Aries was a peaceful and calm planet for millennia; however, it is now faced with its worst crisis. The deadly army of Obellon fighters led by General Don Jingi, the evil merchant known to do anything for personal gain, is out to steal the “Starlight,” a powerful source of energy that could destroy the universe if misused. You must properly guide the “Hunting Dog” fighter-plane along with Hawk and Esty (special undercover agents protecting the Galaxy) to destroy Obellon before they destroy the world. You are the last resort of our planet.
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One of my favorite shooters on the PC Engine CD. It's basically Thunder Force for the system, and for some, it may be better due to its higher difficulty (at least compared to TF III, which I'm probably referencing more on this site than Mike Matei references Zelda 2 but whatever). The soundtrack is also just as good as Lord Of Thunder's as icing on the cake.
Something about the readability feels off here, I suffered numerous deaths where I went "what killed me?", or would occasionally lose track of my ship when I had the two smaller ships out. Stages also felt claustrophobic, with both ceiling and floor being fatal upon touching.
Also not a fan of the difficulty, feels like it consists of "gotcha!" moments that rely on memorization and trial and error - moreso than other shmups I played.
Was also not a fan of the boss design, which semeed to mostly consist of "his weak point is hidden until he does a specific attack for a brief moment"
Ultimately, it's fine
Also not a fan of the difficulty, feels like it consists of "gotcha!" moments that rely on memorization and trial and error - moreso than other shmups I played.
Was also not a fan of the boss design, which semeed to mostly consist of "his weak point is hidden until he does a specific attack for a brief moment"
Ultimately, it's fine
The old Techno team really flexes the CD future through the sheer amount of setpieces and enemy types they cram into such a brisk run. Besides that and some cleaner presentation values, I was pretty middling on this compared to Thunder Force III, this doesn't have as much a sense of 'character' as that game does, I don't like the weapon system as much here, the stages too narrow and claustrophobic, and most of the soundtrack was drowned out by the sound effects. Idk, maybe I'm just not in the right headspace for this right now.
Masterpiece shooter. This is the pinnacle of console based shoot'em ups aspire to be; graphics, music, audio, gameplay, cut-scenes, all top notch debuting in 1992. Fair reflex and pattern recognition, with seldom deceptive enemy craft re-spawns. Average difficulty with options to increase to hard mode for shooter veterans.
When I was first getting into playing PC Engine games. One game I wanted to try badly was Lords of Thunder. When I went to go play it, I realize I had the wrong game downloaded. I saw it said Gate of Thunder and went "I don't want that one" and proceeded to ignore it. Looking back I honestly wish I didn't neglect it till now because it's also pretty great.
This is a pretty good shmup that reminds me somewhat of Thunder Force. It's got that speed changing I really like letting me feel comfortable with what I want. It's also got three different weapons that all feel great to use in any situations that are needed. You even have these helper bots that you can change the direction for their shots which is helpful for enemies behind you.
Stages feel very well designed in fact if that's one thing this game does better than TF 3 and 4 is the difficulty. It's not easy once you're powered up but its also not insanely hard. Which is what I prefer the most in shmups like these. Bosses aren't too challenging either and they even let you see when it's getting close to death which I appreciate.
I do have one issue with Gate of Thunder and that has to be the music. Now hold your torches people, I'm not saying it's bad. It's actually really good but I can barely even hear it in game. I heard this might be an emulation issue so if anyone has played this on real hardware, let me know.
The game looks pretty good and like I said the game itself has really good music. I really like the color choice and aesthetic brought to this game. It really makes it stick out from a lot of the library. They did a great job.
Honestly this and Lords of Thunder so far have entertained me the most on the console. I'm sure someday something will beat these two for me knowing my odd opinions but this is a big must play for anyone into shmups or curious about the PC Engine.
Also I might remove this part if it changes but why is the cover for this game on this site so terrible? Like why that yellow rectangle under it? Sorry it just always bothered me.
This is a pretty good shmup that reminds me somewhat of Thunder Force. It's got that speed changing I really like letting me feel comfortable with what I want. It's also got three different weapons that all feel great to use in any situations that are needed. You even have these helper bots that you can change the direction for their shots which is helpful for enemies behind you.
Stages feel very well designed in fact if that's one thing this game does better than TF 3 and 4 is the difficulty. It's not easy once you're powered up but its also not insanely hard. Which is what I prefer the most in shmups like these. Bosses aren't too challenging either and they even let you see when it's getting close to death which I appreciate.
I do have one issue with Gate of Thunder and that has to be the music. Now hold your torches people, I'm not saying it's bad. It's actually really good but I can barely even hear it in game. I heard this might be an emulation issue so if anyone has played this on real hardware, let me know.
The game looks pretty good and like I said the game itself has really good music. I really like the color choice and aesthetic brought to this game. It really makes it stick out from a lot of the library. They did a great job.
Honestly this and Lords of Thunder so far have entertained me the most on the console. I'm sure someday something will beat these two for me knowing my odd opinions but this is a big must play for anyone into shmups or curious about the PC Engine.
Also I might remove this part if it changes but why is the cover for this game on this site so terrible? Like why that yellow rectangle under it? Sorry it just always bothered me.
One of the most heinous gaming crimes you could commit is listen to a game's ost for years, and never actually play the game it's from. Another is to neglect a system's library, and only play the Bomberman games on it. It's only apt that I use a game with "Gate" in it's title to be my gateway into the PC Engine's offerings.
God, what a cool fucking shmup we've got here. Multiple weapons that you can swap to at any time once you've collected them, things are active and only get even more hectic as time goes on, and bosses that will absolutely keep you on your toes. Nothing sucks here, nothing. This didn't even display a lick of slowdown from what I could tell, which is seriously kind of insane. I obviously don't have a degree in PC Engine knowledge, but this shit seriously feels like it's pushing the system.
Even though I did use save states never did I feel like the game was being unfair with its enemy placement or that something was just pure bullshit. Every time I died it was because I wasn't vigilant enough, or because my shitty reflexes weren't good enough. Never once feeling an ounce of rage, just pure thrill and a strive to do better. It really feels like a ton of thought was put into every enemy formation and boss attack to not just kill the player, but give them a fighting chance to potentially actually dodge the shit thrown at them. If you're however some kind of god of shooting, may I perhaps point you to the fucking DEVIL DIFFICULTY?!!?! One of my favorite names for a highest difficulty setting I've seen in a while.
The soundtrack though, PHEW. Good god does it go hard, I mean no hyperbole when I say it's possibly one of my favorite OSTs off of a shmup. It's fan-fucking-tastic. I for sure probably wouldn't have even bothered with this if I hadn't heard it before!
I really can't wait to check out Lords of Thunder, and the rest of what this system has for me! Hell, I may even attempt to play this game again, and beat it without save states and feel better about listing this as "completed". It's definitely a shmup I can see myself playing multiple times. Huge recommend.
God, what a cool fucking shmup we've got here. Multiple weapons that you can swap to at any time once you've collected them, things are active and only get even more hectic as time goes on, and bosses that will absolutely keep you on your toes. Nothing sucks here, nothing. This didn't even display a lick of slowdown from what I could tell, which is seriously kind of insane. I obviously don't have a degree in PC Engine knowledge, but this shit seriously feels like it's pushing the system.
Even though I did use save states never did I feel like the game was being unfair with its enemy placement or that something was just pure bullshit. Every time I died it was because I wasn't vigilant enough, or because my shitty reflexes weren't good enough. Never once feeling an ounce of rage, just pure thrill and a strive to do better. It really feels like a ton of thought was put into every enemy formation and boss attack to not just kill the player, but give them a fighting chance to potentially actually dodge the shit thrown at them. If you're however some kind of god of shooting, may I perhaps point you to the fucking DEVIL DIFFICULTY?!!?! One of my favorite names for a highest difficulty setting I've seen in a while.
The soundtrack though, PHEW. Good god does it go hard, I mean no hyperbole when I say it's possibly one of my favorite OSTs off of a shmup. It's fan-fucking-tastic. I for sure probably wouldn't have even bothered with this if I hadn't heard it before!
I really can't wait to check out Lords of Thunder, and the rest of what this system has for me! Hell, I may even attempt to play this game again, and beat it without save states and feel better about listing this as "completed". It's definitely a shmup I can see myself playing multiple times. Huge recommend.