Thunder Blade

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Thunder Blade
System(s): Sega X Board, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX, Sega Master System, Sharp X68000, TurboGrafx-16, ZX Spectrum
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Genre: Shoot 'em up

Thunder Blade (サンダーブレード) is a 1987 arcade shoot 'em up game designed for Sega X Board hardware, heavily inspired by the Blue Thunder TV/film series. In the game the player pilots a helicopter who can fire with either its machine gun or missile launcher to destroy various enemy vehicles.

The game was notable for its differing view changes and sprite scaling techniques. Though the game starts off as a top-down shooter, the player can adjust his/her height, zooming in and out of battle while doing so. Half way through the level, the viewpoint changes to a third-person perpective, creating a game that is similar to Space Harrier or After Burner (though with improved graphics as the technology is more advanced).

The game was ported to a variety of platforms including the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX, Sega Master System, Sharp X68000, TurboGrafx-16 and ZX Spectrum. Surprisingly most of these ports retain the sprite scaling, albeit with less detailed graphics, but often require the user to manually adjust the speed of the helicopter (unlike in the Arcade game where it was done for you). The Sega Master System version of the game omits the overhead scaling entirely.

Thunder Blade was followed by Super Thunder Blade, a launch title of the Sega Mega Drive which is essentially the same game but without the overhead segments.