I remember when my buddy and i inserted the cartridge and power this gem up... That opening soundtrack blew. Our. Fucking. Minds. We turned our heads slowly to look at each other, lower jaw down on the floor and eyes wide open, like we were telling each other ''Do you actually hear THAT...''. We had to take a couple of minutes to process what just happened once the intro finished to the title screen. And mind you, my friend had his system plugged into a high-performance sound setup. The music blasted into the whole room like a shockwave. We played it again like 2-3 more times. We recovered and then we played lol. I was 15. Good fucking times.
I remember saving up for this game by moving lawns when I was growing up. Awesome soundtrack and non stop action. Still remember the code for 99 lives lol. Only game I've ever known back in the day that could pushed the genesis hardware so relentlessly.
God damn, what a fantastic game! My mom bought this to me as a present, back in the day. I spent hours every day playing it, until I beat it at the cost of my homework!
So, I've been analysing this game for a while and thinking about how it could be done on SNES, and I reckon that the SNES could do basically everything you see in backgrounds of this game but with a proper overlapping HUD, more and nicer colours in most places, an additional background layer or two in many stages, proper transparency effects in the areas where the the Genesis version uses dithering, etc. The sprites would be the biggest challenge, although I think most of the important stuff could be done with a wee tweak or two in some places, and they could still have more and nicer colours in many cases as well. Overall, other the than smaller horizontal view that you just can't overcome on SNES, I think a SNES version of this game could be pretty great. :) Now I just need someone to try porting it or even doing some tests to demonstrate this!
First time I saw this game, I was in 1st grade at my friend Jason's birthday party (1996). It took me YEARS to find, but I specifically remember the first stage with the lake whizzing by while that giant water-snake jumps across the screen. Around the next year, I actually rented Thunder Force II and years later finally amassed all 3 (Genesis) games. Still my favorite shooter series ever!!! Sega, please release a Thunder Force Collection!!!!!
I'd take Axelay, Space Megaforce, R-Type 3, U.N. Squadron, etc. (SNES) and Gate of Thunder, Lords of Thunder, Spriggon 1 & 2, Blazing Lazers, Super Star Soldier, Final Soldier, Soldier Blade, Sapphire, etc. (Turbo Grafx 16) over this game any day. Maybe you should actually play other game systems.
@@bestchannelintheworld Nope. Thunder Force IV has neither better level design and enemies, nor does it have better weapons. The weapons in particular just come across as really weak. The first boss battle in particular just seems to drag on and on. In front of the pretty backdrops is a game that lacks interesting level design with many of the levels lacking much of any physical environments or obstacles. As I stated previously, you Sega fanboys really need to play more games on other game systems. Hell, you need to play more shooters on the Genesis too, as Thunder Force IV is nowhere close to the system's best shooter.
The paralax scrolling in TF IV is truly astounding. The first level in particular looks like it has so many layers; to think that the Mega Drive only has 2 background layers
True for that Strite level, dang impressive, but some of the other levels in this are actually a bit visually meh imo, and one downright ugly, especially at the later part of the level: 37:24 Seriously, what the hell is that mess of visuals? Even to this day, I question if that's truly how the dirty grey background stuff is supposed to look or if the tiles or the palette got messed up at some point and no one ever noticed and/or brought it up. I mean, honestly, can you tell me what I'm supposed to be seeing there? To me it's five or so [very obvious where the splits are] line-scrolled sections of total fugliness (dithered, low-colour, garish, non-descript, bland, just plain bad). Strite on the other hand looks amazing (and absolutely on a technical level). 😲
@@inceptional "Dithered, low-colour, garish, non-descript, bland, just plain bad". Yep, that pretty much sums up the "Genesis look" in general. (snicker)
@@davidaitken8503 To be fair, it can get some pretty great looking games when someone knows what they're doing with the colours, but, yeah, a lot Genesis games do have that particular "Genesis" look to them.
@@inceptional Yeah, I know. I've just always hated the excessive use of dithering that far too many games on the system use. It always made the image look ugly even back on CRT's. Just look at Eternal Champions.
Wow this was one of my favorite Genesis games! I remember it was 1996 and my sister and I each got a genesis game. I got lightening force and she got bio Hazzard battle. 2 extremely fun and underrated games. Far superior to all "space shooter" genre games
In the 90’s I seen the advertisement slogan Bigger Badder Better for SNK Neo Geo and would respond I don’t see anything the NeoGeo AES does that the Genesis & Super Nintendo couldn’t. I own a NeoGeo AES collection and I feel the same to this day and IMO Lightening Force is a perfect example of that
My oldernsister had this game and I played and beat it more times than I care to count! Its such an awesome game not to mention the soundtrack to it is great! I still play when I can download an emulator and rom! Good time for sure! Sidenote: My favorite tracks on the game is fighting Boss 1 & 2)
I remember having this game - never beating it, getting to the levels past the initial 4 was a huge accomplishment personally. But by that time I was aging out of having the time to put down hours to memorize video game patterns. Still - great game, and such a killer soundtrack!
Jugué algunos títulos de naves impresionantes para la fantástica Super Nintendo, como el inigualable Axelay, Gradius III o R-Type III... Pero este "Lightening Force: Search for the Darkstar", o Thunder Force IV, tienen un apartado gráfico y sonoro soberbio; no parece un juego para la consola de Sega. Es, posiblemente, uno de los mejores juegos de naves que he visto para la legendaria Sega Genesis. ¡Mis respetos, y saludos!
Una chulada de juego. Me encanta este gameplay . Una música extraordinaria, jefes bien hechos,a muy buena jugavilidad. El mejor el número 1 es su género. Nada lo supera
Actually what happens is that this game is one of the very rare examples of a game that's somehow faster than the M68K processor,do the Mega Drive's blast processing is actually slowed down in this game!
![[TAS] Thunder Force IV Full Gameplay (Maniac Difficulty + No Miss Bonus)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Eg40GyN1bzU/mqdefault.jpg)
I remember when my buddy and i inserted the cartridge and power this gem up... That opening soundtrack blew. Our. Fucking. Minds.
We turned our heads slowly to look at each other, lower jaw down on the floor and eyes wide open, like we were telling each other ''Do you actually hear THAT...''. We had to take a couple of minutes to process what just happened once the intro finished to the title screen. And mind you, my friend had his system plugged into a high-performance sound setup. The music blasted into the whole room like a shockwave. We played it again like 2-3 more times. We recovered and then we played lol. I was 15. Good fucking times.
lol that's a great memory there
The developer really loved Dokken apparently.
Bro I felt the exact same! 😂 as a kid I was like “ holy shit this is the most badass shit ever “
I remember saving up for this game by moving lawns when I was growing up. Awesome soundtrack and non stop action. Still remember the code for 99 lives lol. Only game I've ever known back in the day that could pushed the genesis hardware so relentlessly.
God damn, what a fantastic game! My mom bought this to me as a present, back in the day. I spent hours every day playing it, until I beat it at the cost of my homework!
That soundtrack 🔥🔥🔥
Gorgeous game. The worlds just come to life
So, I've been analysing this game for a while and thinking about how it could be done on SNES, and I reckon that the SNES could do basically everything you see in backgrounds of this game but with a proper overlapping HUD, more and nicer colours in most places, an additional background layer or two in many stages, proper transparency effects in the areas where the the Genesis version uses dithering, etc.
The sprites would be the biggest challenge, although I think most of the important stuff could be done with a wee tweak or two in some places, and they could still have more and nicer colours in many cases as well.
Overall, other the than smaller horizontal view that you just can't overcome on SNES, I think a SNES version of this game could be pretty great. :)
Now I just need someone to try porting it or even doing some tests to demonstrate this!
This game has some of the best graphics and music of the 16 bit generation.
First time I saw this game, I was in 1st grade at my friend Jason's birthday party (1996). It took me YEARS to find, but I specifically remember the first stage with the lake whizzing by while that giant water-snake jumps across the screen. Around the next year, I actually rented Thunder Force II and years later finally amassed all 3 (Genesis) games. Still my favorite shooter series ever!!!
Sega, please release a Thunder Force Collection!!!!!
Just another reason why I prefer the Genesis over the SNES.
I'd take Axelay, Space Megaforce, R-Type 3, U.N. Squadron, etc. (SNES) and Gate of Thunder, Lords of Thunder, Spriggon 1 & 2, Blazing Lazers, Super Star Soldier, Final Soldier, Soldier Blade, Sapphire, etc. (Turbo Grafx 16) over this game any day. Maybe you should actually play other game systems.
@@davidaitken8503 Take it easy man
I'm glad I had access to both consoles growing up. Both definitely had their own epic exclusives.
@@davidaitken8503 all of these are worse than TF IV.
@@bestchannelintheworld Nope. Thunder Force IV has neither better level design and enemies, nor does it have better weapons. The weapons in particular just come across as really weak. The first boss battle in particular just seems to drag on and on. In front of the pretty backdrops is a game that lacks interesting level design with many of the levels lacking much of any physical environments or obstacles. As I stated previously, you Sega fanboys really need to play more games on other game systems. Hell, you need to play more shooters on the Genesis too, as Thunder Force IV is nowhere close to the system's best shooter.
The best horizontal shooter, ever
The game has turned 30 and is still an absolute beast. A milestone in the genesis catalog.
Say no to the great reset
The paralax scrolling in TF IV is truly astounding. The first level in particular looks like it has so many layers; to think that the Mega Drive only has 2 background layers
True for that Strite level, dang impressive, but some of the other levels in this are actually a bit visually meh imo, and one downright ugly, especially at the later part of the level: 37:24 Seriously, what the hell is that mess of visuals? Even to this day, I question if that's truly how the dirty grey background stuff is supposed to look or if the tiles or the palette got messed up at some point and no one ever noticed and/or brought it up. I mean, honestly, can you tell me what I'm supposed to be seeing there? To me it's five or so [very obvious where the splits are] line-scrolled sections of total fugliness (dithered, low-colour, garish, non-descript, bland, just plain bad). Strite on the other hand looks amazing (and absolutely on a technical level). 😲
@@inceptional "Dithered, low-colour, garish, non-descript, bland, just plain bad".
Yep, that pretty much sums up the "Genesis look" in general. (snicker)
@@davidaitken8503 To be fair, it can get some pretty great looking games when someone knows what they're doing with the colours, but, yeah, a lot Genesis games do have that particular "Genesis" look to them.
@@inceptional Yeah, I know. I've just always hated the excessive use of dithering that far too many games on the system use. It always made the image look ugly even back on CRT's. Just look at Eternal Champions.
@KnabiOI Yeah, it's strange that some levels really are dang impressive, and others seem almost unfinished or glitched visually to me.
This was my favorite space-shooter, narrowly edging out R-Type. That music definitely added another level to this game's awesomeness.
Wow this was one of my favorite Genesis games! I remember it was 1996 and my sister and I each got a genesis game. I got lightening force and she got bio Hazzard battle. 2 extremely fun and underrated games. Far superior to all "space shooter" genre games
In the 90’s I seen the advertisement slogan Bigger Badder Better for SNK Neo Geo and would respond I don’t see anything the NeoGeo AES does that the Genesis & Super Nintendo couldn’t. I own a NeoGeo AES collection and I feel the same to this day and IMO Lightening Force is a perfect example of that
My oldernsister had this game and I played and beat it more times than I care to count! Its such an awesome game not to mention the soundtrack to it is great! I still play when I can download an emulator and rom! Good time for sure!
Sidenote: My favorite tracks on the game is fighting Boss 1 & 2)
I remember having this game - never beating it, getting to the levels past the initial 4 was a huge accomplishment personally. But by that time I was aging out of having the time to put down hours to memorize video game patterns. Still - great game, and such a killer soundtrack!
I have to admit it....I played this game with the 99 lifes glitch
Thank you memory lane. 😊
Back when I was young, and not speaking english at all, I loved using my Rain-Gah, my Wanna, my Uncle, my Few-Way, my Go, my Smooke and my Raynghe 😂😂
When I played this game I would think about the mechanical lovecraftian horrors the Rynex pilot saw while he/she was out alone in hostile orn space.
Pilots. He and she. 😊
I finally found this game me and my brother played endless hours of this. It's the reason I'm so good at spaceship games.
Classic game. Whip Rush is like the outer space version of this and at 4:36 the boss has a long tail similar to the stage 4 boss in whip rush.
One of my favorite games of the 90’s.. I miss these days….
Jugué algunos títulos de naves impresionantes para la fantástica Super Nintendo, como el inigualable Axelay, Gradius III o R-Type III... Pero este "Lightening Force: Search for the Darkstar", o Thunder Force IV, tienen un apartado gráfico y sonoro soberbio; no parece un juego para la consola de Sega. Es, posiblemente, uno de los mejores juegos de naves que he visto para la legendaria Sega Genesis. ¡Mis respetos, y saludos!
I didnt even like shmups as a kid and it remains one of my all time favorite Genesis games
This game is challenging asf, but I still love it!!😁
God knows how many times I played this 😂
The way he played this with one life, you would think they told him this his last mission before retiring
I loved playing this on Genesis ❤ 🎮
Happy new year!
Happy new year to you! 😃
Title screen music and other music in the game clearly inspired by Judas Priest.
Now that you mention it, I do kinda get Painkiller and/or Electric Eye vibes. Definitely a Priestlike speed metal sound.
The soundtrack stage 8. WOW!
Una chulada de juego.
Me encanta este gameplay .
Una música extraordinaria, jefes bien hechos,a muy buena jugavilidad.
El mejor el número 1 es su género.
Nada lo supera
Name one soundtrack in this game that sucks....yeah, didn't think so!
Badass classic game but the character/ship/enemy designs are like a fever dream. Sweet Art Direction though!
Core memory unlocked
21:06 music always reminds me of X-Men The Arcade Game style of soundtrack.
Qu'est-ce qu'on y a joué moi et mon frère à ce jeux vidéo à l'époque, j'avais 8 ans 🤣
Let it be known that the PAL version has significantly less slowdown.
Lol the first boss if you look well it a fish dude on a mobility scooter.
Now I can’t unsee it, cheers 😂😂
The slowdown is very noticeable in this version, I always assumed the NTSC versions were superior but I don't think thats true in this case.
It's better than the choppy scrolling and slow movement of the crappy PAL version.
Actually what happens is that this game is one of the very rare examples of a game that's somehow faster than the M68K processor,do the Mega Drive's blast processing is actually slowed down in this game!
El mejor de naves de los 16 bits
Excellent shooter, but I cannot get past level 8.
Awful design for a boss on that water dragon. Lazy lazy lazy.
Y
4:00 the way the music interacts with the boss right 👌🏼👌🏼