GROW - Lords of Thunder

 Review by Clint 'ThoRn' Thornton

Developer(s)	Hudson Soft, Red Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Hudson Soft
Platform(s)	TurboDuo, Sega CD
Release date(s)	TurboDuo 1993 Sega CD 1995
Genre(s)	Horizontal scrolling shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player

When most people think of 2D shooters they usually think of an outer space themed environment with a

futuristic shuttle blasting its way through a barrage of bullets and enemies.  And you would be completely correct too.  Ever since Star Wars was released back in 1977 we have been treated to a countless amount of space war type shmups.  But every now and then a shooter comes along which breaks the mold a little, sure it's still undoubtedly a shooter but when your main protagonist is an exposed human (type) character with wings or possibly on a broom you may think twice about playing it.  For some reason this type of shooter does not sit well with all of us and I am among those people.  I don't know why, I can't really explain it but it's just the way I have felt over the years and I know I am not alone with this.  But along comes Lords of Thunder and completely throws a spanner in the works when it comes to my set ways.  Maybe it's because it's set in a mysterious far off land with some really colorful environments, maybe it's because it's the perfect combination of challenge and enjoyment or maybe it's because it has a kick ass soundtrack that makes you feel like you are in a Man O War music video...  Or maybe it's a combination of all 3.  Let's go check it out to find out what makes this game one epic shooter.

Turbo Duo

STORY
The evil god Deoric has unleashed slithering vermin, mechanical dragons and phantom Viking fleets upon the lands mistral.  As the sole survivor of a dynasty of knights, you have inherited four suits of mystic armor that harness nature's most powerful elements - Earth, Water, Wind and Fire (and heart for all you Captain Planet fans).  Only you can use the elements to defeat Deoric's demonic horde.....  Now is that metal or what?!

GAMEPLAY
Although Lords of Thunders is a horizontal shooter to its core it adds a few new elements of game play to the mix to help you get more out of it.  The best way to describe it is Fantasy Zone on Bull Shark testosterone.  Each enemy you kill will drop either red or blue crystals that you will want to collect so when you finish of a level (or die) you can visit the shop run by a sexy sorceress and stock up on bombs, life, power ups, shields and life restoring elixirs so when you enter in to the next stage you are fully loaded to defeat your enemy.  Unfortunately your health is not restored after each level so you will always want to refill your life before you purchase anything else.  My recommendation is that you will want to try and collect between 1500 and 2000 crystal dollars by the end of each stage as that will be enough for a full life refill, 3 bombs and the majority of your weapon power ups.

Sega / Mega CD

Lords of Thunder follows a similar level selection to Mega Man where you can choose what order you wish to play through but if you follow the natural selection of levels you will essentially start off at the easiest level and work your way up to the hardest.  As stated in the story you have four elements to choose from at the beginning of each level, each element offering a different type of offensive weapon.  Some people believe it's important that you avoid certain elements for certain levels, for example don't use the water element on a water stage as it will counteract and take longer to defeat the end of stage boss.  I for one do not think this is true, from my experience I will always just use the fire and water elements as they are strongest and the wind and earth are the weakest regardless what stage you are in.  But hey, I could be wrong?

Sega / Mega CD

I will quickly touch on the difficulty levels too....  There aren't any.  It's hard as steel balls all the way through so you will definitely be spending a lot of time learning patterns.  But if you are lucky enough to own both the Sega / Mega CD and Turbo Duo versions then you will want to go for the Sega version to start out with if you want the easiest possible difficulty.  Even though both games play almost identically you will find the Sega / Mega CD version is considerably easier than the original Turbo Duo version.


CONTROLS
The best thing about 16 bit shooters is that 99% of them only require two buttons, shoot and power up and Lords of Thunder is the perfect example of this simple button configuration.  Having played both console versions I can say they both control almost the same with fluent but snappy directional controls and possibly the most important button setup for a shooter and that is auto fire...  Yes, both versions have default auto fire so you wont be getting an carpel tunnel from this game.

Turbo Duo

AUDIO / VISUALS
If you only know one thing about this game it will be its 'most excellent' soundtrack and that very few games retro and modern can compete with the high level caliber of music Lords of Thunder provides for the player.  It borrows beautifully from the 80's hard rock and metal era and I have no doubt Bruce Dickinson, Rob Halford and Eric Adams would approve of the music without giving it a second thought.

The visuals are pretty damn good looking too.  Both consoles offer bright and vibrant environments and well drawn sprites.  Although the Turbo Duo  does have a higher color palette over the Sega / Mega CD and does indeed use it throughout the game, in my opinion in doesn't make the Turbo Duo stand out that much more in the graphics department.  Let's not forget about the intro either, both consoles have an anime intro that is smooth, bright and not a single grainy pixel to be seen, so for those Sega CD haters out there that think it could only produce grainy animations, think again.

Sega / Mega CD - 32 colors

Turbo Duo - 65 colors

OVERALL
If you are looking for a hard as nails shooter that actually allows you to learn the game and the enemy patterns so that you may advance that little bit further each time whilst looking at some sweet graphics and listening to possibly the best metal soundtrack in any video game period, than Lords of Thunder might be the game for you.

It really is hard to say which is the better version as both have all the right boxes ticked where it matters.  If I had to call out the differences I would say the Turbo Duo is the better looking game but the Sega / Mega CD has some voice overs (mainly in the intro) that the Turbo Duo does not.

Good news is that it is available on the Virtual Console and PlayStation network so there is really no excuse for not giving this game a play through.

Until next time....  Stay Retro!

GROW - Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire

Review by Clint 'ThoRn' Thornton
@RetroGameRevive

PLATFORM   PC Engine - Super CD Arcade

DEVELOPER  CAProduction               

PUBLISHER  Hudson Soft                

RELEASED   24th November 1995         

GENRE      SHMUP                      

PLAYERS    Single & 2 Player Co-op    

MEDIA      CD-Rom                     

Every console released since the dawn of video games have had exclusives.  Some games could dominate the market to the point where they have the power to be able to sell a system just for that one game like Super Mario Bros for the Nintendo Entertainment System.  And then you have the other end of the scale, exclusives that make you wonder "What the hell were the programmers thinking and why on earth would I want to go out an buy a Atari Jaguar to play Cybermorph"...  My apologise to all you Jaguar fans.

The good news is that this review is one of those exclusives that not only showcases the ability of the console, but is also full of solid game play and will keep you coming back for more.  Strap yourself in to your fighter jet and join me as I nose dive straight in to this amazing shmup for the PC Engine Super CD, Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire / Galaxy Policewoman Legend Sapphire....

Due to the length of the name, I will refer to it simply as 'Sapphire' for the duration of the review.

Everybody knows that the TurboGrafx 16 / PC Engine had a plethora of exclusive top notch shoot em ups for the console, but for me Sapphire is the culmination of all those years of great shmups to grace the PC Engine.  Now I know there would be a lot of people out there who would disagree with me on this as it is not the most challenging, rewarding or even deep game on the platform but it's because of some of those reasons why I hold it in such high regard....  It's just a fun game that isn't too hard nor is it a walk in the park, it looks great and sounds epic!

STORY

You are an all-women police team called the 'Burning Rabbits' who follow a group of terrorist through time to uncover their hoard of weapons and other prohibited items that have been hidden in the past.

GAMEPLAY

Sapphire is a vertical shooter that borrows from the bullet hell genre games like DoDonPachi and combines it with the slower paced pattern memorization games like the Star Soldier series.

You get to choose between four characters each having their own individual strengths and weaknesses.

Sapphire White (Blue Hair) - The 'hothead' leader who is your all round attacker.

Charotte  Syphon (Pink/Orange Hair) - The fastest ship but also the weakest fire power.

Helena Evangelin (Green Hair) - Slowest ship but does the most damage to enemies.

Jasmin Willoung (Purple Hair) - 2nd fastest ship with slightly more damage output than Charotte.

There are three different colored power ups to upgrade your ships weaponry and will effect each character differently as each ship has its own individual primary attack style.  The 'Red' power up is your spread shot, 'Blue' is a powerful straight laser and 'Green' is like a floating shot as it tends to move around in different patterns.  As you continue to pick up the power ups your weapon system will change and become stronger.  It might take a while for you to find what you are comfortable with when choosing what character suits what colored power up for your play style but in my opinion I enjoy experimenting with all the different weapons so for me this learning curve is all part of the fun.

As you make your way through the levels you will be greeted with sub-bosses and also navigational challenges similar to the way Radiant Silvergun makes you choose a certain narrow path to follow before the auto scroll catches up with you and corners you with no place to go except in to a wall.

Each level has its own unique style and gives you a variety of indoor, outdoor land and outdoor space environments.  Take note that each level you progress through is actually going further back in time.  Until the last level that is, when you fight the final boss in the current era of the future....  Make sense :P

GRAPHICS

I would have to say that Sapphire could quite possibly be the most striking PC Engine game when it comes to the visuals, but again many people might not agree with me as some retro enthusiasts out there don't believe in the following technique.  Sapphire was born in the mid 90's when the struggling 16-bit consoles were starting to use pre-rendered sprites to create 3D and polygon effects so they could live a little longer in the emerging 32-bit era.  And this is exactly what CAProduction did when creating Sapphire and I can't get enough.  They created an environment of both pre-rendered and hand drawn sprites which co-exist beautifully in this game.  This game could have easily found its way on to the Saturn without any changes and it still would have looked amazing.  

Although it might not be as colorfully bright as others games like Star Parodier and Magical Chase it still has a color palette that shows off the capabilities of PC Engine.  The PC Engine might have only had a 9-bit color palette of 512 colors but people tend to forget it actually had the capability to produce up to 482 colors on screen at once which is almost twice as much as the SNES could do natively. 

There are also some really neat visual tricks done I would not have thought possible on the  PC Engine.  In the first stage you will see some really cool holographic effects of morphing faces and in a later stage you will be required to fly through a dimly lit room but your ship enables a 'headlight' effect to light the way.

AUDIO

Like the music in Lords of Thunder?  Well, you're in luck as Sapphire has the same composer and doesn't let you down in the music department at all.  It's full of electric guitar and solid metal riffs.  I think hard rock / metal is the best music to accompany a shmup and this to me is the pinnacle of shmup music.   The sounds effects of the lasers can seem a little 'high pitch' at times but the music will always be there to pick you up again.  It simply is outstanding composition when it comes to the score.

CONTROLS

The PC Engine wasn't exactly known for it's advanced controllers when it was competing with the Genesis and SNES.  But for a platform that was released in 1987 the only other console to compare it to at the time was the NES.  It might have only had 2 buttons but 2 buttons is all you need.  Shoot and bomb!  Controlling your ship is nice and smooth too, I have heard of some complaining it's not as responsive as other shooters on the platform but I certainly didn't have any issues adjusting to the game controls.

OVERALL

Sapphire was one of the few games that required the Arcade Card Duo/Pro to be able to play the game so simply owning a Turbo Duo was no longer enough to play all the games released for the PC Engine.  But that is not the only downfall any more.  This game can sell for an easy $500 these days if you want a CIB and even then you need to be very careful you are not purchasing a reproduction.  But on the flip side Sapphire was released on the PSP in Japan as part of the Galaxy Fraulein Collection compilation and will only set you back $30.

It's very unfortunate this game commands a high price as it is such a fun game to play.  So if you ever get the chance to play this gem, don't pass it up as it is one of those games that looks great, sounds great and most of all...  Plays Great!

Until next time....  Stay Retro.

GROW: Thunder Force IV - Sega Genesis / Mega Drive

Developer(s)	Technosoft
Publisher(s)	JP Technosoft NA Sega EU Technosoft
Series	Thunder Force
Platform(s)	Sega Genesis
Release date(s)	JP July 24, 1992 NA September 1992 EU December 1992
Genre(s)	Shoot 'em up
Mode(s)	Single-player

Review by Clint 'ThoRn' Thornton

              @RetroGameRevive

SHMUP.  Say it with me......  SHHHHHHHMUPPPP.  A word that isn't really a word but for gamers out there signifies a genre of arcade type action.  Horizontal or vertical they keep you on your toes at all times and the moment you slip up.... BANG!  Your ship has been shot down and you have most likely lost your 'power up'.  But you take a deep breath, try to remember the enemy and bullet patterns and push on......

For most people who are familiar with 16-bit SHMUPS the 'Thunder Force' name should be right up there with the other masters of shooters like 'R-Type', 'Gradius' & 'Truxton'.  In fact for those who chose 'Team Sega' over 'Team Nintendo' during the Bit Wars, at least one of the Thunder Force games for the Genesis / Mega Drive will most likely be in your top 3 SHMUPS for the console.  And that for me is Thunder Force IV.  Being the final game released for the Mega Drive before entering in to the 32-bit market this is the complete package and for a game released in 1992 it's very clear Technosoft knew the hardware and knew how to get the most out of it as most games of this caliber did not grace the Mega Drive until 1994 when developers really knew how to push the hardware to the max.

Thunder Force IV was called 'Lightening Force' in US.

PLOT

TFIV continues on immediately after TFIII.  The Galaxy Federation are under the impression they had defeated the ORN Empire yet still continue to be attacked by menacing forces.  These forces are soon found out to be the 'Vios', an allied force of the ORN.  All seems lost but eventually the Galaxy Federation develop a new small spacecraft fighter, the 'Fire Leo-04 Rynex' and send it out to defeat the Vios.  You the player control the Leo Rynex and set out through a total of 10 stages to fight and demolish the evil Vios.

GAMEPLAY

If you have played any Thunder Force games before you need no introduction but for those who have not been blessed by this series yet, I will make you a believer.  As I am sure you have figured out by now this game is a horizontal shooter, but TFIV introduces a vertically scrolling screen which is controlled by the players ship movement, so you now have the ability to fly higher and lower and can now use much more of the environment to your advantage.  But be warned, learn the patterns of those types of stages as you don't want to be flying low in the mountain ranges when a power up is floating by in the clouds off screen.

Your ship is given the ability to change speeds on the fly (like in previous games).  This is will take some time to use this strategically.  At first I was just using it as a 'players preference' for how fast I wanted my ship speed.  But as you play further in to the game, you soon start to understand it's in your best interest to adjust the speed of your ship during certain stages and against certain bosses.

The weapon system is the same as TFIII and features upgradable default weapons as well as upgrading to special weapons.  Unfortunately like most SHMUPS if you are killed you will lose the weapon you are currently using, so make sure you only select your favorite and most effective boss weapon for those required moments.  There is nothing worse than losing your best weapon especially when you lose it from generic enemy when a simple twin shot would have done the job.

GRAPHICS

As I said earlier, Technosoft really knew the hardware they were working with.  Everything from the copious layers of Parallax to the vibrant yet very deep color palette to the enormous boss sprites you encounter.  Some stages even transition from day to night so flawlessly I actually had to make myself take notice of the change as I would keep finding myself starting the game with a bright sky blue background, but ended in dark twilight.  I would definitely encourage you to choose the top stage when you first encounter the stage select as this is probably one of the best showcasing levels for the game.  When you hit the water and dive underneath, you will know what I am talking about ;)

AUDIO

Everyone knows the Mega Drive was a 'Hit' or 'Miss' when it came to it's music and effects.  But good news is that Thunder Force IV is a big hit!  It's rock, it's synthesized, it's just awesome!  Each piece of music accompanies each stage to perfection.  the music intensifies at the right moments throughout the game but also sits as the right amount of background music when you are not in those intense moments.

OVERALL

I love Thunder Force IV, and like most games I review I know I am being partly biased, but I don't care as I know this is a great game and worthy of its name.  Some people may say it's the same game as previous releases and for that they lose a bit of love for the game.  But I honestly think this is the best of the 16-bit Thunder Force series and will chuck this puppy in to my Mega Drive any time I feel the need for some SHMUP goodness!

8 out of 10

Until next time...  Stay Retro!