Thunder Force IV is my favorite shooter on Genesis system, I hooked up to my stereo for rumbling my house!! it's very hard to play this when you are headbanging!!
Thunderforce 3 and 4 are my two favourite Megadrive shooters ever, probably my two favourite shooters of all time on any system really. Great episode guys!
Wow... I didn't even realize til the very end that this was an old episode from 7 whole years ago! I thought you guys were just doing a throwback by being on the old couch or something. That just goes to show how solid & consistent your content has been up to this point. I love it!
Excellent episode! A few things: The special weapon you get halfway through TFIV is ridiculously powerful. The game is doable without it, but when you get control of how to use it, it makes life a good bit easier and takes down bosses faster. Regarding TFV, one of the reasons people say it's easier is because of the Free Range weapon. Combining it with the secondary attack, bosses drop in a matter of seconds.
Man, I love the Thunderforce games so much. If I recall correctly, on the Saturn's Thunderforce Gold pack 2 there's an option to play as the ship from TF3 in TF4.
Another great video, I'm a HUGE fan of the Thunder Force series, but a couple of points on TF 4, learning what portion of the screen to be in is key if you want clear 'no miss' runs. Also you noted that slow-down is why people 'over-clocked' their machines but in fact that slow-down is the difficulty setting, hold A+Start to get to the hidden options menu then put the game on 'maniac' and boom the slow-down is gone. But be warned, now those balls will really get kicked in ;)
Maniac absolutely does not remove slow-down, and with the enemies and attacks added to each level, the game has slowdown it does not have in easier difficulties. There is also the Saturn port in the second Thunder Force Gold Pack which runs at full speed at all times.
Setting the game to Maniac on a real Megadrive/Genesis does remove the slowdown from the Stage 2 mini boss. Certain sections of the game slowdown due to the hardware but this part seems to be done intentionally on lower difficulties.
Wow, TF2 looks so much better on the Sharp X68000. The top down sections are actually playable in that version because there's more terrain visible on screen. Thge Genesis version is zoomed in too much, can't see enough of the terrain which makes finding the shit you're supposed to blow up, more difficult.
Prior to watching this I own Thunder Force 2, Lightning Force and Panorama Cotton, and all i can say is that I am thoroughly impressed by both series so far. I will probably buy Cotton on the Saturn next. Thanks for doing such awesome shows, this is easily the most informative console gaming show out there.
Love this video as I'm also a huge fan of Thunder Force. Played part 3 so much I finished the game with the shield intact. Music on both part 3 and 4 are some of the best 8 bit music around. Be sure to scour around to find the remix versions of the Thunder Force sound track! Another sound track to look for is Techmo Soft's Elemental Master. Another fun shooter where the quality of the music supasses the game.
I remember buying Thunder Force IV for the Mega Drive on a whim in 1993 and being absolutely blown away by it. It was my first experience of the Thunder Force series of games. Now, if I want to show what the old MD is capable of, Thunder Force IV is one of the first games I reach for. Followed by Panorama Cotton! (I have one of those tea cups with my copy). Great summary of both series.
Do you know about accessing the secret options menu in Thunder Force III? You can jack up the difficulty to "hard" or "maniac" with it. This should please anybody who think it's too easy. You press A,B,C, and Start at the opening screen to access it.
the insane thing is still remember the cheats for thunderforce 4 first select 0 lives to get 99 and if you pause the game and press up right a down right a c left up b up right to get weapons
I believe it. Thunder Force IV covers all the bases. Perfectly balanced difficulty and insane difficulty. I'd be afraid to try Maniac. I wish I could cheat on TF5 just to see the end. I may have made it to the final boss but I wouldn't know since I can't beat whatever it is that I come up to.
I love shmups, but I have always had a soft spot for the 19XX series by Capcom. I remember playing 1942 in the arcade, and the somewhat terrible home conversions. Maybe you guys could do a retrospective on those games one day. Great show btw.
space shooters are my favorite genre with thunderforce series being at the top of list. I would say COD sealed the fate of the thunderforce and other "shmup" series.
Great show, guys! I'm a big fan of Thunder Force and R-Type series! The soundtrack of Thunder Force III/IV and After Burner 2 are my favorite even nowadays. I'would love you to do more videos about these games, specially because here in Brazil we missed some chapter of them.
The ship in Thunder Force V isn't a Fire LEO, but an RVR built by humanity using reversed engineering of the wrecked Fire LEO-4 "Rynex", known as Vasteel.
This video featured both Hunger Made Them Desperate and Metal Squad as songs. Two of my most favorite video game songs ever and they come from Thunder Force.
I got Panorama Cotton like 10 years ago by complete accident. My local gaming store did storage clearance, first since 1991, and they gave away couple of Mega Drive, Master System and SNES games, I came because I was hoping for some PC Engine game to appear but ended with Panorama Cotton and my second copy of Phantasy Star for like 4 euros combined. And after couple of years after that, Cotton arcade machine appeared in cheap pub near my home. It was pretty beat-up, with broken joysticks and missing bottons but board itself was OK, so I bought whole machine for 10 euros but at that time I couldn't store whole cabinet, so I disassemble it and kept only board. I never played Saturn versions, even as Saturn collector I never got them anywhere for decent price.
Definitly my favorite episode, even tough i dont know both games at all. The part of the Thunder force II where you make fun of the voice had me laughing for 5 minutes. Ive been watching your show since the Turbografix episode and you guys have improved so much it just freaking amazing. Keep up the great work and as always looking forward to your next episode :D
The reason you fight the Thunder Force IV ship on the 5th game is tied to the plot. Basically in the first four games we have the forces of the Galactic Federation fighting against the evil ORN Empire. In the end of the fourth game the player ship ends drifting in space, so in the fifth game, Earth finds the ship and creates a super computer called Guardian to reverse engineer it, but then it goes rogue and start attacking humans. Actually the Guardian wants everything related to the TF4 ship to be destroyed, including the ship and itself, since something on the ship corrupted it and made it attack the humans.
With how often you guys discuss great game music, have you ever thought of making a top ten series for best game music (8bit era, 16 bit, and etc)? I love good video game music as week and it's good to know I'm not the only one who loves some good video game tunes.
Finally working my way up to watch some of your older videos. Watching the Cotton games, I can't help but think of the Parodius series. Wondering if you plan on talking about that series or if you already did. Which in that case, I have yet to find.
Thunderforce III... easy yes.. but still probably my favorite horizontal shooter EVER... music gets me pumped up every time I hear it.. every level is memorable.
I got Thunder Force 2 and Ghouls 'n Ghosts along with the Genesis for Christmas in 1989. I thought Thunder Force 2 was an awesome game - and for the time, it was. I personally loved the overhead stuff, made it different than the R-Type games that were a dime a dozen.
"Diggin' it to be next... ladder, good luck!" LOL Thunder Force 2 MD was my first game in the series and after I've finished it I couldn't help but chase down the other 2 games for the MD/Genesis and bro... That's my favorite shmup series in terms of sound and gameplay
Man, Thunder Force is my all time favorite shooter series! Even Gradius comes up in second place, for me. I'm just sad that the original Dream Cast installment of Thunder Force 6 never saw the light of day... :(
Wow I think Joe wouldn't like all those people using shortcuts for all possible kind of stuff chatting on the internet. If you're really using shortcuts is it really to save time, or just to feel cool? The only situation where I can think of a shortened word makes sense is on the battlefield.
Thunder Force is one of the greatest shooting games in my opinion. The Thunder Force ships do look plane like. And the Thunder Force series has very great music.
While I've really enjoyed games from both the Cotton and Thunder Force series, my favorite shmup games are probably the Star Soldier games on the TG-16. Love your videos!
Well, I just found out why Thunder Force 2 always seemed to have too small a screen on the overhead stages. Seems it was a smaller ship on a relatively bigger screen on the original computer version... Why did they change that on the Megadrive?! Made it hard to see what you were about to crash into sometimes.
Thunderforce III is easy for you? Man, you guys are shooter gods. I absolutely love its music and listen to it often, but I suck at the game even though I love it. Great video!!
Thunder Force VI wasn't that bad of a game. I found it fun enough to play, but it just didn't have the feel of an actual Thunder Force game; at least, not in the direction Technosoft was heading toward from Thunder Force V to Thunder Force VI. The music found in the album Broken Thunder was a good indicator of where the series was heading. Sega's Thunder Force 6 sort of felt like a mix of Ray Force, Ray Storm, and Gradius, based on its music.
Good job. I like both series. Haven't played all entries though. I don't like the 3d backgrounds of the Saturn Cotton games, the 2D entries look much better.
The extreme awkwardness of early gamesack brings me so much joy
IMHO, Thunder Force IV has to be the best one in the series.
Best gameplay, a challenge, and seriously kickass music!
Thunder Force IV is my favorite shooter on Genesis system, I hooked up to my stereo for rumbling my house!!
it's very hard to play this when you are headbanging!!
Thunder Force 4 has some of the best music on the Genesis, and I love the Genesis sound in general.
Thunderforce 3 and 4 are my two favourite Megadrive shooters ever, probably my two favourite shooters of all time on any system really. Great episode guys!
Wow... I didn't even realize til the very end that this was an old episode from 7 whole years ago! I thought you guys were just doing a throwback by being on the old couch or something. That just goes to show how solid & consistent your content has been up to this point. I love it!
thunder force seriess still in my heart ❤️ and forever
Thunder Force IV is my favourite side scrolling shoot 'em up ever.
Excellent episode!
A few things: The special weapon you get halfway through TFIV is ridiculously powerful. The game is doable without it, but when you get control of how to use it, it makes life a good bit easier and takes down bosses faster. Regarding TFV, one of the reasons people say it's easier is because of the Free Range weapon. Combining it with the secondary attack, bosses drop in a matter of seconds.
Man, I love the Thunderforce games so much. If I recall correctly, on the Saturn's Thunderforce Gold pack 2 there's an option to play as the ship from TF3 in TF4.
Another great video, I'm a HUGE fan of the Thunder Force series, but a couple of points on TF 4, learning what portion of the screen to be in is key if you want clear 'no miss' runs. Also you noted that slow-down is why people 'over-clocked' their machines but in fact that slow-down is the difficulty setting, hold A+Start to get to the hidden options menu then put the game on 'maniac' and boom the slow-down is gone. But be warned, now those balls will really get kicked in ;)
Maniac absolutely does not remove slow-down, and with the enemies and attacks added to each level, the game has slowdown it does not have in easier difficulties.
There is also the Saturn port in the second Thunder Force Gold Pack which runs at full speed at all times.
Setting the game to Maniac on a real Megadrive/Genesis does remove the slowdown from the Stage 2 mini boss. Certain sections of the game slowdown due to the hardware but this part seems to be done intentionally on lower difficulties.
love the way you guys review games together. fan for life. keep up the good work.
Wow, TF2 looks so much better on the Sharp X68000. The top down sections are actually playable in that version because there's more terrain visible on screen. Thge Genesis version is zoomed in too much, can't see enough of the terrain which makes finding the shit you're supposed to blow up, more difficult.
@MrSct1976 They are bonus tracks on the Thunder Force Gold Packs for the Saturn (each Gold Pack has 2 arranged tunes).
Have you done an R-Type video yet?
Prior to watching this I own Thunder Force 2, Lightning Force and Panorama Cotton, and all i can say is that I am thoroughly impressed by both series so far. I will probably buy Cotton on the Saturn next. Thanks for doing such awesome shows, this is easily the most informative console gaming show out there.
If you guys made shirts that said simply "SACK" in the sega font I would give you money for one. Just saying.
8:30 they probably dis say it right but microphones weren't that good back then and pcm compression was like putting your weiner in a wood chipper
@@direktexe8436 Answering unrelated stuff to a ~6 year old comment, gratz.
@@janwendtland8504 Now I want to comment on this 7 year old video too with something unrelated.
@@grawman67 Gratz.
@@janwendtland8504 Now my life is complete
Love this video as I'm also a huge fan of Thunder Force. Played part 3 so much I finished the game with the shield intact. Music on both part 3 and 4 are some of the best 8 bit music around. Be sure to scour around to find the remix versions of the Thunder Force sound track! Another sound track to look for is Techmo Soft's Elemental Master. Another fun shooter where the quality of the music supasses the game.
She said at the beginning "Ikuzo" which means "Let's go" in Japanese.
1983parrothead she actually says いっくぽーん
I remember buying Thunder Force IV for the Mega Drive on a whim in 1993 and being absolutely blown away by it. It was my first experience of the Thunder Force series of games. Now, if I want to show what the old MD is capable of, Thunder Force IV is one of the first games I reach for. Followed by Panorama Cotton! (I have one of those tea cups with my copy).
Great summary of both series.
Hey nice video guys next you’ll have to cover the sharp x6800 port 🤩pizza bongs for the win
Apparently Cotton says "Ikuzo!", which is Japanese for "Let's go!".
Do you know about accessing the secret options menu in Thunder Force III? You can jack up the difficulty to "hard" or "maniac" with it. This should please anybody who think it's too easy. You press A,B,C, and Start at the opening screen to access it.
Heh, I do enjoy the Jen cameos :-p I know this episode is over two years old, but hey, I just discovered the channel and am trying to go in order :-p
Same here:)
I come from the FuTuRe!
And yeah, me too.
the insane thing is still remember the cheats for thunderforce 4 first select 0 lives to get 99 and if you pause the game and press up right a down right a c left up b up right to get weapons
Pizzas and bongs, my two favorite things!
Great video, Thunder Force IV is one of the best games shoot em´up of all times!!
I believe it. Thunder Force IV covers all the bases. Perfectly balanced difficulty and insane difficulty. I'd be afraid to try Maniac. I wish I could cheat on TF5 just to see the end. I may have made it to the final boss but I wouldn't know since I can't beat whatever it is that I come up to.
I love shmups, but I have always had a soft spot for the 19XX series by Capcom. I remember playing 1942 in the arcade, and the somewhat terrible home conversions. Maybe you guys could do a retrospective on those games one day. Great show btw.
Yeah isn't that the one that sounds like a night club in the US version? I agree, I like the JP soundtrack better (if I'm thinking of the right game).
space shooters are my favorite genre with thunderforce series being at the top of list. I would say COD sealed the fate of the thunderforce and other "shmup" series.
Great show, guys! I'm a big fan of Thunder Force and R-Type series! The soundtrack of Thunder Force III/IV and After Burner 2 are my favorite even nowadays. I'would love you to do more videos about these games, specially because here in Brazil we missed some chapter of them.
Thunder Force 5 is the best shooter ever for me. Level 5 is one of my favorite gaming moments.
Great episode!
You guys keep getting better and better, congratulations!
The ship in Thunder Force V isn't a Fire LEO, but an RVR built by humanity using reversed engineering of the wrecked Fire LEO-4 "Rynex", known as Vasteel.
The music on the comparison screen for Thunder Force is China Girl by Iggy Pop.
This video featured both Hunger Made Them Desperate and Metal Squad as songs.
Two of my most favorite video game songs ever and they come from Thunder Force.
"Pizza Bong" is now my go to phrase for everything. Damn you, Gamesack! lol
I got Panorama Cotton like 10 years ago by complete accident. My local gaming store did storage clearance, first since 1991, and they gave away couple of Mega Drive, Master System and SNES games, I came because I was hoping for some PC Engine game to appear but ended with Panorama Cotton and my second copy of Phantasy Star for like 4 euros combined. And after couple of years after that, Cotton arcade machine appeared in cheap pub near my home. It was pretty beat-up, with broken joysticks and missing bottons but board itself was OK, so I bought whole machine for 10 euros but at that time I couldn't store whole cabinet, so I disassemble it and kept only board. I never played Saturn versions, even as Saturn collector I never got them anywhere for decent price.
And now Cotton is back! Hooray!
Definitly my favorite episode, even tough i dont know both games at all.
The part of the Thunder force II where you make fun of the voice had me laughing for 5 minutes. Ive been watching your show since the Turbografix episode and you guys have improved so much it just freaking amazing. Keep up the great work and as always looking forward to your next episode :D
The reason you fight the Thunder Force IV ship on the 5th game is tied to the plot. Basically in the first four games we have the forces of the Galactic Federation fighting against the evil ORN Empire. In the end of the fourth game the player ship ends drifting in space, so in the fifth game, Earth finds the ship and creates a super computer called Guardian to reverse engineer it, but then it goes rogue and start attacking humans. Actually the Guardian wants everything related to the TF4 ship to be destroyed, including the ship and itself, since something on the ship corrupted it and made it attack the humans.
Magma MK-II They also used it to build RVR-01 "Gauntlet", hence why it was able to even go to to toe with Rynex.
With how often you guys discuss great game music, have you ever thought of making a top ten series for best game music (8bit era, 16 bit, and etc)? I love good video game music as week and it's good to know I'm not the only one who loves some good video game tunes.
Thank you so much! Thunder Force 3's songs always amaze me and bring me many high vibrations!
The DC Cotton game looks like Panzer Dragoon. I’d play the heck out of that.
Thanks, you answered my question if Panorama Cotton is worth to play and include it in my Retropie setup.
Check out the intro music on the Amiga version of battle squadron its up there with the best imho!
Finally working my way up to watch some of your older videos. Watching the Cotton games, I can't help but think of the Parodius series. Wondering if you plan on talking about that series or if you already did. Which in that case, I have yet to find.
Thunderforce III... easy yes.. but still probably my favorite horizontal shooter EVER... music gets me pumped up every time I hear it.. every level is memorable.
I got Thunder Force 2 and Ghouls 'n Ghosts along with the Genesis for Christmas in 1989. I thought Thunder Force 2 was an awesome game - and for the time, it was. I personally loved the overhead stuff, made it different than the R-Type games that were a dime a dozen.
"Diggin' it to be next... ladder, good luck!" LOL
Thunder Force 2 MD was my first game in the series and after I've finished it I couldn't help but chase down the other 2 games for the MD/Genesis and bro... That's my favorite shmup series in terms of sound and gameplay
THU-EEEN-DAH FOHCE!!!
Man, Thunder Force is my all time favorite shooter series! Even Gradius comes up in second place, for me.
I'm just sad that the original Dream Cast installment of Thunder Force 6 never saw the light of day... :(
Only ever played Thunderforce 3 and 4 back in the day but thought they were great with great music.
TF4 has the most METAL boss music, love that game.
Wow I think Joe wouldn't like all those people using shortcuts for all possible kind of stuff chatting on the internet. If you're really using shortcuts is it really to save time, or just to feel cool? The only situation where I can think of a shortened word makes sense is on the battlefield.
I absolutely love Rainbow Cotton. I get the criticisms, but I still enjoy it a lot. And the music is boss.
Thunder Force is one of the greatest shooting games in my opinion. The Thunder Force ships do look plane like. And the Thunder Force series has very great music.
thumbs up if you want thunder force 7
The music in Cotton is god damn incredible.
"Cotton is pretty much dead now."
Who else is watching this in 2021 in preparation for the reboot?!
While I've really enjoyed games from both the Cotton and Thunder Force series, my favorite shmup games are probably the Star Soldier games on the TG-16. Love your videos!
Just wondering if you guys ever heard of trouble witches It’s a game on steam, and it has cotton as a downloadable character.
I believe its spelled Lightening Force as in Light, cause it is the quest for the Dark Star. Light v. Dark....
That chick doing the voiceover in Thunder Force couldn’t talk her way outta 7/11
Of the whole series, I love Thunder Force II the most pew pew pew pew.
Well, I just found out why Thunder Force 2 always seemed to have too small a screen on the overhead stages. Seems it was a smaller ship on a relatively bigger screen on the original computer version... Why did they change that on the Megadrive?! Made it hard to see what you were about to crash into sometimes.
I like the Thunder Force 2 details on the Genesis.
I LOVE using the word "shmup". That would be a "SHMUP"!
LMAO that lame cod/bf joke at the beginning was so of the times for retro game channels, I love it
Best tunes 9in a shooter??
Have you played Gaiares?
Will there be a gradius,r type and darius episode?
Truly that is one sexy fairy. And I'm currently going through all the Cotton PC-engine soundtracks and favouriting the music.
14:35 cause in the previous game the canonically ending is that the ship got blown appart?
Thunderforce III is easy for you? Man, you guys are shooter gods. I absolutely love its music and listen to it often, but I suck at the game even though I love it. Great video!!
Cotton Fantastic Night's back and so is this comments section!
Just got Cotton Boomerang coming in the mail! Yay for 9 year old comment!
@harrisagnar Most guys shump their girls horizontally, but real men shump their girls vertically!
How are the Thunderforce Gold Pack 1&2 for the Saturn? Does it look nicer or is it just straight up ports?
Love these guys
size L t-shirt on top of a XL sweater. '
Thunder Force V reminds me of Einhander in graphics.
@cybernator5000 Dave doesn't own Panorama Cotton, but he does own Crystal's Pony Tale which he says is even better!
Thunder Force VI wasn't that bad of a game. I found it fun enough to play, but it just didn't have the feel of an actual Thunder Force game; at least, not in the direction Technosoft was heading toward from Thunder Force V to Thunder Force VI. The music found in the album Broken Thunder was a good indicator of where the series was heading. Sega's Thunder Force 6 sort of felt like a mix of Ray Force, Ray Storm, and Gradius, based on its music.
Was Cotton always published by Sega? If so, why did it never make it to the Genesis?
Something about “...Ladder, Good luck!” In Thunder Force 2.
@Zeldaschampion Nope, that's how the game's name is actually spelled.
I always wondered "Where's Thunder Force 1"? As I was introduced to the series Via Thunder2. But now I know!
the sharp 68000 was a really advanced pc, that had very good arcade ports.
the way you guys pronounce things in this video really entertains me
One notable cheat for "Lightening" Force is you could make it so you'd start out with 99 lives. Not possible on its Japanese counterpart TF4.
I've actually grown to love Thunder Force V ps on the PlayStation
Since you mentioned gradius... you guys planning on doiing anything with that series?
Nope, that's a Turbo CD exclusive.
This is extra heated, LOUDER, good duck!
Good job. I like both series. Haven't played all entries though. I don't like the 3d backgrounds of the Saturn Cotton games, the 2D entries look much better.
Great episode. Very informative and the jokes were very funny.
Does this mean they own a Sharp x6800? or can it be emulated.
Wonder if there came other sequels after this episode😊?
can someone confirm that you get extra xp by shooting the yellow crystals until they become orange? I'm having that notion but can't confirm it.