Thunder Spirits [Model SHVC-TH (TOPN-2001)]

Thunder Spirits © 1991 Toshiba EMI.

Thunder Spirits is a horizontal shooter by Technosoft, and is apparently the port of the arcade game of the a same name originally released in 1990 (but anyone familiar with the Thunder Force series for the Megadrive will most certainly feel like a sense of déjà vu, Thunder Spirits being largely based on Thunderforce III). The player takes control of a small fighter ship equipped with a vulcan-laser gun. A total of five different secondary weapon systems can be collected throughout the game : wave-laser (W), Hunter homing-missiles (H), ground-missiles (F), laser-gun (L) and so forth... Flying pods can also be collected and protect the ship from enemy fire. Additionally, they can also fire the secondary weapon, thus instantly increasing its potential usefulness. Another nice feature is the color-coded collisions, especially during boss battles - blue impacts indicate that the player is not causing any damage to the enemy, but if they turn red, then he knows that he is inflicting damage (and that he has most certainly found a weak point). Thunder Spirits consists of eight levels.