Lords of Thunder

About Lords of Thunder

Lords of Thunder (1993), Winds of Thunder in Japan, is Red's fantasy shoot 'em up for the TurboDuo, made by former Thunder Force staff and known for its huge bosses and hard rock soundtrack.

Lords of Thunder in Depth

The knight Landis, wearing the armour of his ancestor Drak, fights Zaggart of the Garuda Empire, who has revived the evil god Deoric, and his six dark generals across the land of Mistral. Unlike its predecessor Gate of Thunder, the player picks any of the first six stages in any order, as in Thunder Force III, with the last unlocked after the rest. Before each stage Landis chooses one of four armours, based on the classical elements, which change his shots and bombs and the difficulty, and buys extra bombs, shields and health elixirs in a shop with crystals. Four difficulty settings rearrange hazards and enemy patterns, and a cheat opens a hidden boss rush.

The screen scrolls constantly until a boss is reached. Landis fires long-range shots, swings a sword up close and uses bombs that clear enemies and bullets. Defeated enemies drop hearts that restore health, power crystals that raise firepower and blue and red crystals for the shop, also key to high scores. Getting hit or touching scenery costs health and firepower, and continues are limited, though more can be bought.

Making Lords of Thunder

Red Raimon, the group within Red that had made Gate of Thunder, developed the game with Kazunori Nakazawa as planner and character designer, production co-led by Hudson Soft's Eiji Aoyama and Masaki Kobayashi, and Tomonori Matsunaga directing. Turbo Technologies released it for the TurboDuo in North America in March 1993, and Hudson Soft in Japan that April. Critics praised its sharp visuals, large bosses, lack of slowdown, frantic pace and soundtrack, VideoGames & Computer Entertainment calling it "the perfect game for players with fast reflexes", though some felt its play was less fierce or technical than Gate of Thunder's. GameFan rated it among the best shooters on the system.

A 1995 Sega CD port by Hudson Soft and Eleven was considered inferior, with washed-out colours, audio balancing problems and lower difficulty. Later reviewers rank it among the most important PC Engine shooters; Nintendo Life said its guitar rock soundtrack "fits like a chain mail glove". It has been re-released on the Virtual Console and the TurboGrafx-16 Mini.