One of the very first Megadrive/Genesis releases, Super Thunder Blade is a pretty underwhelming action title that failed to get pulses racing when it was converted to the 16-bit console back in the late ‘80s – just in time for the Japanese launch.
You pilot a high-tech attack chopper with the aim of defeating an army of blood-thirsty baddies. Armed to the teeth with a wide range of deadly weapons you have to use all your skill and cunning to succeed in your sole fight against the vengeful hordes.
Graphically Super Thunder Blade tries hard to replicate the silky-smooth sprite scaling of the arcade original (which also came in a rather funky dedicated cabinet) but sadly the Megadrive hardware just isn’t up to the task; everything shambles along in a pathetically jerky fashion making it extremely difficult to string together any kind of consistency in regards to attacking the enemy or avoiding incoming bullets.
The sprites themselves are half decent but to be brutally honest if someone told you this was the Master System version you probably wouldn’t even question it. The sound is equally disappointing, lacking any kind of punch whatsoever.
With launch software like this it’s little wonder that the Megadrive struggled to gain any kind of foothold in Japan – thankfully by the time the console arrived in the West the catalogue of games was more impressive and tripe like this was quickly forgotten.
Conclusion
Sadly Super Thunder Blade ranks as one Sega game that isn’t really worth revisiting and it’s little wonder then that most people haven’t even heard of it. Avoid!
Comments 3
Agree 100% with the review and score. This game is awful in every sense of the word.
man people are so harsh on this game, is a great game, people need to stop streotypeing this game as awful
"Megadrive hardware just isn’t up to the task"? It handled Afterburner 2 more than fine, fantastic game. I'd suggest that the poor quality of Super Thunderblade was more down to the limited memory of the cart at that time Damien.
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