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サンダーバード
Presented By Pack-In-Video
©Tohokushinsha
Release: 1989-09-29 (¥5500)
Cartdridge PAC-T5
Shooter/vertical
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Released in America as
THUNDERBIRDS
( NES-T5-USA )
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Thunderbirds is a vertical shooter published by
Pack-In-Video and based on the classic 60's British TV show
of the same name. In the 21st century, the ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy
and his five sons create the private International Rescue organization.
On board the highly advanced Thunderbids machines, their mission
is to react to major crisis situations around the world. The Hood
is the recurring antagonist of the series and is determined to steal the
International Rescue's technology. The player controls the
Thunderbirds and performs strike missions against the Hood - several
destinations are always available at once and can be selected in any order.
Each machine is equipped with a main upgradeable weapon - red ships scattered
throughout the game release energy capsules when destroyed : (L) for extra
life, (E) to upgrades the main weapon and (O) gives the ship an Orbital
Device. Orbital Devices orbit near the ship and increase its
firepower - special configuration devices must be collected throughout the
game and they can be activated by pressing the second action button. The
player has sixty days to stop the Hood and damaged ships take three
days to repaired - so the game is also a fight against time.
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Thunderbirds was a British TV show first aired in 1965. It was
created by Gerry Anderson and the show used puppets suspended from
strings as characters (picture on the left). It became really popular in England but also in the
rest of Europe and Japan. Curiously, the Famicom game reviewed here
was first released in Japan and exported to the US a year later. Hence the
show wasn't really popular in the US at the time, the American release removed
all references to the original TV series from the game box - the packaging
even features a human pilot! Surprisingly the game was never released in Europe.
Interestingly, two Japan only Thunderbirds games were also published
for the Super Famicom and Game Boy in 1993. Thunderbirds
was actually really popular in Japan, maybe more than anywhere else in the
world. Japan even had its own marionette series called
Chou Uchuu Machine X-Bomber (aka Star Fleet) which first
aired in 1980. They even created in 1982 an anime loosely inspired by
Thunderbirds and called Thunderbirds 2086!
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Teaser text from the American version:
Fly With The Best
In the future, combat pilots do battle in
the air, under water, deep within the
earth and far into outer space!
Are you tough enough to
join the Thunderbirds,
the world's elite
fighting
force ?
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Game Staff (Copied from the end credits) :
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Producer
Junichi Nagai
Game Design
Kouji Isoda
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Program
Tohru Miyazawa
Graphics
Kouji Isoda
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Music
Junichi Saito
Masakai Iwamoto
Hitoshi Saito
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-Thunderbirds-
Produced
Pack-In-Video Co.,Ltd.
1989.
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G
O
O
D
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E
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Japanese Phonecard
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Japanese Phonecard
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Japanese Phonecard
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Japanese Phonecard
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Japanese Phonecard
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O
M
A
K
E
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Click on picture to enlarge |
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LK
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Add your Pov here !
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P
O
V
s
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Thunderbirds was a pleasant surprise. Pack-In-Video
is not known for making great looking game so I wasn't expecting much
here (especially for a franchise game). But Thunderbirds is a decent
shooter and is quite fun to play - stages are varied, you can play them
in different order, the fullscreen cutscenes are neat, you fly five different
ships and the gameplay is fairly smooth for the most part. The game has
several flaws though, the most significant being the monotonous level design
and the complete lack of end of level bosses. There is nothing groundbreaking
going on here but still Thunderbirds is a decent and fun shooter to play.
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