Thunder Force III
| Thunder Force III | |
|---|---|
 North American cover of Thunder Force III | |
| Developer(s) | Technosoft |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Series | Thunder Force |
| Platform(s) | Sega Genesis, Arcade, Super NES, Sega Saturn |
| Genre(s) | Scrolling shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Thunder Force III (サンダーフォースIII) is a scrolling shooter game developed by Technosoft. It is the third chapter in the Thunder Force series. It was released in 1990 in Japan, Europe and the United States for the Sega Genesis. During the same year, it was retooled into an arcade game named Thunder Force AC. In 1991, Thunder Force AC was ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System under the title Thunder Spirits.
Gameplay
For Thunder Force III, the free-directional, overhead stage format featured in the previous two games is removed and replaced entirely by the horizontally aligned stage format. The horizontal format becomes the new standard for the following games.
The player is allowed to choose which of the initial five planets (Hydra, Gorgon, Seiren, Haides, and Ellis), to start on. After the first five stages are completed, the game continues for three more stages into ORN headquarters.
The weapon system from Thunder Force II returns in this game, with some modifications. Some weapons from Thunder Force II are reused or modified slightly (the enhanceable Twin shot and Back shot remain the defaults), while others are completely new and exclusive to the game.
This time, when the player's ship is destroyed, only the weapon that was currently in use is lost (unless it is a default weapon and assuming the game is operating at the default difficulty settings). On any higher difficulty modes than the default one, all weapons are lost when the ship gets destroyed. CLAWs also make their return and have the same behavior and functions, except now when the player collects the CLAW item, the ship automatically receives its maximum two CLAWs (again, CLAWs are lost upon ship destruction in every difficulty modes). Also, when using most weapons, the CLAWs will mimic the ship and fire the same weapon (similar to the Options in Gradius games). The final new addition is that the player's ship now has a speed setting, which can be increased or decreased across four levels at the press of a button.
Plot
Thunder Force III takes place about 100 years after Thunder Force and directly after Thunder Force II. Despite their successes, the Galaxy Federation has not been faring well in their battle against the ORN Empire. ORN has installed cloaking devices on five major planets in their space territory that conceal their main base, making it difficult for the Galaxy Federation to locate and attack their headquarters. In addition, ORN has built a remote defense system to protect itself named Cerberus, which is especially efficient at neutralizing large ships and fleets. Knowing this, the Galaxy Federation creates the FIRE LEO-03 Styx; a craft small enough to avoid detection by Cerberus, yet equipped with the firepower of a large starfighter. The Galaxy Federation deploys Styx (which is controlled by the player) on a mission to destroy the five cloaking devices, infiltrate the Empire's headquarters, and destroy ORN emperor, the bio-computer "Cha Os".
Ports
Due to the success of Technosoft's Thunder Force III for the Mega Drive/Genesis, it was decided that the game would be brought to the arcade scene under the named Thunder Force AC. Ported to Sega's System C-2 hardware, Thunder Force AC is almost graphically identical to its Mega Drive counterpart, with only very minor and often unnoticeable differences.
Thunder Force AC has been described as a retooling of Thunder Force III because it borrows enemies and stages from the earlier Thunder Force II, as well as adding some original content. A Sega Saturn port was made and included on the 1996 release Thunder Force Gold Pack 2.
Because the original Thunder Force AC Jamma board is rare, the game was now ported to the Super NES in 1991 as Thunder Spirits. Released by Technosoft and Toshiba, the game is a scrolling shooter video game and is a part of the Thunder Force series. The SNES version does away with level selection, changes several levels, and features a modified soundtrack, which takes advantage of the digitized instrument capabilities of the SPC700. Some of the graphics are considered improved compared to those two games, and some are worse. The Sega co-copyright could be why the game itself isn't called Thunder Force AC on the SNES.
Reception
The original Mega Drive version received much praise. MegaTech magazine praised the use of parallax, as well as the sound and gameplay. Mega placed the game at #17 in their Top Mega Drive Games of All Time.[3]
References
- ^ 30 Point Plus: サンダーフォースIII. Weekly Famicom Tsūshin. No.309. Pg.39. 11–18 November 1994.
- ^ MegaTech rating, EMAP, issue 5, page 81, May 1992
- ^ Mega magazine issue 1, page 76, Future Publishing, Oct 1992.