SEGA AGES Thunder Force AC Review

SEGA AGES Thunder Force AC
Developed by: TechnoSoft
Ported by: M2
Published by: SEGA
Date of Release: May 28, 2020
Price: $7.99


Over the years, the Thunder Force series by TechnoSoft has been a staple of the SHMUP genre. From the first top-down free roaming entry on the Sharp X1 to the modern sidecrolling Thunder Force VI on the PlayStation 2, the series has covered a lot of ground. However the two most popular entries by far were released on the Sega Genesis/MegaDrive, and they were Thunder Force III and IV respectively (though thunder Force IV was inexplicably renamed "Lightening Force" in North America). Thunder Force III was remade as an arcade game shortly after launch, and it is this version that has been lovingly ported to the Nintendo Switch by M2 as SEGA AGES: Thunder Force AC.



The SEGA AGES port of Thunder Force AC has the usual M2 quality of life improvements such as settings to tinker with the games various options on the fly, aspect ration and filtering options (even a really decent arcade cabinet view!) and a new kids mode to ease up on the difficulty for series newcomers. The sound from the original game has been vastly cleaned up as well, with the soundtrack coming through crisp and clear. As always with M2's ports, the completely remappable controls are tight and input lag is minimal. As well the gorgeously flowing pixel art with its parallax scrolling backgrounds are a treat for the eyes, and this port captures them perfectly, and the CRT filter included gives a decent representation of how games looked on the bulky tubes of yesteryear. =



On top of all the other enhancements that M2 has added to Thunder Force AC there is also the option to use save states at any time you need. On the higher difficulties this can be particularly useful. M2 also added online leaderboards as well, so you can have bragging rights over your high scores. All in all this is par for the course for a SEGA AGES title, where they take the best of the best and then add enough extra features to elevate these masterpieces to even further heights. Just as with the SEGA AGES port of Lightening Force/Thunder Force IV before it, this is a solid addition to the switch's SHMUP library. If you're a fan of the genre, then you shouldn't hesitate to pick it up.