What's your favorite Thunder Force game?

Fighter17 · Post by **Fighter17** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 12:05 am

What's your favorite Thunder Force game? Pick one and explain why you choose that game.

TWITCHDOCTOR · Post by **TWITCHDOCTOR** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 4:21 am

T-Force III for me.
Its just special to me, although I enjoy the others as well...well, all except the first one.

Nei First · Post by **Nei First** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 3:20 pm

My favourite is Thunder Force IV, since essentially, it's a suped up and more polished looking TFIII, only harder and longer.

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 3:29 pm

Thunder Force IV for me too. Thunder Force III is great of course, but IV is just bigger, badder, better.

Still haven't played V though.

Nei First · Post by **Nei First** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 3:46 pm

Seven Force wrote:Thunder Force IV for me too. Thunder Force III is great of course, but IV is just bigger, badder, better.

Still haven't played V though.

IMHO TFIII/IV blows TFV out of the water.
But based on it's own merits I find it decent, but it can get boring.

Jon · Post by **Jon** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 9:45 pm

Another vote for the stellar TF IV. To the fourth chapter in the series seems to be the most cohesive and well rounded shmup. Great stages, memorable boss fights, and its a fairly long shmup to boot.

I also enjoy TF III and V but in my opinion neither game can touch TF IV. The majority of my experience with the 16-bit games in the series has been on the gold pack for the Saturn.

Dartagnan1083 · Post by **Dartagnan1083** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 9:28 am

ThunderForce IV
It's simply more fun

parodius · Post by **parodius** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 10:21 am

TF IV. Great music, great design/graphics, great gameplay.

M0nk3y · Post by **M0nk3y** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 10:33 am

Yep, I'm going for TFIV too. TFIII is class but IV is amazing.

I still have yet to play V though. Which is the better version, Saturn or PSone?

And what about Thunder Spirits on the SNES, any love for that?

zinger · Post by **zinger** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 10:57 am

TFIV, because it looks and sounds so goddamn unbelievably good. Can barely stand the slowdown, and that stupid rank (???, bosses seem to take forever if you try to one-life this game) though. Gameplay-wise, I think TFIII is much more solid - but I'm no fan of memorization (atleast not to that extent).

Gydocker45 · Post by **Gydocker45** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 11:41 am

Thunder Force IV all the way. Still, one of the best console shooters out there.

ROBOTRON · Post by **ROBOTRON** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 1:50 pm

Thunderforce 3

Simply, the best of the bunch. Then:

TF5
TF2
TF4

TF5 was a close, close second...the early missions were just too short.

TF2 was great! I like the overhead missions...well, some of them.

TF4 was good as well. Was it great? No. Frankly, I'm puzzled as to why everyone holds it in such high regard, in my opinion...it can't hold a candle to 2,3 and 5. Weapons were toned down too much and level designs on 4 were flawed. The music was not as good as the others too (music is important to me, it gets me pumped). Don't get me wrong, its still a geat game, certainly better than several recent releases.

Its amazing...with all the new technology in modern consoles, game designers (the ones who bother) still can't produce a better horizontal shooter product than what was on the 16-bit Genesis. (The only exceptions to date are R-Type Delta, Final and G5, I have not played Gaiden yet).

Quality like this just doesn't exist anymore.

Fighter17 · Post by **Fighter17** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 2:52 pm

Keep the comments comming guys.

I perfer Thunder Force III because to me it was a better game than TF IV.

JBC · Post by **JBC** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 4:46 pm

I knew 4 was gonna win this the moment i looked at the word 'Poll'. And 1 has no votes because no ones played it!!!

Fighter17 · Post by **Fighter17** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 5:10 pm

circuitface wrote:I knew 4 was gonna win this the moment i looked at the word 'Poll'. And 1 has no votes because no ones played it!!!

Best quote of this topic!

JBC · Post by **JBC** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 5:25 pm

Honestly, 3 and 5 are also awesome games. I wasn't into 2 as much because it's so clunky and your ship is hard to manuevre in the overhead levels. I only die on those levels by hitting the walls - never by actually getting shot. I have tried to track down a way to play the first TF by emulation but turned up nothing and gave up after a while.

Still, the moment you see those parallax clouds at the beginning of 4 you know your in for a badass game...

zinger · Post by **zinger** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 7:08 pm

circuitface wrote:Still, the moment you see those parallax clouds at the beginning of 4 you know your in for a badass game...

Oh yeah.

Few people mention TFIV's soundtrack though, which is a bit suprising I think. It's basically one of two REALLY technically impressive ones (Bare Knuckle 2 / SoR 2 being the other one) on the Mega Drive. The composition is top notch aswell, I like it a lot more than TFIII's.

I have yet to play TFV and need to spend more time on TFII. TF1 can't be THAT good, so I won't bother looking for it.

chtimi-CLA · Post by **chtimi-CLA** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 11:05 am

voted tf3, 4 and 5 never had the same charm.

~Kid Icarus~ · Post by **~Kid Icarus~** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 12:30 pm

ROBOTRON wrote:Thunderforce 3

The music [In Thunderforce IV] was not as good as the others too (music is important to me, it gets me pumped).

No. Just....no. TF4 has possibly the greatest ever shooter soundtrack and it fits the atmosphere perfectly.

superhitachi4 · Post by **superhitachi4** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 3:30 pm

M0nk3y wrote:I still have yet to play V though. Which is the better version, Saturn or PSone?

People tend to like the scoring system in the PSone version more (I've heard, anyhow), but the PSone version's missing some small graphical details (some details in the background etc). The Saturn version contains a small level that the PSone version doesn't have, but then again, the Saturn version's quite a bit more expensive. PSone version's a good value, but the Saturn version has small graphical differences. Hard not to get the PSone version, as it can still be found in the 10 dollar range.

EXMaster · Post by **EXMaster** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 7:20 pm

Voted TFIV. Tough choice, but I think IV is the most fufilling as far as length and challenge (Long enough with 10 stages and difficult but not impossible).

ROBOTRON wrote:Thunderforce 3

The music [In Thunderforce IV] was not as good as the others too (music is important to me, it gets me pumped).

Although I perfer TFIII's soundtrack just a little bit more, I also disagree with this statement. TFIV's soundtrack is supurb, and has such classics as "Fighting Back" (first half of Stage 1), "Metal Squad" (Stage 8 ), and "Stand up Against Myself" (Staff Roll).

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 7:47 pm

I'd have to go with TF4 for this one. TF3 is hard to get into (there are levels, especially Hades, which are very memorization dependent). TF5 just didn't click with me either for some reason. The graphics seem rather crude (especially in constrast to the excellent sprite graphics in IV) and the whole "technology sucks, but not as bad as humanity does" theme just doesn't work for me.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 7:57 pm

superhitachi4 wrote:People tend to like the scoring system in the PSone version more...

The scoring system, to the best of my knowledge, is pretty much the same in both, namely "the quicker you kill certain enemies, the bigger a multiplier you get"; whether the actual points are somehow tallied differently in the two games I don't know, but the notion behind them both is exactly the same. I'm also unaware of an extra level in the Saturn version...I think they're the same in terms of layout, although IIRC on the PS1 version if you play on "Easy" it only gives you 4 levels, while on Saturn you go through the whole game on that difficulty.

The main differences I'm aware of are that the Saturn has better graphics in some areas, but the PS1 version has some extra unlockables and such (a bit of the onscreen text was also changed, but that's hardly worth mentioning)...also, as was said, the Saturn version tends to be more expensive (though there are deals out there, I got my copy for 5 bucks...wouldn't expect such a break if you're looking for the "special pack" though).

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 6:04 am

It's Thunder Force IV for me. The gameplay is the most intense in the series (even over TFV). Part V's 32-bit polygon based graphics don't look as good as the sprites, even if they animate well. V's level design is boring in some places (i.e. the one part where you dive down and blow up the giant snakes, which will perish easily under the wave shot). The series should have waited until the 128-bit systems to go 3D.

TF IV sometimes has multiple musics in certain stages- like in Strite where the first BGM stops and you go underwater where the theme music fits dead-on.

The line-scrolling ocean in stage 1 is impressive. It even gave me motion sickness on my first few plays.

I can forgive the slowdown when everything else in TFIV is so good.

SAM · Post by **SAM** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 2:30 pm

"Thunder Force" ?!

There really exist a Thunder Force I ? How is it look? What platform is it on?

Post by **Icarus** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 2:44 pm

zinger wrote:bosses seem to take forever if you try to one-life this game

I've said it before, bosses do not take forever in TFIV. It's all about weapon selection. It takes me a minute, minute and a half tops per boss on all of my 1LC plays.

Plenty of TFIV love going on here. TFIV gets my voteas well, for the weapon balance, the length and the difficulty.

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 11:34 pm

SAM wrote:"Thunder Force" ?! There really exist a Thunder Force I ? How is it look? What platform is it on?

Thunder Force 1 looks like Last Mission, Time Pilot '84, or the 8-way scrolling stages found in TF2.

zinger · Post by **zinger** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 12:27 am

SAM wrote:"Thunder Force" ?! There really exist a Thunder Force I ? How is it look? What platform is it on?

Wikipedia wrote:Thunder Force was released in late 1983 exclusively in Japan. Known versions of it exist on the following Japanese based computers: Sharp X1, Sharp MZ-1500, NEC PC-6001 mkII, NEC PC-8801 mkII, and Fujitsu FM-7. In 1984, an add-on was released named Thunder Force Construction for the Fujitsu FM-7, and NEC PC-9801 computers. The add-on allowed players to create custom made areas.

For the most part, the setting of the Thunder Force games (excluding the fifth) are centered around the war between the "Milky Way Galaxy Federation" (good guys), and the "ORN Empire" (bad guys). In the first Thunder Force, the ORN Empire has built a large fortress named the Dyradeizer to oppose the Galaxy Federation. In addition to its high firepower capabilities, Dyradeizer is supported by shield generators hidden in various locations by ORN, which render the fortress invisible. In retaliation, the Galaxy Federation sends their specially designed fighter, the Fire Leo, to destroy the shield generators and reveal and destroy Dyradeizer.

The structure of the game consists of overhead, free-directional scrolling areas and the player's ship is armed with main shot to shoot airborne targets and a bomb shot to shoot ground enemies. Gameplay consists of flying the Fire Leo over ORN occupied areas while destroying enemy base installations and turrets. Each area has a certain number of shield generators hidden under the ground based enemy targets; in order for an area to be completed, the shield generators must be found and destroyed. After doing so, the Dyradeizer will temporally appear, giving the player a chance to cause damage to it. Once a few minutes have passed, the Dyradeizer will disappear and the player will be taken to the next area to repeat the process.

Graphic and sound wise, Thunder Force is very crude and modest compared to its successors, and is the most obscure game of the series (at least from a non-Japanese perspective).

I remember someone on these forums had a copy of one of the versions. It was on a cassette tape.

FRO · Post by **FRO** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 2:37 pm

zinger wrote:
circuitface wrote:Still, the moment you see those parallax clouds at the beginning of 4 you know your in for a badass game...
Oh yeah.

Few people mention TFIV's soundtrack though, which is a bit suprising I think. It's basically one of two REALLY technically impressive ones (Bare Knuckle 2 / SoR 2 being the other one) on the Mega Drive. The composition is top notch aswell, I like it a lot more than TFIII's.

I have yet to play TFV and need to spend more time on TFII. TF1 can't be THAT good, so I won't bother looking for it.

I agree. TF4 has one of the best game soundtracks ever, let alone my favorite for Genesis (though SOR2 has an awesome soundtrack, you're right about that). It's one of the reasons I favor it, along w/ outstanding graphics, cool levels, the Tundersword, cool bosses, & just a great gameplay experience. Of course, most of the people on this board know I'm a TF4 fanboy...that's no secret!

FRO · Post by **FRO** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 3:17 pm

EXMaster wrote:Although I perfer TFIII's soundtrack just a little bit more, I also disagree with this statement. TFIV's soundtrack is supurb, and has such classics as "Fighting Back" (first half of Stage 1), "Metal Squad" (Stage 8 ), and "Stand up Against Myself" (Staff Roll).

Don't forget Omake8 - that was my cell phone's default ringtone for quite some time!