Man, I remember seeing Lords of Thunder in a magazine back when I was in 5th grade. A knight is a blue armor wielding the sacred Blade of Overcompensation, slicing evildoer into bits of bacon. No, actually, you’re suppose to fry them into crispy Mc Nuggets, but since he had a sword, you can’t blame me for the mistake. Although it is a direct sequel to Gates of Thunder, the game shares nothing with the first except in genre. Looks and genre doesn’t matter as long as the game’s a delicious pie of pwn!
The minute you start the game, you’re treated to an elaborate (90s elaborate anyway) intro. The CD soundtrack is cake from of the oven of nostalgia tickling my taste buds. I believe the intro is trying to communicate with me through pretty pictures and music.
Believe it or not, this game’s gameplay resembles Ducktales… to a certain extent. It doesn’t help that I was playing Ducktales around the same time I played this game. You start off picking from 4 different armor each granting different weapons, then it’s off to the shop to buy upgrades, extra lives, and continues — just like Ducktales! Once you’re done, you’re given a choice of any stage to play in any order you desire — again, just like Ducktales! Every enemy you eradicate leaves behind a gem or power up. The more you collect, the more you can buy in your next shopping trip. The better you are, the better the reward after you beat the stage, because if you die, you lose all the gems you’ve collected.
As with all shooter, you fire objects of much hurting at your foes, as the heavens excrete pastries of pain in all directions. All the game’s a stage for your ballet of thumbs as you pas de chat through each perilous land like a constipated ballerina. Titanic bosses awaits to tango with the fury of a sumo wrestler.
The story is quite simple. It is the year 2096, and you are a cyberneticly rebuilt Scrooge McDuck in a dark apocalyptic Duckburg. Your money has been turned into demons, and you must purge the world of these demons, and reclaim your fortune. As you go on, you’ll find out that even if you restore your money, you will not restore the world without the legendary kilt of Wetbisque McGlee. Along the way, you will discover the fate of Huey, Dewy, and Louie and also take revenge on your murderers.
To go along this dark and dreary plot is a kicking rock soundtrack that really didn’t do much for me. I only liked the desert stage and the intro. The title screen sounds like a bad porno, and the annoying guitar riffs in the boss battles pierced my ears. It just wasn’t my cup of tea, but I’m sure plenty of rock fans will love the music. The sound quality definitely holds up quite well to this day, as do the visuals. Then again, I’m not particularly picky about graphics as long as they’re colorful and lacks slowdown.
In the end, it’s a shooter, but a really well done shooter. There’s not much depth (as you can see from this short review), but has some interesting mechanics. For what it is, it’s worth owning just to sit down and replay this game every few years to experience it all over again.
Graphics: 85%
Pros: Vibrant colors, huge bosses, and no slowdown. The latter being the most important in a game such as this.
Cons: Although the Turbo Duo can display 256 colors on screen like the SNES, it has only 512 available colors to choose from. It’s not bad, but I figured I needed to write something here.
Gameplay: 75%
Pros: It’s a straight forward shooter with some great ideas to spice things up.
Cons: Not much in the way of depth.
Sound: 52%
Pros: CD soundtrack.
Cons: It just wasn’t my cup of tea. There are many positive review out there that praise the music, so if you like it, feel free to ignore me.
Controls: 100%
Pros: You fly, shoot, and release smart bombs.
Cons: Nothing.
Story: 100%
Pros: Epic, cool, dark, and filled with plot twists around every corner.
Cons: Requires a PHD in satire to understand what I’m talking about.
Recommendation: For people who still enjoy good old fashion shooters. Still too difficult for people who aren’t into shooters.
Overall: 80%
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