If you read the title of this review and something similar to this image did not instantly pop up into your head…you are a sad sad person.
AWWWWW SNAP! I am digging way back for this review so this one will not be a big review of a game but more or less a lesson in how games could kick ass back in the late 80′s. This game is Super Thunder Blade and actually was a sequel to an arcade classic named Thunder Blade. I remember being probably 4 or 5 years old and actually getting the chance to play the arcade cabinet…although it was the stand up instead of the actual cockpit which did kinda take the play value down a little bit, but nonetheless the aracde game was at the Pizza Hut and I dominated it for the duration of my evening. What blew my mind is when I got back to town and went to the local video game store and found out that they had a copy of the sequal for the Sega Mega Drive (also known as the Sega Genesis). I had to rent it and god damn was I glad that I did. This game is about you flying a military helicopter and trying to rid the areas that you are in of the crazy ass vigilantes that are currently trying to ruin shit. So as you can guess this game is a shoot’em up which has the camera behind the copter taking control, with a few birds eye view stages thrown in. When I started up the game and saw the menu screen complete with a picture of the copter you were going to use, I was excited. Once the game starts it has your copter getting loaded up to the top of a hanger of some sort and then you get to fly around saving the world…or cities…or whatever you are saving…really that part is kinda unsure. I really like how there is very little back story to this game. To me that makes it even better because Sega did not try and bullshit a story to shove down the consumers throats, they just basically said “OK you have a copter…there are bad guys…shoot and survive.”
This game is actually very good looking…but the best part about the visuals is the fact that this game was released in 1989 when the Genesis first came over seas. Mind you I did not even get to play it until 1993 so looking back on this I can say for the time the graphics were really good. If you look up screens now you will be very unimpressed I would assume but once again take into account the fact that this game was released in 1989 when 8-bit games were flooding the market with graphics which were good by their own standards, this makes Super Thunder Blade’s graphics look really nice in their own right. Still to this day when I play the Sega Mega Collection for my PS2 I will normally play this before I turn the game off and appreciate the graphics for what they were back in their day.
Random buildings, a tank, a helicopter near you and two from afar, should be the least of your worries when you try and go through this game.
The sounds to this game are pretty standard I mean there are a few awesome sound effects such as when tanks are shooting lazers at you and the crash sequence noise is a mangled piece of audio that somehow sounds great in this game. The music in certain stages is actually pretty good making you want to take a second and stop playing just to hear the music…but the moment you do that is the moment you get your copter shot down. The difficulty to this game is actually harder than you would think. The biggest bitch about this game is the ability to only be able to get hit once before you crash to the ground, mind you that is actually how most shoot’em ups worked back then so it is understandable as to why they would do it…but still completely crazy when you see some of the things on the screen flying at you at rapid speeds. Some of the things that you have to take down are honestly damn near impossible to do so without having them shoot you during the sequence. Mind you the sub boss you face is a big tank which if you are smart enough you can go to the corners of the screen and move when it shoots at you to avoid getting hit while also being able to shoot back at it to give it some damage as well. Then at the end of the stage you have to deal with a bird’s eye view of you having to kick the ass of a ship kinda like the 1940′s games Capcom produced had you do. In all honesty to review a game that you cant get that far on is in itself ridiculous, but I do not care about that, this game is difficult at times and I really cannot think back to a time where I got to the third level although I can guarantee that I have once before at least. I really wish that there was a sequal to this game released on the Genesis and no I do not want Sega to make a sequel now 20 years later because they would shit all over it just like they did the After Burner series (Thanks PSP for sucking huge amounts of balls).
Original After Burner = A good old fashioned ass kicking.
New After Burner = PSP game…enough said.
People as I have said before on the podcasts…pay respect to your elders and find out where good gaming roots came from, and with this title Sega made you really cannot go wrong. If you can stand a barrage of bullets and missiles coming at you constantly while trying to take out the bad guys then obviously I suggest this game for you. Just remember this game is older and it will not be the best game you have ever played in your life, but if you can appreciate the way games used to be and the amount of fun they could give you then you really need to play this game at any costs.
I have never seen a city where the sky was black and the background white, by the looks of the vigilante onslaught coming I never want to see this city without a helicopter of magnanimous proportions.
