SUPER THUNDER BLADE (SMD)
It’s 1990, and as the festive season rolled around, SEGA fans looked set to have another cracker on their hands, just in time for the holiday season. Super Thunder Blade, an into-the-screen shoot ‘em up based on the gorgeous ’88 coin-op Thunder Blade, appeared a safe bet for a thrilling action game, with SEGA having already done a top job in transitioning Super Monaco GP from cabinet to console.
What we got turned out to be a bit of a kick in the teeth however. Super Thunder Blade turned out to be a bit of a stinker, and one of the worst ports of its era. The stonking, rip-roaring coin-op has been reduced to a leaden-paced, ugly, embarrassing mess that was a shadow of the game it purports to mimic.
After passing through some rather humdrum menus, the action begins amidst an odd juxtaposition of (what are assumed to be) skyscrapers and greenery, with some nicely-gauged music there to built the anticipation. Ignoring a worryingly-choppy update, the action begins in fairly uniform fashion as a small army's worth of tanks and aircraft queue up to plant themselves in the player's cross-hairs. As with all the levels, you're treated to a mid-level boss for a dash of variety, and a top-down section to finish. It's pretty clear by the end of the first level that there's a lot wrong with Super Thunder Blade, and things only get worse.
The first and most obvious complaint is in how poor it looks. Whilst Thunder Blade in its arcade iteration could reasonably have passed as a Saturn game, the port is jerky and suffers from sprite-flicker, whilst the levels themselves are badly drawn and lacklustre, with huge chunks of detail missing from the original. Despite some passable sound effects and a fiery, Apocalypse Now-inspired high-score board, it's rather trounced in the presentation stakes by After Burner II, and even the (admittedly quite sparse) landscapes of Space Harrier offer up a far smoother, more rapid and more convincing 3D update.
As a by-product of its technical issues, Super Thunder Blade's gameplay is severely hampered. Whilst control responsiveness is generally okay, the chopper’s movement is treacle slow, a factor rather uncomfortably highlighted in a nightmarish sequence of archways that need to be navigated on the second level. They wobble towards the player in a hideous illusion of 3D, as you essentially have to approximate where on the screen you need to be to avoid smacking clean into a rock face. This in turn is made laborious by the suspect collision detection, which makes going near any kind of scenery hazardous and is highly unforgiving.
The gameplay offers basic high-score chasing fun in the immediate, but is let down by excessively repetitive level-design. Areas roll along with the same enemies warbling towards you in largely indistinguishable attack patterns, and its usually the aforementioned scenery that you have to be most mindful of. The mid-level bosses should have made for a welcome diversion, but ironically serve to further accentuate the game's samey nature. They’re depressingly similar, and can each be bested through essentially the same tactic of flying in wide, circular arcs so as to stay ahead of their tracking fire.
As a by-product of its technical issues, Super Thunder Blade's gameplay is severely hampered. Whilst control responsiveness is generally okay, the chopper’s movement is treacle slow, a factor rather uncomfortably highlighted in a nightmarish sequence of archways that need to be navigated on the second level. They wobble towards the player in a hideous illusion of 3D, as you essentially have to approximate where on the screen you need to be to avoid smacking clean into a rock face. This in turn is made laborious by the suspect collision detection, which makes going near any kind of scenery hazardous and is highly unforgiving.
The gameplay offers basic high-score chasing fun in the immediate, but is let down by excessively repetitive level-design. Areas roll along with the same enemies warbling towards you in largely indistinguishable attack patterns, and its usually the aforementioned scenery that you have to be most mindful of. The mid-level bosses should have made for a welcome diversion, but ironically serve to further accentuate the game's samey nature. They’re depressingly similar, and can each be bested through essentially the same tactic of flying in wide, circular arcs so as to stay ahead of their tracking fire.
Ditto the dishwasher-dull top-down sections, which are some of the worst of their kind. Without the arcade game’s adjustable speed function, it rather feels like you're on a conveyor belt, limited to sideways motion. Once again, sweeping in side-to-side arcs proves enough to fox most of the turrets, though the fact that half the time you seem to be able to pass through enemy fire makes things feel a bit pot-luck. Oh well, at least they even out the archways.
The final nail in Super Thunder Blade's coffin is its brevity. Whilst Super Monaco GP went above and beyond its arcade counterpart by including an in-depth career mode, STB offers just the four levels and a trio of difficulty levels. Start-to-finish, it's got maybe a little over twenty minutes of play; that's your lot. An apparent glitch renders the Hard difficulty rather less of a challenge, as heading for the top corner of the screen renders the player's chopper impervious to enemy fire.
Super Thunder Blade is ultimately a rather dismal interpretation of an impressive arcade game. It marked a rare instance of SEGA over-stretching themselves with regards to the Mega Drive's capabilities. Unattractive, repetitive and awkward to play, it was already thoroughly dated on release, offering little for fans to cheer. Even in the format's comparative early days, players could look to a myriad of superior titles, most notably After Burner II, which made SEGA's effort look positively ancient.
The final nail in Super Thunder Blade's coffin is its brevity. Whilst Super Monaco GP went above and beyond its arcade counterpart by including an in-depth career mode, STB offers just the four levels and a trio of difficulty levels. Start-to-finish, it's got maybe a little over twenty minutes of play; that's your lot. An apparent glitch renders the Hard difficulty rather less of a challenge, as heading for the top corner of the screen renders the player's chopper impervious to enemy fire.
Super Thunder Blade is ultimately a rather dismal interpretation of an impressive arcade game. It marked a rare instance of SEGA over-stretching themselves with regards to the Mega Drive's capabilities. Unattractive, repetitive and awkward to play, it was already thoroughly dated on release, offering little for fans to cheer. Even in the format's comparative early days, players could look to a myriad of superior titles, most notably After Burner II, which made SEGA's effort look positively ancient.
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VERDICT
Visual: 3/10
Audio: 5/10 Gameplay: 3/10 Longevity: 3/10 OVERALL: 3/10 |
PIXEL SECONDS: SUPER THUNDER BLADE (SMD)
Piloting a gunship helicopter sounds like an appealing concept for a blast-all-baddies video game, and whereas the arcade version of Thunder Blade was a fun title, the same cannot be said for its ‘Super’ Mega Drive counterpart. Literally only the audio can be classed as just about passable; its intro tune, title screen and BGM are nice enough, but it’s not enough to mask the fact that Super Thunder Blade is in infringement of its title. The draw distance and scaling are appalling, the colour usage is lazy (ever heard of textures?), and environment detailing is repetitive and scarce. Really, if this was on an 8-bit system, it would still get pelters, but on the Mega Drive? Well, that’s just an insult to the system. Glitchy, jerky, flickering visuals and rather floppy controls and sluggish movement drag the third-person perspective levels into a borderline-unplayable mess. The top-down sections are just yawnsome, if slightly better implemented. The transition sequences are a highlight though, the only one in fact. Half-decent music slapped into a mish-mash-hodgepodge of an arcade port. This chopper should never have left the hanger. [4] – Chris Weatherley © 2015
Piloting a gunship helicopter sounds like an appealing concept for a blast-all-baddies video game, and whereas the arcade version of Thunder Blade was a fun title, the same cannot be said for its ‘Super’ Mega Drive counterpart. Literally only the audio can be classed as just about passable; its intro tune, title screen and BGM are nice enough, but it’s not enough to mask the fact that Super Thunder Blade is in infringement of its title. The draw distance and scaling are appalling, the colour usage is lazy (ever heard of textures?), and environment detailing is repetitive and scarce. Really, if this was on an 8-bit system, it would still get pelters, but on the Mega Drive? Well, that’s just an insult to the system. Glitchy, jerky, flickering visuals and rather floppy controls and sluggish movement drag the third-person perspective levels into a borderline-unplayable mess. The top-down sections are just yawnsome, if slightly better implemented. The transition sequences are a highlight though, the only one in fact. Half-decent music slapped into a mish-mash-hodgepodge of an arcade port. This chopper should never have left the hanger. [4] – Chris Weatherley © 2015