Gate of Thunder

The Good
For the most part, Gate of Thunder has you moving left-to-right, holding down Button 1, and occasionally flipping fire-modes with Button 2. You move around avoiding bullets and missiles and the occasional chunk of rock, or space-age construction.Doesn't sound that original really, does it? But once you spend some more time on this game, you begin to realise that there is a little bit more to it than your usual shooter.

As you control your ship, (or ships, depending whether you have picked up a power-up), you start to appreciate that this game has a great momentum, something that others in this genre lack. The screen scrolls nicely, and you are constantly facing new things to train your incredibly fast auto-fire on them. The feeling of progression is one of the highlights of this game, and you are never really faced with repetitive enemies or patterns of obstacles.

Graphically this thing looks dated, but it's functional, and the collision detection is fine, (maybe even a little cruel). Your fire-power can be a choice of three. Blue lightning-type, green wave-type, and red-missile type. I rarely using anything other than this latter kind, as I find the others too directional and too weak respectively. Once you are fully powered-up though, this game gets really quite destructive (read: fun).

One of the other little touches this game has that others in this genre have neglected somewhat is the inclusion of a speed-selector. Sure Gradius has the "speed-up" options, but this game gives them to you by default. It's makes things easier in cramped areas to switch your speed down, and in other obstacle-laden areas to switch it up. It's just another thing to mess with, (while you're holding down Button 1, of course.

The Bad
I read a lot about this games marvelous soundtrack. All I can say is, good luck actually hearing it over the constant beam of your shooter and the death-throes of your mortal enemies as they slam into some 16-bit-parallax-scrolling terrain. It's a complete barrage of explosions, this game is. I can hear the music about as clearly as you can decipher "Slippy" from Star Fox. The only way to treat yourself (which I admit I haven't done) would be to go into the sound test in configuration.

Also, I find that the screen feels a little too cramped at times. It's not uncommon that you're unfairly forced into some unavoidable and decidedly cruel games of inter-galactic "Chicken". Even though you're fully powered-up, it seems that one of the drones can take a whole lot of punishment AND force you into the wall at the same time. Thankfully, you don't lose all of your power-ups. But I guess this is the price that the horizontal (and vertical for that matter) shooter comes with.

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance", and this have never been truer for the pilot of the "Hunting Dog". One lapse in concentration, and the Obellon army win. Dramatic huh?

The Bottom Line
This game's is pretty good for a old shooter, and, with enough of a chance, might of even become a modern cult-hit. For modern audiences, this might be a little too old-fashioned, what with the neon sparkles of "Geometry Wars", but this game is a nice slice of Turbografx history.