Thunder Cross

Thunder Cross (サンダークロス) is a horizontally scrolling shoot ’em up arcade game released by Konami in 1988. Taking place in the same universe as Konami’s horizontal scrolling shooter Gradius, the planet Haniamu IV (referred to in English advertisement material as the planet Hubris) undergoes a surprise assault from a mysterious military force known as Black Impulse (also described as the Mechanikon hordes), The peace-loving denizens of neighboring worlds respond to this unprovoked attack by dispatching two Thunder fighters, the Blue Thunder M-45 and its predecessor the Red Thunder M-24, to make a stand against Black Impulse’s assault and put a stop to Mechanikon hordes’ plans to conquer the galaxy.

Thunder Cross shares a large number of gameplay mechanics with Gradius, most notably weapon powerups and enemies with familiar appearances and attack patterns. However, the game also makes a number of differentiations to the Gradius formula, including two-player simultaneous play, instant respawns upon death instead of the use of checkpoints, and abandoning the power-up bar in favor of power-up collectables that cycle through the available upgrades until the player collects them. Available power-ups include the obligatory ‘speed’ upgrade, before cycling through to weapon power-ups such as the Vulcan cannon, boomerangs (which double as a kind of ricochet or bouncing bullet), twin (or tail) lasers that allow for simultaneous attack both in front and behind the player, and of course the return of the Gradius series’ signature power-up: the invincible, multiple options, of which the player can collect up to four simultaneously. In Thunder Cross, however, options fly in a vertical formation, and the player can choose to shift their proximity on the fly (an innovation that would find its way into Gradius III). To further distinguish itself from Gradius, Thunder Cross features a number of time-limited super-power-ups, including the flamethrower, the macro laser, and Napalm bombs.

While well received at release, Thunder Cross skipped being ported to home console, which is perhaps the reason the series never found a long-term foothold in players’ memories in quite the same way Gradius did, and even seems largely forgotten as a sister-series in favor of its ‘other’ sibling: “Salamander”, also released as “Lifeforce”, which in contrast did receive of number of home console ports.

Not helping matters, Thunder Cross was released in a number of different arcade versions by region, with the US version receiving alterations that would make it radically different from the original experience. The US version (referred to as “Set 2” within MAME) removes every power-up except for the Vulcan cannon, changes the core gameplay so that the player always has two options, further changes the mechanic by removing the ability to reposition those options, and repurposes the secondary button to launch a series of smart bombs referred to as “Lil’ Baby”, of which the player starts each stage with three. The “B” capsule rewards the player with 5000 points instead of the Boomerang upgrade. Additionally, the US version changes the order of appearance of stages from the original Japanese version, swapping stage one with stage two, stage three with stage four, and stage five with stage six. Because of this, the end credits scroll in front of a space backdrop in the US version, while the Japanese and European versions feature a cutscene with the player’s ship traveling back through each stage to the start of the game. The US version wouldn’t be the only release to see a significant change, however. Upon receiving complaints from Japanese arcades that the game was too easy, Japan saw a second release with an increased difficulty level, bringing the total number of arcade versions of Thunder Cross to four.

Despite these changes, Thunder Cross’ lack of staying power is certainly not for lack of quality or even commercial success, as the game was called “the second most-successful table arcade unit” by Japanese magazine “Game Machine” in their issue from December 1st, 1988. The series continued with “Thunder Cross II” in 1991, and due to a number of similarities, many fans consider Konami’s 1989 MSX2 and MSX2+ exclusive horizontal shooter “Space Manbow” as an unofficial spin-off from the Thunder Cross series.