Summary
An Excellent Arcade Action Game.
The Good
Graphically, Thunder Castle is a surprisingly pretty game for it's time. The splash screens that highlight the level type, the main enemy, and the power-up, are quite detailed and well animated. As are the playing fields. The game is bright and colorful with easily identifiable power-ups and enemy types. There's no real stretch of imagination to distinguish the environments and monsters that inhabit the three worlds.
The music is also quite good. Based on classical pieces, it provides a dark and ominous sense of dread and urgency as the knight moves around the mazes, and a sense of triumphant victory when the knight gains a power up to turn the tables.
The overall gameplay is also interesting and challenging, giving it a strong arcade feel to the pacing.
The Bad
The controls do feel a little clunky trying to move the knight around corners. As the difficulty increases, there are walls and areas which seal near or over the player, blocking further passage, and sometimes making it too easy for enemies to overwhelm you in a single life.
At times, the power ups that allow the knight to kill the monsters sometimes move a little too fast, which becomes an exercise in madness and luck when trying to catch them. Frustrating, but bearable.
The Bottom Line
Thunder Castle is a visually interesting arcade style romp through a maze-like playfield. The game seems a little more advanced than s lot of games of its time, and still provides a good sense of action and challenge. Though I stated it before, the splash screens are still well done artistically, with a nice splash of animation.
An interesting Intellivision action title, and still enjoyable for a quick romp.
Recommended.
