Thunder Force were a set of proper games for the Megadrive that defined the console and showed that it was more than a contender for the best console compared to its younger rival the Super Nintendo.

The Thunder Force Series comprised of a series of games for the Sega Megadrive or Genesis as it is also called, the story goes like this – the Galaxy Federation (the good guys) have been fighting the ORN Empire (the bad guys) for around 100 years (which took place in Thunder Force 1 and 2), this time, the ORN Empire have fought back with a cloaking system, which has hidden their main base from the Federation. Furthermore, to defend the base, they have built some hardcore defence systems which you have to defeat.

So that’s the basic story, well what about the game you might ask? Well, in a departure from the first two Thunder Forces, this game is a side scrolling shoot em up, however, at times the way in which the game scrolls changes. You have two weapons, one that is powerful and shoots straight forwards, the other shoots backwards and forwards. More weapons can be obtained throughout the game but you can lose them when you lose a life. The extra weapons, however, do come in handy, as with this game, your ship can be beefed up immensely. If you’ve played R-Type it is a very similar excursion with this game, in that basically you just shoot at everything that moves on the screen.

Sadly I have to say, this game does begin to hallmark the decline in the popularity of the standard sideways scrolling shoot em up which has long since died as a viable genre of games. This is shame really as they are a lot of fun and were a main stable of the arcades, this one in particular was a fine example. This game did, however, differ from its contemporaries is that it was set at a most extreme difficulty level. You get 5 levels to start off with and each one is extremely tough from the start. For example, whilst, traditionally it is only most end of level bosses that have a traditional “weak spot” which you are able to penetrate, some of the regular enemies here also need similar accurate targeting. Furthermore, each of the levels has added hazards – with Hydra, the underwater level – having a constant upstream you have to battle through.

This game does not disappoint, yes it is very difficult, but not so much that you do not want to play it, and thanks to the solid fast controls, and the fact you know exactly what each button does, you don’t feel cheated or robbed when you die. You die because it’s your fault, and yes with this game you will die a lot. However, that’s what’s brilliant about this game, you know exactly how you die, and you not feel frustrated, so it works pretty well. This knowledge then feeds the steep learning curve that if your persistent will eventually lead to you to beat this game, although it will be a challenge to do so, and if you do so, you will be a mightily accomplished player at the end indeed.

Finally, to add to the brilliance of the game, is fact that it looks so stunning with bright, vibrant rich colours, detailed backgrounds and inspiring graphics that move at a fair pace. The soundtrack is wonderful and really adds to the atmosphere when playing the game. Put all these features together and you get one classic shoot em up that really gives Sega Megadrive / Genesis owners something to celebrate and hold up again its bitter Super Nintendo rival.