Thunder Force IV

Thunder Force IV
European cover
Developer	Technosoft
Publisher	Technosoft
Year	1992
Platforms	Mega Drive

Thunder Force IV (サンダーフォースIV, Sandā Fōsu IV) is a side-scrolling shoot 'em up video game developed by Technosoft as the fourth installment of the Thunder Force series. It was released respectively in July and September 1992 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis console in Japan and the United States, and in December of the same year in Europe. In the USA, Sega of America decided to rename the game as Lightening Force: Quest for the Darkstar. In Europe the name was left as Thunder Force IV. In 1997, TF4, coupled with the AC, is Ported to Sega Saturn as Thunder Force Gold Pack 2, and in September 2018, ported to Nintendo Switch as SEGA AGES Thunder Force IV.

Story

Galactic Year 890. The battle between the Galactic Federation and the ORN Empire was about to reach its 100th year, with the overwhelming superiority of the Imperial Army. The Galactic Federation, which was in danger of extinction, issued a final command to the highly mobile fighter Styx and its two brave pilots to challenge the final battle.

---From the Thunder Force III record file---

Although it was a strategy that seemed reckless, fortunately they were so successful that our nemesis, the ORN emperor "Khaos", was overthrown. However, the ORN Empire's activities, which should have come to a halt, continued unabated, and the Federation continued to be plagued by the Imperial forces emerging from various points.

Galactic Year 892. In the last two years the Federation collected information in anticipation of the nightmare's return. It was the existence of the subsystem "Vios", which could be called the heart of Khaos. Considering this, the Galactic Federation mobilizes all of its power and embarks on a search for Vios.

The Federation Army attempts to launch an attack against the forces hiding in the planet Aquaria. However, the Vios forces had used this time to strengthen its forces, creating new weapons one after another which were unlike anything seen in the past. As a result all of the Federation's operations failed. The Federation Army, with no time to spare, decided to inject all of their efforts in the development of the next generation of their ultra-high performance fighter aircraft which was under development.

Thus, the development code Fire LEO-04 "Rynex" was given an emergency order to scramble. Soon enough two young pilots volunteered for the mission.

Gameplay

The game format is mostly unchanged from the previous game (horizontally oriented and forward scrolling). However, many of the stages now stretch beyond the height of a TV screen, which allow the player more space to maneuver and dodge incoming fire (but also makes it easier to miss power-ups). Also, the player now has the option choosing the play order of the first four stages, instead of just the starting stage like in Thunder Force III.

The weapon system is also similar to Thunder Force III. Featuring the same upgradeable defaults, and unique extra weapons that are either exclusive, or were in previous games. Again, upon ship destruction, the weapon currently being used is lost, apart from the defaults. The CLAWs return, and basically have the exact same function as their Thunder Force III counterparts. The speed setting also returns, although it is represented by a percent gauge from twenty-five (lowest speed) to one-hundred (highest speed). Tapping the speed button will increase speed by 25 percent and holding it down will increase speed gradually by one percent.

The most significant addition to the ship arsenal is the Thunder Sword, a very powerful lightning-based frontal attack. At the game's halfway point, the ship receives an add-on part which enables the use of the Thunder Sword. From here, the one requirement of using the Thunder Sword is that the ship be equipped with CLAWs. When the ship is not firing any weapons, a charging noise is heard (followed by a chime when fully charged) and the CLAWs will appear to be surrounded with electricity. The next press of the fire button will discharge the Thunder Sword. The blast is stronger if charged longer and is at its strongest when fully charged.

Characters and Ships

Character design and japanese package art(Including SEGA AGES) is works of Kanaya Yasusuke.

• Lieutenant Roy S. Mercury: 22 years old, pilot of the Fire LEO-04 "Rynex". Member of the 104 Galactic Federation army, he is a close friend of captain Jean R. Fern, pilot of the Fire LEO-03 "Styx", who was his comrade during the Federal Military Academy.
• Major Carol T. Mars: 18 years old, navigator of the Rynex. She's a member of the Galactic Federal Army 117 Technical Information Bureau. She was engaged in the development of Rynex and familiar with the ORN Empire.
• Faust: The mysterious leader of Vios.

Stages and Bosses

Stage	Name	Boss	BGM	Boss BGM
A (1)	Strite	Gargoyle Diver	Fighting Back What?	Evil Destroyer
B (2)	Ruin	Hell Arm	Space Walk Danger! Danger!	Strike Out
C (3)	Air Raid	Ratt Carry	The Sky Line Air Raid	Simmer Down
D (4)	Daser	Fomalhaut	Sand Hell Where?	Attack Sharply
5	Vios	Versus	Battle Ship	Stranger
6	Volbados	Spark Lancer	Great Sea Power	The Breaker
7	Desvio	Dust Egg	Sea Of Flame	Rancor
8	Wall	Evil Core	Metal Squad	Phantom
9	Bio-Base	Armament Claw	Down Right Attack	Recalcitrance
10	Versus	Versus Faust	The Danger Zone	War Like Requiem

Enemies

• Vicky
• Metal D
• Buntlain
• Neiver
• Bias
• Green Octo
• Rynex Buster
• Floater
• Missile Carrier
• Floating Turret
• Cacricon / Swordfish
• Multi I Type
• SP Destroyer
• Maramu
• Mosquito
• MT Missile
• Globefish
• Vincent
• M-Dagras
• Jurai
• Defender Hatch
• Defender-1
• Defender-2
• D-D-2
• L-M
• Emilio
• Hatch & Dorf
• Mcqueen
• Missile Hatch
• TN-04
• W-Aren
• Bolt Bath
• Monotrailer

Gallery

US cover

Japanese Cover

Sega Ages art

Soundtrack

• 4 official soundtrack albums were released : Thunder Force IV Special Digest(a pre-release digest), Technosoft GAME MUSIC COLLECTION VOL.5 ~ Thunder Force IV, Data discs Thunder Force IV(a licensed vinyl discs album), and Technosoft Music Collection Thunder Force IV.
• The soundtrack of the game includes atmospheric synthesized scores, while hard-rock with backing synths take a roll in the boss sections of the game. It is especially notable as being varied and intense, greatly enhancing certain moments of gameplay, such as the spectacular battle with huge mechanical boss above the Strite Sea, or the entrance of the player's nemesis, an enormous and seemingly indestructible robot. Completing the game unlocks bonus tracks in the BGM player in the options, varies by version : 15 tracks(four ending BGMs+the staff roll BGM+ten omake BGMs) is unlocked at the Megadrive/Genesis version, 5 tracks only(four ending BGMs+the staff roll BGM) is unlocked at the Sega Saturn version, and all tracks is unlocked by default at the Nintendo Switch version.
• The opening theme "Lightning Strikes Again" shares the same name of the 1985 song released by American heavy metal band Dokken. The theme is clearly inspired by the song's opening riff. And the staff roll tune "Stand up against by myself" is frequently considered as strongly influenced from the song "Roppongi Shinjyuu(六本木心中)" released by Americano-japanese singer Ann Linda Lewis in 1984. In other hand, the tune of stage 8, "Metal Squad" is also considered affected from the song "Soldier of fortune" released by the Japanese metal band LOUDNESS in 1989.
• Arranged versions of "Lightning Strikes Again" are heard in Thunder Force V as "Duel of Top" and "ORN Rynex" in Thunder Force VI. The sequel of Metal Squad, Steel Squad is used at Segagaga.

Cheats

It is possible to play two-player co-op using two pads simultaneously. One player can direct the craft and choose speed settings, while the other can fire and choose weapons strategies. Whether this was ever a proper feature is debatable, as there is no documentation for it. However, the fact that both joypad inputs can be used is unusual for a one-player game.

Setting 'lives' in 'options mode' to zero on the PAL & NTSC-U/C versions gives 99 lives per continue.

Pause the game and enter Up, Right, A, Down, Right, A, C, Left, Up, B. After this sequence : Press Right for toggle CLAW/Thunder CLAW, press Up to be granted all weapons, and press Down will forfeit the selected weapon. If you had changed button assigning, you need to change the sequence.

Trivia

• Thunder Force IV had a more sophisticated regional lockout chip than most Mega Drive games, meaning that you could not play the Japanese version on a European Mega Drive, and vice versa, with a Bridge Adapter. However, a Mega Key adapter or a Game Genie would enable you to do so.
• Thunder Force IV also has the distinction of being one of the only European Mega Drive games to have been properly optimised for PAL televisions, meaning that it ran at the correct speed, unlike most games which ran 16.7% slower than their NTSC counterparts due to sloppy conversion between TV systems. The game still featured black borders however.
• The ending text in Thunder Force IV and its Lightening Force localization is basically the same, except for the part where it says "Who knows when Rynex will rise like a Phoenix from the fatal blow" replacing "the fatal blow" with "its crushing defeat".
• The phrase "crushing defeat" from the Lightening Force ending was used in the opening dialogue of Thunder Force V Perfect System as the narrator says "Humanity suffered a crushing defeat" during the first battle with the Guardian and its Vasteel weapons.

External links

• Title at Moby Games
• Title at Gamefaqs