clickbliss — SEGA AGES Thunder Force AC Review

SEGA AGES Thunder Force AC Review

SEGA AGES Thunder Force AC
Developer: M2
Publisher: SEGA
Switch

It’s hard not to feel underwhelmed by Thunder Force AC. Based on the arcade version of Thunder Force 3, and releasing after the much flashier SEGA AGES release of Thunder Force 4, AC can’t help but feel less polished, and incomplete. Despite its significance in preserving a rare arcade game, the changes made for the game don’t always result in a better game than the console title it’s based on, just a different one.

Unlike other titles like Columns II or Tant-R, the original console version isn’t included either, which is a shame, given that its previous AGES release on the 3DS never made it out of Japan. Together Thunder Force 3 and AC could have felt like a complete package, giving players a chance to not only play a hard to find arcade title, but directly compare it to its console counterpart. Without it, Thunder Force AC feels slim alongside the other AGES titles.

What is there is pretty high quality, though. Thunder Force never struck me as a series with a unique vision for the genre, but it’s garnered a reputation for flashy, high speed action that’s definitely deserved. Background and enemy designs aren’t remarkable, but they’re colorful and everything moves at a fast clip, with energetic music to match.

Your ship can change between four speeds at any time, and holds onto an arsenal of several weapons which can be used as situations call for it. With only three buttons, control isn’t always as seamless as it could be, and you’ll constantly have to do small calculus to remember how many taps it’ll take to cycle the appropriate speed and weapon during firefights. It creates a lot of mental overhead, and had me wishing this port had an option to switch to each of the weapons with a single button press, in the style of the later games in the series.

Once control option that did surprise me was the integration of HD Rumble. HD Rumble can often feel like a gimmick not worth noting, but the implementation here is excellent, simulating different levels of explosions depending on the size of enemy you take down, and providing stronger feedback while fighting bosses. The immediate feedback helped feel out the space even without visual clues, and react to situations when my attention was occupied on other parts of the screen.

Rumble aside, what you see is what you get with Thunder Force AC. It’s underwhelming as a standalone title, and as an archival exercise it feels incomplete. It does what it set out to do well, but you can’t help but feel it could have been more.