high a form.



I've spent the least amount of time with V... my friend moved before I could spend much time with it. It's a different beast, as far as I am concerned, than its predecessors. I tend to think of the "true" TF series as = II, III, IV on Genny / Megadrive. Everything else is "related to" or "inspired by."

You folks feel the same way?

[Joe Redifer]

I love 'em all!  I've never played part 1, though.  Here are some of my comments:

Thunder Force II - This game rocks!  Most people don't like the overhead stages because they have small and insignificant brains and therefore cannot figure out what the hell is going on.  They expect it to be like every other overhead shooter.  But since my brain is awesome and from the future, I can handle it.  f*cking great music!

Thunder Force III - This game rocks!  Pretty easy when played on "normal", though.  Incredible music and a fun game to blast through.

Thunder Force IV - This game rocks!  Not sure why there is some slowdown when there really isn't much going onscreen.  Wings of Wor puts a crapload more onscreen with no slowdown.  I think that they overcompensated for the difficulty of Thunder Force 3 here.  The game doesn't need to be this hard.  Great music, but...

Thunder Force V - This is my least favorite.  Too damn hard to be enjoyable.  They got into the fad of "Look, this game is hard and therefore it is cool!"  Difficulty does not enhance enjoyability unless that's all you have going for your game.  This game also has the worst graphics and music of any Thunder Force game that I have played.

[Keranu]

You can already guess what I was going to post - I hate those damn games . Actually TF2 seems like it could be cool, but I just haven't put much time into it. From the little I played, I enjoyed how the overhead stages play, but I couldn't figure out where to go or what to do. Maybe I'll put more time into that game soon.

[termis]

4>3=5>2

4 was awesome.  So was  3.  5 was good, but, didn't quite wow me like 4 did for its time, and can't touch something like Radiant Silvergun on the Saturn.  2 is still good, but shows its age now.

The only thing that the series lacked was 2-player play, but other than that, couldn't get much better.

[gundarN]

I really need to get Thunderforce V; just not been buying for my Saturn recently.
I voted for IV on the Mega Drive.

[GUTS]

Man tought choice, but V edges out IV for me just because of how memorable the bosses are ("IT HAS DIED THREE TIMES AND BEEN REBORN TWICE!"  wouldn't that mean it's still dead?).  IV is incredible though and easily in my top 5 shooters of all time.

[Tatsujin]

Thunder Force III - This is the only one that I don't like.  The enemies and bosses are meek and uninspired, and the level of difficulty would insult a toddler.  There's no intensity, no fear of dying is evoked, and the few brief parts that might call for a bit of memorization/strategy (like the rock shifting and changes of direction in Haides) are laughably facile.  Some of the background visuals are dull and ugly.  The only thing I like about this game is the Haides music.  Take away the wavy flames and the Thunder Force name, and no one cares about this cart.

i always wonder how people can't like TFIII, since it was the overblast shooter back in '90 in any points of view. amazing BGM, smooth action, great presentation (effex etc.). if it was to easy, just try in hard mode.
in my case of course there is a good potion of nostalgic feelings which makes it to my #1.  and back then it was that game which pushed the mega drive on number 1 place in my console-charts (at least temporary).

when TFIV came out, i already was joining Gate of Thunder, which could beat it easily IMO. therefore TFIV was a great game, but couldn't take me that much as TFIII did it, when no big competeting shooter like this one where available.

TFIV IMO lacks in some big technical issues. great game with impressive grafx and parallax-effex, but sometime slower than a gradius III on the SFC. OK, it ain't such that bad, but the game really overstrained the hardware some times, which gave me an overall bad impression. not that bad at all, but any worse than necessary.

[Michael Helgeson]

I really need to get Thunderforce V; just not been buying for my Saturn recently.
I voted for IV on the Mega Drive.

Make sure to get one complete with the music cd soundtrack included. One of the best import Saturn games I ever owned.

[Joe Redifer]

Can't the soundtrack be heard just by popping the game itself into a CD player?  What fantastic benefits does the music CD hold?  And they'd better be damned good.  OR ELSE!

[Necromancer]

TFIII is my favorite - great tunes, back grounds, effects, etc.  The difficulty level is fine for me, since I'm not terribly skilled at shmups.

TFII is a close second - simply because the X68000 version is damn good and it swears at you. 

[thewestexit]

Man, I bought TFV for the Saturn right when it came out... I must've played that game at least 100 times, fantastic stuff.  And yes I do like the other ones as well.  No I have not played the first one, but it looks like Xevious, I don't think we're missing out on too much.

The music CD with TFV features some killer remix tracks from previous TF games... in short, it is sweet.