Thunder Force II
| Thunder Force II | |
|---|---|
Cover art
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| Developer(s) | Technosoft |
| Publisher(s) | Technosoft (Japan) Sega of America (North America) |
| Series | Thunder Force |
| Engine | enhanced Thunder Force engine |
| Platform(s) | Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, X68000 |
| Release date(s) |
X68000 version Mega Drive version
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| Genre(s) | Scrolling shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Aggregate score | |
|---|---|
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | 72% |
| Review score | |
| Publication | Score |
| Mean Machines | 82% |
Thunder Force II (サンダーフォースII) is a scrolling shooter developed by Technosoft. It was first released in Japan on October 15, 1988 for the Sharp X68000 computer. A year later, it was ported to the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis game console and released in Japan (under the name Thunder Force II MD), Europe, and the United States. Thunder Force II was one of the six launch titles for the U.S. Genesis release. It is the second chapter of the Thunder Force series.
Stages in the game are now split into two formats: the free-directional scrolling, overhead stage format from the previous game (referred to as "top-view stages"), and horizontal forward-scrolling stages (referred to as "side-view" stages) which would become the series mainstay, dropping the former entirely. Each stage begins in the top-view perspective, where the player has to locate the cores of a certain number of major enemy bases and destroy them. After this is accomplished, the stage continues from the side-view perspective, which plays like a traditional horizontal scrolling shooter. After the boss of the side-view sub stage is defeated, the player moves on to the next stage.
Building upon its predecessor, Thunder Force II introduced a weapon system that would become the staple for the rest of the series. The player's ship now has default arsenal of weapons which include a twin, forward firing shot (the "Twin" shot), a single forward, and single backward firing shot (the "Back" shot), and a bomb shot in the top-view stages. By collecting certain items, the default weapons can be upgraded to more a powerful level. Also, the player could obtain a certain number of new weapons with various unique abilities by collecting the weapon's corresponding item (the "Hunter", a signature weapon of the series, debuts in this game).
Once obtained, the weapons can be switched between at the player's desire, but if the ship is destroyed, all weapons are lost except for the defaults. The top-view and the side-view stages have different sets of weapons; losing weapons in the top-view stages do not affect the weapons equipped in the side-view stages and vice versa.
Thunder Force II also introduced the CRAW add-ons; small pods which revolve around the ship. The function of the CRAWs is to block weak incoming bullets, and to provide extra firepower by firing single, normal shots. The player may acquire up to two CRAWs at a time, but will lose them upon ship destruction. Exclusive to this game is an item which temporally increases their orbit speed, making them more likely to block bullets.
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