Thunder Force II is a scrolling shooter developed by Technosoft. It was first released in Japan in 1988 for the Sharp X68000 computer. A year later, it was ported to the Sega Megadrive / Genesis game console and released in Japan (under the name Thunder Force II MD), Europe, and the United States. It is the second chapter of the Thunder Force series.
Story[]
The planet Reda, which boasted the highest level of defense, suddenly exploded... And disappeared... It was found out the cause was an attack of highly concentrated energy from the newest weapon of ORN, the battle fortress "Plealos". Plealos was a terrifying new weapon which replaced the Dyradeizer that once plagued our Federation.
I'm Reid A. Jupiter, commonly known as Rai. I belong to a Federal unit and have the title of Ace. I've just had a fight against ORN's fighters with my buddy Diana and took down six of them. Though she is a woman, she's got a good aim and have saved my life several times. I'm quite strong myself, but she's a good partner I can count on. As soon as we returned to the base ship, we got called to a strategy meeting with other members. Our leader, Edra N. Fern, called us for a special operation. It was called "Thunder Force II Strategy", with the aim of destroying ORN's battle fortress Plealos.
The fortress Plealos is now in the sixth underground layer of the planet Nebula. Our mission is to reach that point with the fighter-bomber "Exceliza" and destroy the fortress's only weak point, the central nucleus...
"We need volunteers for the mission!"
Everyone took a deep breath after hearing this story. We all knew that volunteering to such a mission was the same as a death sentence.
Planet Nebula, my homeplanet... It was now under the control of our nemesis ORN. 18 years ago, when an ORN attack killed my mother, my father entrusted me to his best friend Fern and died inside of ORN's mothership. If we could destroy the fortress Plealos, ORN would receive a hard hit. And Nebula is my homeplanet after all. Would I want to liberate it? "I'll do it Fern!", I screamed with enthusiasm.
"Heat resistant field irradiation penetration angle OK!" The ship's instruments go into red level. There's no turning back now. Let's go!
Gameplay[]
Stages in the game are now split into two formats: the free-directional scrolling, overhead stage format from the previous game (referred to as "top-view stages"), and horizontal forward-scrolling stages (referred to as "side-view" stages) which would become the series mainstay. Each stage begins in the top-view perspective, where the player has to locate the cores of a certain number of major enemy bases named Defenser and destroy them. After this is accomplished, the stage continues from the side-view perspective, which plays like a traditional horizontal scrolling shooter. After the boss of the side-view sub stage is defeated, the player moves on to the next stage.
Building upon its predecessor, Thunder Force II introduced a weapon system that would become the staple for the rest of the series. The player's ship now has default arsenal of weapons which include a twin, forward firing shot (the "Twin" shot), a single forward, and single backward firing shot (the "Back" shot), and a bomb shot in the top-view stages. By collecting certain items, the default weapons can be upgraded to more a powerful level. Also, the player could obtain a certain number of new weapons with various unique abilities by collecting the weapon's corresponding item (the "Hunter", a signature weapon of the series, debuts in this game).
Once obtained, the weapons can be switched between at the player's desire, but if the ship is destroyed, all weapons are lost except for the defaults. The top-view and the side-view stages have different sets of weapons; losing weapons in the top-view stages do not affect the weapons equipped in the side-view stages and vice versa.
Thunder Force II also introduced the CLAW add-ons; small pods which revolve around the ship. The function of the CLAWs is to block weak incoming bullets, and to provide extra firepower by firing single, normal shots. The player may acquire up to two CLAWs at a time, but will lose them upon ship destruction. Exclusive to this game is an item which temporarily increases their orbit speed, making them more likely to block bullets.
Version Differences[]
The Sharp X68000 version of the game has slightly better visuals than its Mega Drive/Genesis counterpart. For example, some of the top-view oriented stage backgrounds have parallax scrolling/transparency effects which the Genesis version lacks. This can be most readily be seen from the water in the first top-view stage. On the other hand, sprites in the Sharp X68000 game are typically larger, but also usually less animated than the later Sega Genesis port.
The X68000 version has clearer voice samples, including extra voice effects. The Sharp X68000 version also has an introduction sequence and an extra stage (top and side view) not found in the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis version. Finally, both versions have a few weapons unique from each other (for instance, "Sidewinder" in the X68000 version corresponds to "Nova" in the Genesis version).
Characters and Ships[]
- Galaxy Federation
- Federation Troops: A mercenary group under the employ of the Federation.
- Edra N. Fern: Captain of the Federation Troops and former pilot of the Fire LEO.
- Reid A. Jupiter: Pilot of the Fire LEO-02 "Exceliza".
- Diana Lynn: Navigator.
- ORN Empire
- Dyradeizer: ORN's former base of operations.
- Plealos: ORN's new huge fortress, currently stored inside of Nebula.
- ORN System: Planetary system governed by Emperor Kha Os. Thirty years ago they rebelled against the Federation, and the fighting has continued since then.
- Nebula: A planet under ORN's control. It is a hollow planet with six layers of space inside of it.
Stages and Bosses[]
X68000 ver.[]
| Stage | Name | Boss | BGM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-A | Nebula Sky | Knights of Legend | |
| 1-B | Enemy Port | ZCS | A Ray of Hope |
| 2-A | Underground City | Exceed | |
| 2-B | Highway | Big Elephant | Cruise Control |
| 3-A | Wasteland | A Cloud of Dust | |
| 3-B | Abandoned Pipe | Gaiya Beast | A Ray of Hope |
| 4-A | Cave | Take Strict Precautions | |
| 4-B | Bell Cave | Cave Monster | Cruise Control |
| 5-A | Ancient Ruins | Illusion | |
| 5-B | Ruins Inside | Humanoid Hunter | A Ray of Hope |
| 6 | Space Dog | Plealos | An Irrevocable Dream |
NOTE: The Stage 4 boss's name is unofficial.
Mega Drive ver.[]
| Stage | Name | Boss | BGM |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Nebula Sky | Knights of Legend | |
| B | Enemy Port | ZCS | A Ray of Hope |
| C | Underground City | Exceed | |
| D | Highway | Big Elephant | Cruise Control |
| E | Cave | Take Strict Precautions | |
| 6 | Abandoned Pipe | Gaiya Beast | A Cloud of Dust |
| 7 | Ancient Ruins | Illusion | |
| 8 | Ruins Inside | Humanoid Hunter | Death Face's |
| 9 | Space Dog | Plealos | An Irrevocable Dream |
Enemies[]
- Baruser
- Razor
- Mask Eye
- Weapon Trailer
- Zortrop
- Celtic Frost
- Aerial Defender
- Ground Defender
- Mentone
- Mars
- Reez
- Sivara
- PQ-503
- DO-2
- Variant Fan
- Crail
- Inner's Garter
- Arian Phantom
- Union
- Mill
- Zetro
- Quick Mesh
- Hell Hammer
- Shredder
- Elfson
- Woonie
- Vaios
- Witch Hunter
- Aural Head
- Deep Kraken
- Twin Crime
- Relics Garter
Gallery []
Trivia[]
- This is one and only X68000 game developed/released by Technosoft.
- The female voice is the voice of Matsuoka Kazue.[1]
- This is the only game of the franchise where you can lose all powerups obtained upon losing a life at normal difficulty, as opposed to losing only one powerup per life in the succeeding games.
External links[]
References[]
| Thunder Force II | ||
| Characters | Edra N. Fern • Reid A. Jupiter • Diana Lynn | |
| Ships | Fire LEO-02 "Exceliza" | |
| Stages | Nebula Sky • Enemy Port • Underground City • Highway • Wasteland • Abandoned Pipe • Cave • Bell Cave • Ancient Ruins • Ruins Inside • Space Dog | |
| Bosses | ZCS • Big Elephant • Gaiya Beast • Cave Monster (X68K) • Humanoid Hunter • Plealos | |