is a

combat flight simulation Combat flight simulators are vehicle simulation games, amateur flight simulation computer programs used to simulate military aircraft and their operations. These are distinct from dedicated flight simulators used for professional pilot and milit ...

shooter game Shooter video games or shooters are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is almost entirely on the defeat of the character's enemies using the weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range ...

developed and published by Sega for the

Mega Drive/Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...

console. It was one of the two launch titles for the console in Japan (the other one being '' Space Harrier II''), as well as being one of the six launch titles for the console for its U.S. launch. It is a follow-up to the 1987 arcade game ''

Thunder Blade is a third-person combat flight simulator video game released by Sega for arcades in 1987. Players control a helicopter to destroy enemy vehicles. The game was released as a standard stand-up arcade cabinet with force feedback, as the joysti ...

''. It was later released for the

Virtual Console A virtual console (VC) – also known as a virtual terminal (VT) – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, BSD, illumos, Uni ...

on September 17, 2007. It was also included in the ''

Sega Genesis Collection ''Sega Genesis Collection '' (''Sega Mega Drive Collection'' in PAL regions) is a compilation of video games developed by Digital Eclipse and published by Sega for PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. The collection includes twenty-eight Sega ...

'' for PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable in 2007 and in ''

Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection ''Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection'' (''Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection'' in PAL regions) is a compilation of video games developed by Backbone Entertainment and published by Sega for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The compilation features ...

'' for

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...

and

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November ...

Gameplay

As in its predecessor, the player takes control of a helicopter which is used to attack a group of guerrillas. The helicopter itself uses guns and missiles, and can also air brake. A distinctive feature that also appears in the arcade game is the use of different viewpoints during the entire game; during normal gameplay and when fighting sub-bosses, the game utilizes a third-person perspective from behind the helicopter, similar to ''

Space Harrier is a third-person arcade rail shooter game developed by Sega and released in 1985. It was originally conceived as a realistic military-themed game played in the third-person perspective and featuring a player-controlled fighter jet, but tec ...

'', but the camera changes to a top-down perspective when fighting bosses. ''Super Thunder Blade'' had four stages of play.

Reception

The game received positive reviews upon release. ''

ACE An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the c ...

'' magazine rated it 880 out of 1000 and listed it as one of the top five best games available for the Mega Drive in 1989. '' Computer and Video Games'' rated it 80% and called it the "best version" of ''Thunder Blade'' on "any" system. The game later received mixed retrospective reviews in the 2000s. In 2007, ''

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

'' gave the game a 4 out of 10, citing a framerate that was "far too jumpy" and lamenting that the game "just couldn't make the jump to console" from its arcade cabinet counterpart.

Other versions

''Super Thunder Blade'' is the title of the Mega Drive release. This was done to differentiate it from the Master System release, known as ''Thunder Blade'', which was a port from the arcade version. There were few differences between the arcade and Mega Drive versions, save for some minor level development changes and the gameplay; the initial top-down sections (occurring before the third-person sections) were omitted from the Mega Drive version.

References

External links

Official Virtual Console website

MobyGames entry on the game
{{Authority control 1988 video games Helicopter video games Scrolling shooters Sega video games Sega Genesis games Video game sequels Virtual Console games Video games developed in Japan