CORBIE'S GAME BLOG

Very few games in this world can make me grin from ear to ear like Lords of Thunder can. At the time of its release, I had a Super NES and Sega Genesis system and was perfectly content with them. That is until one day I came home from college and had a video tape in the mail advertising a new game called Lords of Thunder. I had read about the TurboDuo, but I had already owned a Turbografx-16 system and sold it to buy my Super NES. But after 5 minutes of watching the footage of Lords of Thunder, I went directly to my DieHard Gamefan magazines and ordered a TurboDuo system and Lords of Thunder from a retailer listed in the back of the magazines. I even splurged for overnight shipping that set me back another $40. In all my years of gaming, I can't ever remember wanting a game as badly as I wanted Lords of Thunder. Thankfully, it turned out to be one of my favorite games of all-time and easily my favorite shooter. I even got several games that were included with the TurboDuo as a bonus, one of which, Ys Book I & II, almost made this list as well. But for weeks, nothing could tear me away from Lords of Thunder.

You can't talk about Lords of Thunder without mentioning what is one of the most hard-rockin' soundtracks ever to grace a video game. In fact, right off hand, I can't think of its equal. Throw in non-stop, pulse-pounding shooting action and some screen-eclisping bosses, and what you get is a space shooter unlike any other. People can talk about Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga all they want to, but nothing can stack up against Lords of Thunder pound for pound. The game even added an RPG touch to the mix by allowing you to select different coats of armor which in turn changed the type of firepower you had in each level. You could also visit a shop in between each level to purchase helpful items like smartbombs and shields. While it didn't affect the game as much as you'd think, it did offer some added gameplay to the experience and only further enhanced what is one of the most outstanding shoot-fests you can find on any system of any time period. If you've never experienced Lords of Thunder, you don't know what you're missing.