Lords of Thunder (Sega CD) Playthrough
200A playthrough of Hudson Soft's 1995 shoot 'em up for the Sega CD, Lords of Thunder.
Hudson and Red's Lords of Thunder, a quasi-sequel to 1992's Gate of Thunder, was originally released in 1993 ( • Lords of Thunder (TurboGrafx CD) Playthrough ) at the tail-end of the TurboDuo's life. Two years later, a Sega CD port was released in North America and Europe, where it was once again too late to the party to have much impact.
The Sega CD version was great in that it gave a killer shooter some much-needed exposure, and though it didn't make the leap to the new platform unscathed, it's a perfectly servicable port. I already discussed the core game at length in the description for my playthrough of the Turbo version, so I won't repeat that here. As for the differences between them, on the Sega CD:
-The intro and the shopkeeper voice-overs that were missing in the NA TurboGrafx release are present and translated.
-The soundtrack was re-recorded, and the music and sound effect levels are better balanced.
-The game was made significantly easier: there are fewer enemies, the bosses have less health and their attack patterns are simpler, and though being hit now temporarily stuns you, you're granted a longer period of invincibility. On the highest difficulty, enemies no longer fire off shots when killed.
-Most enemies no longer flash to signal that they're taking damage.
-The graphics can appear a bit grainy and washed out at times due to the system's color limitations.
-There are fewer instances of sprite break-up in busy moments, but the Sega CD version suffers from framerate drops, bouts of severe slowdown, and the loading times are longer.
-The ending credit roll was cut, and the game over screen's art was redone.
The Sega CD game isn't quite as polished, but you probably wouldn't notice most of the changes unless you were already well-acquainted with the original. I prefer the TurboGrafx version, but Lords of Thunder is still a great game on Sega's machine.
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