Thunder Force II

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ThunderForceII MDTitleScreen.png

Thunder Force II
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Technosoft
Developer:
Genre: Shoot-'em-Up

















Thunder Force II, known in Japan as Thunder Force II MD (サンダーフォースII MD), is the second installment of the Thunder Force series of shoot-'em-ups by Technosoft. Initially released in 1988 for the Sharp X68000, it was ported to the Sega Mega Drive and released internationally in 1989. It was the first Sega Mega Drive game in Japan — and by extension, the first game on a Sega console — published by a third party.

After the events of the first Thunder Force, the defeated ORN Empire decide to attack the Galaxy Federation again. Using Plealos, their new battleship, ORN is able to destroy the planet Reda and take the planet Nepura as their own. Fortunately, the Galaxy Federation discovers Nepura is used to hold Plealos when it is not being used, and they set out to destroy Plealos.

Gameplay

A and C switch weapons. B fires and can be held down for rapidfire. There are six stages — three top-view stages and three side-scrolling stages — of which you can chooose to start from any of the first five (the prior ones are ignored).

  • "Top View" stages (1, 3, 5): The screen constantly scrolls in the direction the ship is facing. The ships weapon shoots in the direction the ship is facing, though other weapons and powerups can change the direction shots are fired in. The objective is to find and destroy all the bases.
  • Side-scrolling stages (2, 4, 6): These are traditional schmup side-scrolling levels. Simply defeat the boss at the end to complete the level. You can use Up and Down to scroll vertically on screen, as the level bounds do not all fit on screen.

Each section not only has its own unique collectable weapons, but also upgrades to the main weapon. Losing a life takes all these away.

Physical Scans

Mega Drive Version

Mega Drive, US
ThunderForce2 MD US Box.jpg
Cover
Thunder Force II MD US cart.jpg
Cart
Mega Drive, EU
ThunderForce2 MD EU Box.jpg
Cover
Mega Drive, JP
ThunderForce2 MD JP Box.jpg
Cover
ThunderForce2 MD JP Cart.jpg
Cart



Thunder Force games for Sega systems / developed by Sega
Sega Mega Drive
Thunder Force II (1989) | Thunder Force III (1990) | Thunder Force IV / Lightening Force: Quest for the Darkstar (1992)
Arcade
Thunder Force AC (1990)
Sega Saturn
Thunder Force: Gold Pack 1 (1996) | Thunder Force: Gold Pack 2 (1996) | Thunder Force V (1997)
Sony PlayStation 2
Thunder Force VI (2008)
Nintendo Switch
Sega Ages Thunder Force IV (2018) | Sega Ages Thunder Force AC (2020)
Thunder Force related media
Music
Best of Thunder Force (1997) | Thunder Force VI Soundtrack Demo (2008) | Thunder Force IV (2019) | Technosoft Music Collection: Thunder Force III & AC (2020) | Technosoft Music Collection: Thunder Force IV (2021) | Technosoft Music Collection: Thunder Force I & II (2022)