Thexder NEO Title Theme Animatic (2010 Game Arts/Square Enix)
19The original Thexder is what kickstarted my love of Classical music, it used Moonlight Sonata as the title theme to a starry sky as the background. I am fairly certain the stars twinkled, making it one of the earliest animated title screens I can recall (that and The Legend of Zelda).
I love that the old level theme is reworked with a modern sound. The Moonlight Sonata plays when you die (which you'll be doing a LOT in this game. It's brutally hard).
Thexder (テグザー Teguzā) is an arcade-style run-and-gun shooter action game from Game Arts, originally released as a PC game for the NEC PC-8001 in 1985 and subsequently ported to a number of other personal computer platforms throughout the 1980s and 1990s as well as the NES video game console. Thexder was an important breakthrough title for the run-and-gun shooter game genre, paving the way for titles such as Contra and Metal Slug. The game went on to sell over one million copies worldwide, becoming one of the best-selling computer games of its time.
In the game, the player is a fighter robot, but is able to transform into a jet. Originally released in 1985 for the NEC PC-8801 platform in Japan, the game quickly became a best-selling hit selling over 500,000 copies. Later that same year, Game Arts licensed Thexder to Square in order to develop a conversion for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) game console. In 1987, Game Arts also developed a Thexder conversion for the MSX platform.
The NEC PC8801 platform was only popular in Japan and, despite home market success, Thexder garnered little attention abroad initially. With the conversion for the MSX (the best selling platform in Brazil and many east European countries) it became an international hit. The game was subsequently licensed to Sierra Entertainment for release in the United States. In 1987, Sierra ported the game to multiple platforms, including the IBM PC, 128k Tandy Color Computer 3, Apple II, Apple IIGS, Apple Macintosh, and Tandy T-1000 computer. Thexder continued its track record of success and became a best-seller for Sierra, becoming the company's best-selling title of 1987. In 1988, Activision then released the game in Europe on the Commodore Amiga. By 1990, the game had sold over one million copies worldwide, becoming one of the best-selling computer games up until that time.
The two Game Arts developers responsible for creating Thexder were Hibiki Godai and Satoshi Uesaka. In 1986, they developed another action-arcade game called Silpheed and in 1989 they wrote a Thexder sequel named Fire Hawk: Thexder The Second Contact. As with the original, FireHawk sold extremely well in Japan and the United States. Today, Thexder is still remembered by many as a classic action-arcade game.
Compute! praised the Apple IIGS version of Thexder as the computer's "first true arcade game" with "excellent play value for your dollar". In 1988, The Games Machine gave the Amiga version a 74% score. In 1991, Dragon gave the Macintosh and PC/MS-DOS versions of the game each 4 out of 5 stars.
Thexder Neo is a complete rework of the original PC game from 1985, released by Square Enix.
In early 2009, it was reported that Square Enix sent an application to the ESRB to receive a rating for a game titled "Thexder Neo". Later that year, the game's existence was confirmed by Square Enix through an announcement at the 2009 Tokyo Game Show. It was released worldwide on the PlayStation Network on October 1, 2009 as a download for the PlayStation Portable and on January 28, 2010 for the PlayStation 3.
You can play the DOS version for free on the Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/details/msdos_Thexder_1987