Thundercross

Thundercross, one of the (illegitimate) sons of Gradius, is an horizzontal shoot'em-up by Konami released in 1988.

Will be it able to shine in the crowded jungle of the shoot'em-up?

The plot behind the game is simple: the Black Impulse, an evil military force, is trying to conquer your planet and the last option to reject the invasion is the Blue Thunder M-45, a powerful battle ship (to be honest, there's also the Red Thunder M-24, a similar ship, if you find a friend for co-op play).

The above few lines, basically translates to: destroy everything that is thrown at you through the 7 stages of the game, taking care of not being hit by bullets and enemies or not touching dangerous parts of the landscape.

The gameplay is quite standard: you start with a weak ship that can be strenghtened with power-ups released by killed enemies. Among them you can find speed-up, different kinds of weapons, some super-weapons (available for a certain amount of shoots) and, especially, small pods (up to 4) that take place below and above your ship, bringing additional sources of fire.

And, as you all can imagine, at the end of each stage there's the usual final boss.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Though not being really popular at the time, Thundercross is a quality game: the difficulty curve is well balanced, allowing to become familiar with the game working in the first two stages. Then things become obviously harder, since it is an arcade, but never impossible.

The co-op mode is always welcome and a bit of strategy is added with the limited super weapons, but, on the whole, there's nothing really new in Thundercross as compared to its ancestors. Despite this, it is an enjoyable shoot'em-up, probably more for the newcomers, than the hard-core gamers, that will find it too much basic.

How is Thundercross aged?

Media: charming music, and honest graphic (with the nice touch of the parallax layers), but the final boss are a bit disappointing.
Playability: the game gently introduces you to the fight, then becomes more challenging, but never frustrating.
Signs of the time: an honest incarnation of a timeless genre.
Overall:it deserves to be played at least one time: easily enough you'll choose to continue if you are not already hardened to shoot'em-up.