Thunder Force V

It's been quite some time since we've seen a new Thunder Force game here in the States, but in Japan, Saturn owners have been getting their fill of Thunder Force nicely. Last year Technosoft released two compilation discs for the Saturn--called Thunder Force Gold Packs--which together encompassed the entire Thunder Force series in their original forms. Volume 1 included Thunder Force II MD and Thunder Force III, and Volume 2 had Thunder Force IV and Thunder Force Arcade. Most recently, Technosoft released the first totally new Thunder Force game in years: Thunder Force V. While the Gold Packs never made it to the U.S. (and probably never will), there's still a good chance that Sega of America will bring over Thunder Force V if interest stays high.

Thunder Force V is a side-scrolling 2-D shooter with fully polygonal 3-D characters. The gameplay is essentially similar to past TF games, but your ship and its weaponry are completely new. This time there are five main weapons you can obtain, and you can hold onto each of them for as long as you're alive. You can configure your control setup to switch between them with certain buttons, or you can set it so each button represents a different weapon. In addition, your ship can collect up to three CRAW units at a time (Constituted Ray Art Weapon units) that revolve around your ship and can be used to temporarily power up your weapons into a "Berserk Mode" that does lots of damage. You can also change the speed of your ship at will.

There are several stages in Thunder Force V, and you can choose your path through the first three at the Intro Screen. Overall, the graphics are well done and provide a nice atmosphere, and the music rocks. The only problem is that right now there are no plans to bring the game here. But as we said, there's a chance Sega will bring it over if they see a high demand (so let Sega know!).

MANUFACTURER - Technosoft Co., Ltd.

THEME - Shooter

NUMBER OF PLAYERS - 1