i remember playing this shit on my atgames sega mega drive and thinking oh wow this game looks cool helicopter🥺🥺🥺

what the fuck was i smoking
what the fuck were these people smoking
tbh i want some too if you making a game this bad

Vergonhoso, facilmente o pior shooter que já joguei na vida. O 3D desse jogo chega a ser nojento de mal feito, usando vários sprites desenhados em tamanhos diferentes sem razão alguma. Falta o detalhe e a profundidade no jogo. A taxa de quadros é incrivelmente ruim, em nível INACRÉDITAVEL, parece que o jogo roda a 3 FPS. Fora os controles que tem um atraso de resposta absurdo.

Com gráficos feios, controles lentos e uma dificuldade absurdamente alta, não consigo imaginar alguém achando "Super Thunder Blade" um jogo legal ou divertido.

This game is one that I don't enjoy because it kind of just feels like the other launch game but with worse controls. The whole game feels like this weird stop and go kind of game and not only is the enemy variety super limited but they can go die in a fire on the even numbered stages. ALL THEY DO IS CAMP AND SNIPE YOU! The enemies shouldn't be so good at getting you when you're so slow in turning. The second stage gives the game such a bad impression as it's easily the worst stage in the game. Just like Space Harrier II for some reason the bosses are the easiest part of the whole game. The overhead stuff isn't too bad either but I can't even tell half the time what can kill me or not. Look it's not the worst game ever or even the worst of 1988 but this is not worth playing now. I'll still need to give it another playthrough though.

Super Thunder Blade is a total fucking meme among friends of mine. It's really bad. Have you ever seen the arcade original in comparison? I don't think this port as a launch title was a terribly smooth move at all, with the scrolling of the original not really being possible here and the frame rate cut into what feels like 10% of its former glory. Instead of the more organic feeling scrolling, what's present here seems to be more like...snapping to a different, closer location on each frame (which again, isn't many frames). It looks like dogshit and makes for extremely unclear depth perception, which is really a nuisance in levels 2 and 4 in particular. Those two can seriously go to hell, they're total eyesores and they're way too fucking hard, even when you discover how to brake.

Levels 1 and 3 are a different story, oddly enough. They suck, because it's Super Thunder Blade, but you can cheese the hell out of them with ease. Just move in a square and bullets will always miss! I can basically do those two's rail shooter segments deathless by just moving in a square over and over. This seems to work like a charm in plenty rail shooters of the time as well, like HyperZone and the final level in Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. Because levels 2 and 4 are more based around stage hazards though, no dice there. Good fucking luck with those. The overhead segments are a total chore as well, particularly the final one, but there's not even a lot to say about them. They all have the same music, even.

It really can't be stated how ugly this game is because of the scrolling, but it sounds ugly as well. It's possibly even more dead sounding than even Altered Beast, or Golden Axe. All the music has this feel to it that it just got sopping wet somehow and just wants to go home, it's so miserable it's kind of hilarious. One time I joked to a friend of mine (who I also pestered to play this, he gave up at the final boss) that he should rap over the level 1 music, and that motherfucker delivered, and I cried laughing about it like five times that day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20HkgpY2gZ0

It's not honestly the worst launch title for the console, that would go to Last Battle. But it's a lot funnier than that one in my opinion, and has managed as a running joke with friends for over a year now. Everyone should experience this once just for how absurdly hateful it is. It's so fucking funny, trust me.

Cleared on June 18th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 14/160)

Looking at the reviews, I'm surprised the game has such a negative opinion. As far as arcade ports go, it's not... that bad. Obviously it can't top the original Thunder Blade visually and the frame rate, but compared to Galaxy Force II, it seems at least beatable without having to resort to save states and rewinds (maybe except for the 4th level), and compared to Viewpoint, the frame rate is manageable which is impressive given its 3D perspective. For an arcade game that went to console in the 80s with new software, I'd say it's about what I would've expected.

Of course, the game itself does suffer the faults of an arcade port such as the distorted obstacles which stutters as you move, making it very tricky to avoid as you need to brake in order to have a better chance at avoiding. This doesn't become a problem until the game's 2nd level where it throws disjointed obstacles at you, and on top of that, you need to deal with enemies positioned to barrage you with projectiles. It's also a problem in the game's 4th level too and may even seem almost unavoidable. It's quite a lot.

Perhaps this sort of unfairness is contributed to the fact that this game only has 4 levels... yeah, if you play perfectly without getting hit, you could beat this game in 20 minutes.

There are ways to help improve the experience. If you don't plan on using the rewind or save state feature, you can set the live count to 7 from the default 3 as well as set the difficulty to Easy which will lower the speed of the projectiles, giving you more time to evade them.

From there, just blast through. The game I would say is the most fun at Level 1 and 3 where you don't really have any obstacles to worry about. It's just good helicopter shooting fun. Level 2, however, is quite the difficulty spike and the fourth and final level isn't much better. Would've been much better if Level 2 and 3 switched places.

I will say I didn't really care for the overhead sequences. I get why it's there since you are playing a helicopter, but this is where the depth perception can kinda screw with you as the projectiles are firing up, and it's just slow compared to the third person sequences. I did, however, realize while fighting the final boss that pressing the brake button puts you in reverse which I can imagine would give you a better time during these segments.

A fine game for it's time, and there's no harm in giving it a try. If you bought any Sega Genesis collection, it's very likely the game is on there.

Wanna hear a joke? Super Thunder Blade.

entire audience dies of laughter

Back in 2006 I got a hold of the Sega Genesis Collection for my PSP, what was the first game I decided to boot up you ask? Why of course the one with the cool helicopter. Needless to say, even back when I was younger and less cynical about the quality of games I basically went "lmao wow this thing is trash", and then proceeded to play Shinobi III to wash away the stank.

Make no mistake, Super Thunder Blade is less "super" and more "stupid", because I dunno what was going through Sega's mind in thinking the choppiness of this game was somehow acceptable even for back in 1988. Like yeah sure, maybe the first time you go through the city stages it might've looked neat back then, but then you get to the "cave" sections of stage 2 and you're suddenly asking yourself if you somehow went up a brontosaurus's ass. I seriously can't comprehend just how dreadful the game looks during these parts. It's seriously not a good look, especially when the helicopter controls like shit.

By far the worst of the common sights for the Genesis collections, even the stupid port of Virtua Fighter 2 is better than this thing at least as an oddity.

Dumb game, utterly dickbrained and blockheaded game.