WELCO METOT HENEX TLEVEL - Lords of Thunder

Lords of Thunder Publisher: Hudson Soft Developer: Red Entertainment Port: Eleven Release: 1995

Have you ever heard of this game? Likely not. Lords of Thunder is actually a sequel to Gate of Thunder, both of which were shooters originally developed for the PC Engine CD format. Not only was it kind of an obscure game back in the day, but this port was also an extremely late release on the Sega CD, not hitting until 1995.

I don't have a whole lot of trivia to share about the Lords of Thunder series. But that's not to say the game isn't interesting. In fact, it's a pretty kick ass horizontal shooter. As intense as a Thunder Force game, but with some RPG trappings and a melee attack thrown in for good measure.

This is a port of the TurboGrafx-16 version, and while it's pretty faithful it's not exact. There appears to be a bit of debate on the internet over which version is actually better (shock!), but what is certain is that the Sega CD version features voice acting that was not in the original game (for better or worse) and that the music has been slightly remixed. After checking out vids of both versions on the YouTube, I have to say I prefer the Sega CD tunes a bit more.

You play as legendary knight Duran on a quest to destroy the evil god Deoric and his bid to take over the world of Mistral. The game takes place over seven levels, but you get to take on the first six missions in any order you like. They tend to run the standard shooter gamut – fire world, ice world, etc.

What's much more interesting is that Deoric gets to select which type of armor he wears before launching each mission. The armor chosen dictates the weapons and power ups the player gets during game play. In fact, there aren't really power ups so much as there are simply different magic levels. By collecting magic pick ups, Duran's weapons get more and more powerful. Getting hit not only costs him life, but magic points as well. Duran also goes a bit medieval on his enemies when he gets close, busting out a powerful sword swipe rather than firing his weapons.

Another RPGish element is the between-level store, where the player can spend gems collected during game play in order to maximize their health or magic, buy bombs, continues, and more.

The bosses! The bosses in Lords of Thunder are awesome. And by that I mean they are actually huge (you know, the proper use of the word?). I also mean it in the more modern sense that the bosses are AWESOME!

If you have heard of Lords of Thunder, chances are it was on the basis of the soundtrack. Lords and its predecessor Gate of Thunder are famous for their driving, heavy metal soundtracks. I could try to put into words its 90s-style greatness, but I would fail utterly. Instead, just check out the embedded video below and revel in it.

Sorry that there isn't much more to talk about on this release, folks. But if it's any consolation, we've got the Lunar games coming up next on WELCO METOT HENEX TLEVEL, so I promise I'll make up for this article by over-writing the next two.