Developer: Toshiba EMI Publisher: Seika Released: June 1992 Genre: Shooter
Multiplatform games between the Sega Genesis, SNES, and to a lesser extent the Turbo Grafx-16 were common. Legions of 2d platformers and fighting games are shared between all systems. But when it comes to shooters the numbers drop. Very few shooters hit the SNES and Genesis for obvious reasons; most developers did not want to get the hang of that slow processor. The poster boy for this is Thunder Spirits. As a “port” it falls short of the original, Thunder Force III. But as a game it is okay but not one that I would pick over Axelay or Parodius.
Calling Thunder Spirits a port of Thunder Force III is only half the tale. Thunder Spirits is a port of Thunder Force Arcade, itself a remixed version of Thunder Force III. The main differences between the two gameplay wise are their levels. After its initial level you could tackle the next three in any order in TF III. Thunder Spirits does away with that and has a set order. In addition two stages have been changed. Cerberus features a redesigned battleship with a new boss battle on top. Stage four is actually a remastered stage from Thunder Force II. It is a bit blatant how much it doesn’t match up with the rest of the game. I would not have minded the changes if they were better than the original. But the two stages that were excised, Haidis and Ellis were awesome. That is the least of its problems.
In a straight up graphical comparison Thunder Force III looks better than Thunder Spirits all around. There is the odd background that has more detail (the first level in fact) but as a whole it is a noticeable step down. Certain special effects like the fiery backdrop of Planet Gorgon are not as impressive. The biggest missed opportunity is the color palette. Thunder Spirits replicates the limited color of the Sega game and makes little use of the SNES expanded palette. Not that it looks bad but the game could have looked so much better. Considering its performance it would have been a decent tradeoff.
The slowdown in Thunder Spirits is immediately noticeable and flat out bad. Within the first few minutes it rears its head and never gets better. The severity ranges depending on the stage. On planet Hydra whenever the larger enemies appear the game feels like it is running in the single digits. Planet Gorgon seems to run in permanent slow motion which is embarrassing. On top of the slowdown there is sprite flickering as well. I’ve lost a few lives due to this which is unfair. You can blame the system somewhat but it is more of a bad port job; Axelay and Space Megaforce do not have these problems.
Outside of its artistic and technical issues Thunder Spirits is still a decent game. It says a lot about the core of Thunder Force III that even a compromised version still has merit. Gameplay wise nothing has changed outside of the placement of the UI. The decision to hide the options menu is baffling as rapid fire is not on by default. Trust me you don’t want to button mash through this game. Mechanically there were few changes between this and Thunder Force II. Most of the weapons have returned and you now only lose the currently selected one rather than everything. The biggest change Thunder Force III brought was a massive shot of adrenaline as it ditched the overhead levels and went balls to the wall with its side scrolling action. That is all still here, just not as good.
Whether Thunder Spirits is harder the original is up for debate. Thunder Force III was an easy game in my opinion. The game was extremely generous with its power-ups meaning unless you were terrible you were never without. Since the levels were densely packed you could rack up extra lives quickly. All of that still applies here. The constant slowdown has its benefits and drawbacks. At its most hectic moments you can initiate slowdown for a competitive edge. But when it occurs randomly you will suffer cheap deaths. As a whole though I found it way to easy, even after bumping up the difficulty which I don’t normally do.
In Closing
Thunder Spirits is an above average shooter that has some merit. But compared to its source material comes up short. It is not a bad game but there are better SNES shooters to spend your money on first.
