Lords of Thunder Review

Lords of Thunder is a classic shooter from the 90's. The game never received a sequel, but it remains a fun game to this day. I have to shamefully admit I never played the game till last year via a Sega CD emulator. I wanted to play the game since I had heard over and over of the epic metal soundtrack that rocked so hard. I was instantly impressed after booting up the title screen.

After completing the game on the emulator I really wanted to get a legit copy. I searched and found the Sega CD version was pretty expensive. I then looked into the Turbo Duo edition and found that the system and Lords of Thunder were super expensive. My frustration led me to the Wii's Virtual Console. A few minutes later I was rocking the Turbo Duo version on my modern Nintendo system...hell yeah!

Lords of Thunder starts with you selecting armor for your god knight based on an element. The element determines your attack style. After picking your element you proceed to a store with power ups, extra continues, and shields for sell. One more selection takes place after this, level selection. Various islands are available usually based around a certain element like a desert stage or a water stage. This is a pretty cool feature since you can pick different routes each time you play.

The graphics are pretty cool in a nostalgic sense. They feature a little above average 16- bit sprite work and the speed in some levels never blurs your vision. The bosses are impressively large and detailed. The stages themselves look decent but are not the greatest. The anime art in the game's shop front and ending are pretty nice however.
My favorite parts of the game are the music and gameplay. The music is a metal fan's dream. I love the soundtrack and personally feel it pales only to Symphony of the Night in great guitar work. The gaming world needs more guitar soundtracks. The gameplay is pretty tough ( the Turbo Duo version being harder than the Sega CD port) but extra continues for sale makes things easier on the committed player. The music compliments the hardcore shooting action perfectly, you will never hate repeating a stage since it gives you another chance to hear the awesome music.

You can get the game for cheap on the Virtual Console. I have not noticed any real problems in the emulation, but then again I have never played the original game on the Turbo Duo. If you have some extra cash and want a cool shooter, pick this gem up. The game can be hard, but that should not deter you from trying this one out.

Randomness:

• This game is a follow up to Gate of Thunder, a similar shooter on the Turbo CD featuring spaceships.

• The US version of the Sega CD Lords of Thunder has the sexiest sounding shop keeper ever!
• The Sega CD version is noted for being a graphically inferior port that is a bit easier in difficulty than it's Turbo CD counterpart.