Similar in style to Space Harrier II, another Sega Genesis launch title, Super Thunder Blade is an arcade port and also a pseudo 3D into the screen scrolling. Enemies, and obstacles, appear in the distance and scroll towards your helicopter. All the while shooting and doing everything they can to bring you down, quickly. Shooter fans that were not all that into the style of Space Harrier II or Thunder Force II could turn to Super Thunder Blade, though it might not be the game they were wanting either.

Super Thunder Blade was another arcade port

Sega were pulling out the stops with the Genesis. They were doing things that were not all that normal as far as game releases. Tommy Lasorda Baseball being a launch title for instance. With this one Sega continued their support for the fledgling console with arcade ports of familiar titles. Something they worked hard to do throughout the life of the console.

Not quite good enough scaling tech

Super Thunder Blade suffers from the same problems that Space Harrier II did, namely the choppy scaling. The depth perception is hindered a bit since this is not a true 3D console. Things had to be handled as best they could, which was not that good. This hampers progress but ramps up the challenge level but can make gamers feel the experience was slightly cheapened.

Similar to another launch title

Super Thunder Blade could be viewed as another tech game like Last Battle, just something to show new gamers what the console was capable of. I am not saying games like this cannot be good. I am saying it appears that showing off the hardware was more prominent than making a great game.

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Carl Williams

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