Review for 3D Thunder Blade on Nintendo 3DS. It has sort of become a tradition by now - something expected month after month: that SEGA would put forward. Take control of the attack helicopter, Thunder Blade, to face waves of enemies and bosses. Way ahead of its time, the game alternates between both a top-down view and a behind-the-vehicle view, looking forward. Press up or down to adjust speed and left or right to move sideways. The L and R Buttons control your speed.

3D Thunder Blade (3DS) Review

by Ryan Grove - June 2, 2015, 5:21 pm PDT
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You might have missed out on Thunder Blade in the past, but don't sleep on this Sega 3D Classic.

I don’t blame you for not being excited about 3D Thunder Blade. With limited availability of the original arcade cabinet here in the West, most people’s only experience with the game was the slow and clunky Genesis launch title, Super Thunder Blade. Luckily, Sega and M2 have created the definitive version of Thunder Blade with this 3DS eShop release. 3D Thunder Blade is fast, fun, and surprisingly impressive - especially if you have a New 3DS.

If you’ve played Thunder Blade’s closest cousin, After Burner, you should have a decent idea of what to expect. Rad scrolling sprite visuals and frantic 'shoot everything you possibly can with bullets and missiles without getting blowed up' gameplay. But this time, you’re in a cool helicopter rather than a cool fighter jet. The other major difference between Thunder Blade and After Burner is the shifting perspective. While After Burner’s gameplay took place entirely from a behind-your-craft view, Thunder Blade mixes it up by sprinkling in some top-down sections. These segments, which appear at the beginning of stages and some boss battles, offer a fun, Xevious-like experience, and look awesome in 3D with their fantastic environmental layering.

Actually, the whole game looks awesome in 3D, which is especially great if you’re playing on a New 3DS. While all the Sega 3D Classics dating back to Space Harrier have had great 3D, I think Thunder Blade may be the best yet. I find myself keeping the 3D on for the entirety of my playthroughs, which doesn’t cause me too much strain, as the game is quite short. Thunder Blade consists of four stages (which are selectable after you complete them) and each one takes about three-to-four minutes to complete.

After completing your first playthrough, you unlock Special Mode (exclusive to this version of the game). Here, you play the stages sequentially on a limited number of lives/continues, earning more lives by defeating enemy crafts. Decimating your foes feels even better in this mode thanks to the new 'super missiles,' which are powerful, screen-traversing enemy-exploders. The new missiles feel weighty, crunchy, and destructive. However, the real shining feature of Special Mode comes at the end of stage four, when, after defeating the final boss, an all new fifth stage opens up. The transition into this new stage is seamless, and what M2 has created here is arguably the coolest level in the game.

Another cool feature of playing the game on a New 3DS is that it supports the Circle Pad Pro/C-Stick. You can choose to use this to manage your chopper’s throttle, which is a nice touch. As would be expected from a Sega 3D Classic, there are plenty of tweakable settings (like being able to drop the difficulty to avoid taking damage from hitting buildings) to suit your playstyle.

If you’ve been ignoring Thunder Blade for the past quarter-century, it’s time to take notice. 3D Thunder Blade is not just a great arcade port- it’s one of the best pick-up-and-play action games on the 3DS.

Summary

Cons

• Core game is quite short

Talkback

Worldwide Releases

After the awesome conversion of 3D Out Run, and the other cool arcade conversions M2 have given us, i was looking forwards to finally have a arcade perfect version in the palm of my hands. Here's my thought on the game: Graphics: As close to the original source as you come to expect from M2. The biggest impact, like with all other sprite scaler games on the 3DS, is the 3D effect.

This After the awesome conversion of 3D Out Run, and the other cool arcade conversions M2 have given us, i was looking forwards to finally have a arcade perfect version in the palm of my hands. Here's my thought on the game: Graphics: As close to the original source as you come to expect from M2. The biggest impact, like with all other sprite scaler games on the 3DS, is the 3D effect. This game has a cool way of switching from top down view to a more 3D flying into the screen mode, without stopping the action for a to long time. The way enemies and bullets fly towards you in top down view is awesome to behold. If you are like me, a arcade gamer from this era, you will be happy. Gameplay: Due to the options to make the game a bit more easy, and even after dying, you can select the last stage you could reach, means you have seen the end quickly enough.

Ultimate pinball collection. Unique soundtrack with atmospheric music, sound effects and voices.

The choper control feels good, and combined with the graphics, you surely will feel like you are playing the original, but only with awesome 3D graphics. Also, if you finish the game (does not need to be in one go), you unlock a special mode, where they have added some new enemies, and have improved the use of the rockets, as they keep flying forwards after crashing on the ground, until they hit something, or they are out of the screen. This gives a better hit rate than the way they worked in the original arcade mode. Lastability: Now this is where things go for the worce: Even with the full extra level, this game is over way to quickly. Sure, i expected a perfect arcade conversion with this extra, so for me, this still does not matter, as i want to have all the games i loved way back in the 80's on any system Sega will release them on, but i can understand that if you are not that big of a fan as i am, it will loose some points, so a 10 -1 it is (a 9:-D ) Overal: For the oldschool gamers like me, this is another great game to add to the collection, especially since those are not expensive, but cool to collect to keep the series complete. It may not have the same lastabillity as the other shooters, like Afterburner II, Galaxy Force II, and Space Harrier, but the cool game design, added 3D effect and extra stage, and the options available to make the game a bit more easy (with extra unlockable new mode with improved rockets and a few new enemies), you still can't go wrong.

For newcomers, i'd recommend to try Galaxy Force II first, and if you can cope with the way the sprites looks like, then this game is also for you, other wise, i hope you can try it at a friend who does love it and have this game. Boom boom rocket online. So despite i knew the game would have 4 stages in the original mode, i still deduct one point, but still, it's such a perfect conversion, i can't score this lower than a 9! Thanks Sega, Now i hope this sells good enough to warrant more arcade spite scaler conversions, like 3D Turbo Out Run, 3D Rail Chase, 3D OutRunners, 3D Power Drift, and 3D Rad Mobile!