Lords of Thunder ⚡ (Red Company / Hudson Soft - PC Engine Super CD-ROM² - 1993)
8"Lords of Thunder is a 1993 scrolling shooter video game developed by Red Company, and published by Turbo Technologies and Hudson Soft for the TurboDuo. It is the unofficial follow-up to Gate of Thunder. In the game, the player controls the knight Landis, donning the armor of his ancestor Drak on a confrontation against Zaggart of Garuda Empire, who resurrected the evil god Deoric, and his six dark generals across the land of Mistral.
Lords of Thunder was created by Red Raimon, a group within Red consisting of former Technosoft staff which previously worked on the Thunder Force series, whose members would later form the game development company CAProduction, originally planned as a sequel to Gate of Thunder before becoming an original title. The soundtrack was composed by Satoshi Miyashita from T's Music, a group of musicians and sound engineers. First released on the TurboDuo, the title was ported to the Sega CD by Hudson Soft and Eleven in 1995, and has since been re-released through the Virtual Console and PlayStation Network download services, in addition of being included on the PC Engine Mini console.
Lords of Thunder garnered acclaim since its release on the TurboDuo; critics praised its stylish and sharp visuals for showcasing the capabilities of the TurboGrafx, large and detailed bosses, ability to choose between stages, lack of slowdown and flickering, frantic pacing and hard rock soundtrack, though the gameplay and difficulty were met with mixed response. Retrospective commentary have been positive and is considered one of the most important shooting games on the PC Engine.
Gameplay
Lords of Thunder is a fantasy-themed scrolling shoot 'em up game, in which the player controls the knight Landis, donning the armor of his ancestor Drak on a confrontation against Zaggart of Garuda Empire, who resurrected the evil god Deoric, and his six dark generals across the land of Mistral. Prior to starting, a configuration menu can be accessed at the game's title screen, where any of the four available difficulty settings can be selected, and each one arranges both stage hazards and enemy patterns. In addition, a hidden boss rush mode is also accessible at the configuration screen via cheat code.
The gameplay structure is different compared with Gate of Thunder;[1] When starting the game, the player can choose any of the first six stages in a manner similar to Thunder Force III, with the last stage being unlocked after all six stages are cleared. Once the stage is selected, the player selects one of four armors (based on the four classical elements) to use, affecting Landis' shots and bombs, as well as the difficulty depending on the selected armor. Afterwards, the player can buy items for Landis before a stage begins with crystal currency at the in-game shop. These items include additional bombs, shields and health-restoring elixirs. The player controls Landis over a constantly scrolling background, populated with an assortment of enemy forces and obstacles, and the scenery never stops moving until a boss is reached, which must be fought in order to clear a stage and proceed into the next one.
Landis is equipped with long-range shots, a powerful sword for close-range attacks, and bombs capable of obliterating enemies and bullets on-screen. When defeated, enemies will occasionally drop collectable items for Landis such as heart icons that restores his health, power crystals that increases his weapon firepower as well as blue and red crystals, which are exchangeable at the shop. Collecting the blue and red crystals are also crucial to reach high-scores. Getting hit by enemy fire or colliding against solid stage obstacles decreases Landis' health and firepower, and the game is over once his health bar is depleted, though the player has the option to select another stage or keep playing using limited continues, while more continues can be purchased via the shop."
game info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lords_of_Thunder
view via PC Engine plays: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBow20mLKdA&list=PLuuPtpz2AigDSsmOg5q32gVc1aL5sIel4&index=1
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