Super Thunder Blade

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Super Thunder Blade
System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Steam, Virtual Console
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega R&D 2 M2
Original system(s): Sega X Board
Genre: Shooting
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1988-10-29 ¥5,8005,800 G-4003 US 1989-09-01 EU 1990-09 PT 199x UK 1990-09 £34.9534.95 SE (Rental) 199x AU 199x CA 19xx BR 199x KR 199x GM4006JG JP 19xx ¥? ? UK 19xx £? ? JP ▼ 2007-09-18 600pts600 US ▼ 2007-09-17 800pts800 EU ▼ 2007-10-05 800pts800 AU ▼ 2007-10 800pts800 US ▼ 2010-09-13 $2.992.99 34314 EU ▼ 2010-09-13 €2.492.49 34314 DE ▼ 2010-09-13 €2.492.49 34314 UK ▼ 2010-09-13 £1.991.99 34314 AU ▼ 2010-09-13 $3.493.49 34314 US ▼ 2019-02-01 $0.990.99 34314 EU ▼ 2019-02-01 €0.990.99 34314 DE ▼ 2019-02-01 €0.990.99 34314 UK ▼ 2019-02-01 £0.790.79 34314 AU ▼ 2019-02-01 $1.351.35 34314 US ▼ 2019-02-01 $0.990.99 34314 EU ▼ 2019-02-01 €0.990.99 34314 DE ▼ 2019-02-01 €0.990.99 34314 UK ▼ 2019-02-01 £0.790.79 34314 AU ▼ 2019-02-01 $1.351.35 34314

Super Thunder Blade (スーパーサンダーブレード) is a Sega Mega Drive rail shooter developed by Sega R&D 2 and published by Sega. An expanded port of the company's titular 1987 arcade game Thunder Blade, it was first released in Japan on October 29, 1988 as one of the system's two launch titles (alongside Space Harrier II).

While the initial reception was mostly positive, it became mixed in restrospective.

Gameplay

As in its predecessor, the player takes control of an helicopter which is used to attack a group of guerrillas. The helicopter itself uses guns and missiles ( and , respectively), and can also air brake (hold ). A distinctive feature that also appears in the arcade game is the use of different viewpoints during the entire game; during normal gameplay and when fighting sub-bosses, the game utilizes a third-person perspective from behind the helicopter, similar to Space Harrier, but the camera changes to a top-down perspective when fighting bosses.

Levels

	Stage 1
	Stage 1 takes place in a straight-line city environment, with tanks on the streets and planes flying overhead. After a halt, the stage's mid-level boss, an oversized tank, appears; destroy the turrets on its sides and main gun to clear it. From there, the stage switches to an overhead perspective as it flies over an aircraft carrier. Avoid the cannons on the carrier's floor and destroy the grounded planes for more points.
	Stage 2
	Stage 2 is located in a mountainous area with wooded landscapes. One of the major features of the level is a stone structure with two holes (presumably for the tanks) cut out of it; the player must navigate their way through these openings. These openings fly into caves with pillars, stalagmites and stalactites, which must be avoided. The mid-boss for this stage is helicopter which fires from its wings, but in the middle, shoots missiles. Destroy all three firing areas to proceed. The overhead boss of the level is a massive tank. It fires from its cannons in the middle. Move to the near-ends of the right and left of the screen while shooting to take out any cannons and avoid fire.
	Stage 3
	Stage 3 takes place on the seas with battleships and helicopters, which departs from the Stage 3 of Thunder Blade. The battleships are large but can be out-maneuvered easily. During the now-familiar pause in action, the mini boss will show his ugly head. Watch out for the chain of fire as it emerges from the distance. An oversized stealth flyer serves as the overhead boss for this level and aside from the cannon fire, it shoots out green balls of pain.
	Stage 4
	Stage 4 is similar to Stage 1, though it takes place at night and the player moves at a slightly faster pace than before. In addition, the roads now have horizontal barriers in them that need to be flown over, under or through a gap between two. The midbosses are two robotic vehicles; it is advised to concentrate on dodging their attacks versus an outright assault. The final overhead area is a military base, and the final boss is a large cannon located in the middle of the base.

Bosses

	Stage 1 Mid-Boss
	Maneater Sub-Commander (TM-91B2) in western manual or MANEATER [TM-91B2] in japanese manual. Exclusive to Super Thunder Blade. A large tank with three missile launchers and a High-Power Mason Cannon. Easy to avoid by circle motion.
	Stage 1 Boss
	Seaminer Commander (CVA-65) in western manual or SEAMINER [CVA-65] in japanese manual. It's actually a different kind of ship than the one in Thunder Blade, being aircraft carrier. Thus much wider, carries aircraft and missile launcher are placed on the sides.
	Stage 2 Mid-Boss
	Fujii Sub-Commander (TU-027) in western manual or FUJII-027 [Tu-027D] in japanese manual. Exclusive to Super Thunder Blade. Attack aircraft. Hovers in front of player and shoots at him with missiles out of rear. May hit player while entering the screen despite doing circle motion.
	Stage 2 Boss
	Land-Buster Commander (TFA-001A) in western manual or LAND-BUSTER [TFA-001A] in japanese manual. Huge strategic tank with nuclear engine. Somewhat different from Thunder Blade counterpart including missile launchers placement.
	Stage 3 Mid-Boss
	Aqua-Lyzer Sub-Commander (SSA-01N) in western manual or AQUA-LYZER [SSA-01N] in japanese manual. Exclusive to Super Thunder Blade. Nuclear submarine that arrives from underwater. Circle motions still work against it.
	Stage 3 Boss
	U-JAC-001 Commander in western manual or U-JAC-001 [SRS-UJ-001] in japanese manual. Space aircraft. Somewhat different from Thunder Blade counterpart in missile launchers placement.
	Stage 4 Mid-Boss
	Sigma-01 Sub-Commander (S-01) and Sigma-02 Sub-Commander (S-02) in western manual or SIGMA-01 [Σ-01] and SIGMA-02 [Σ-02] in japanese manual. Exclusive to Super Thunder Blade. 25 feet of mechanical armor for infantry, aka mechs. Sigma-01 will stand and shoot at you from a single spot while Sigma-02 hovers around and shoots as well, the latter usually taking longer to defeat. There are chances that he will hit player despite the circle motion.
	Stage 4 Boss
	Simply called Guerilla Basement in western manual. Exclusive to Super Thunder Blade. A top-down perspective boss zone that replaces behind-the-view perspective guerilla base boss fight in Thunder Blade. The only top-down perspective boss where it's mandatory to destroy a certain target. Make use of air brakes to slowly move backward and not fly past the target.

History

Reception

In retrospective, the game was criticized for the choppy framerate and slippery gameplay.

Sequels and re-releases

It was released for the Virtual Console on September 17, 2007. It was also included in the Sega Mega Drive Collection for PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable in 2007 and in Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Versions

Differences from Thunder Blade

The Mega Drive programmers' solution to the scaling in the overhead stages of Thunder Blade was to simply cut them out completely. Instead, each stage starts off in the over-the-shoulder segment. To make up for this, these stages now have a new mid-boss, similar to the one fought at the end of the arcade version. After defeating this, the helicopter goes into an overhead view, but there's no scaling at all (which makes sense, as players couldn't change altitude in these scenes either.) These play out pretty much the same as the arcade game.

Once again, there are only four stages, with the first, second and fourth being roughly identical to the arcade game, and the third being a brand new level that takes place over the ocean. There's also a new final boss, fought in the overhead perspective.

Production credits

• Executive Producer: Muuuu Yuji
• Programmer: Com Blue
• Edited by: Babylon Sat.
• Art Director: Gomachan
• Art Designer: Judy Totoya, Yoshibon
• Sound Composer: Sting Saito
• Directed by: Bros400 1929
• Presented by: Sega

Source:

In-game credits

• Cover artist: Yoshiaki Yoneshima

Source:

Sega TV Game Genga Gallery

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Digital manuals

• 

  Steam manual

Magazine articles

Main article: Super Thunder Blade/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #0: "Extra issue of Beep!" (1989-04-27)

Print advert in Computer Games (GR) #3: "Ioúnios 1990" (1990-xx-xx)

Print advert in Computer & Video Games (UK) #111: "February 1991" (1991-01-16)

Physical scans

Mega Drive version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 78

	78
Based on 1 review

Super Thunder Blade

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, EU
Cover
Cart Manual PCB

Mega Drive, PT
Manual

Mega Drive, SE rental (Kanal10)
Cover

Mega Drive, AU (Horizontal manual)
Cover
Cart

Mega Drive, AU (Vertical manual)
Cover

Mega Drive, AU (Silver)
Cover

Mega Drive, BR
Cover
Cart

Mega Drive, CA
Cover

Mega Drive, KR
Cover
Cart

Mega-Tech version

Mega-Tech,
Cart

Technical information

Main article: Super Thunder Blade/Technical information.

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 8bd77836 MD5 15268ba530efea609e201df49e9514e2 SHA-1 f40bef7a5a2e414d87335e3e56a2c34fb4f83fca	512kB	1988-08	Cartridge	Revision 00
✔	CRC32 b13087ee MD5 04da37f2a95340243bff72c82d4c7b73 SHA-1 21810b4a309a5b9a70965dd440e9aeed0b6ca4c5	512kB	1989-01	Cartridge	Revision 01

External links

• Sega of Japan Virtual Console pages: Mega Drive
• Nintendo catalogue pages: US, UK, AU
• Super Thunder Blade on Steam

References

Games in the Thunder Blade Series
Thunder Blade (home computers) (1987) | Super Thunder Blade (1988) | Electronic Thunder Blade (1989) | 3D Thunder Blade (2014)
Thunder Blade related media
	Galaxy Force II & Thunder Blade Original Sound Track (2007) | Galaxy Force II & Thunder Blade (2017)