ThunderCats Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]
160Developed and published by Elite in 1987.
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Thunder…Thunder...ThunderCats Hooooooooooo!!! If you were a kid growing up during the 1980's and those words mean nothing to you then you must have been living under a rock!
Looking back, there were some genuinely fantastic cartoons made during the decade. Whilst there were great home-grown UK cartoons such as Danger Mouse and Count Duckula, we also got to see equally great cartoons from across the pond, one of which was, as you've probably guessed by the title of the video, ThunderCats!
Considering the popularity of the series, it should come as no surprise that ThunderCats merchandise was everywhere. From action figures to lunch boxes, to pencil-cases and even potato crisps, you would be hard pressed to find something that you couldn't buy with the ThunderCats logo emblazoned on it. Unsurprisingly, software houses and publishers were equally keen to turn out games to capitalise on the show's success.
The game begins with Mumm-Ra, Third Earth's resident ever-living source of evil and arch-nemeis of the ThunderCats, stealing their most hallowed relic, the Eye of Thundera. To make matters worse, Mumm-Ra has managed to capture several of the ThunderCats and Lion-O must now not only recover the Eye, but rescue his friends as well.
Even though I was a fan of the show I never actually owned the game at the time of release, so this was the first time I'd played it. Given that just about every game based on a film, TV program or cartoon ever made ends up being rubbish, my expectations weren't particularly high; something that proved to be justified once I started playing.
The actual game is a basic side-scrolling platform game where the player must move Lion-O in the direction indicated by the arrow located at the bottom of the screen whilst leaping over pits of lava and cavernous depths. The way is guarded by number of enemies that patrol left and right across the screen and do precious little else apart from get in the way. Lion-O can despatch these beasties with a wave of his sword, and there's even a projectile-firing crossbow device that allows him to attack at range, but the combat is extremely basic and never really satisfies.
Certain levels feature containers that can be broken open by hitting them, the contents of which grant bonus points, the ranged weapon or an extra life. What is strange is that the containers on some levels actually kill Lion-O on contact, something that isn't immediately apparent until too late.
Platforming aside, the game contains precious little content. Despite being on a rescue mission, the ThunderCats that you're meant to be saving never actually appear in the game; simply completing the stage as normal automatically means that they've been saved. Similarly disappointing is the fact that you never get to have a climatic final battle with Mumm-Ra (or actually see the Eye of Thundera) since the game abruptly ends after level 14 and goes straight back to the beginning again. I think Mumm-Ra appears somewhere in the middle of the game and then is never seen again.
The only thing positive about the game is that it's playable and doesn't feature any major bugs. The character controls are relatively responsive and the sprite collision is reasonably accurate, so at least it's not a total travesty.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment with the game is the music. The cartoon features one of the best theme songs ever and the fact that it's absent from the game is just ridiculous! Even though the single music track in the game was created by C64 maestro Rob Hubbard, it's still a massive let-down.
Whilst doing some research on the game, I did come across some indications that the game didn't actually begin as a ThunderCats game at all and the publishers simply instructed the coders to shoe-horn some ThunderCats artwork and content into a pre-existing game; whether this is true or not remains up for debate, but it would go some way to explaining why there's such a lack of TC-related content in the actual game.
Somewhat bizarrely, Zzap64 went and awarded this game 74% in the 1987 December issue of the magazine; a score that it just didn't deserve.
ThunderCats on C64 could have been King of the Pride, but instead ends up a total Snarf of a game.
#retrogaming