Thunder Blade
Also known as: ThunderBlade
A helicopter shoot-'em-up developed by Sega. The Arcade version made use of Sega's 3D super scaler technology to create city environments where the buildings would appear to have depth. The subsequent home versions sadly lacked this feature.
ArcadeShooter
Single Player
Description
Thunder Blade (サンダーブレード, Sandāburēdo) is an arcade, flight-based, third-person rail shooter originally released for video arcades in 1987. In the game, players control a helicopter to destroy enemy vehicles.
The game was released as standard stand-up arcade cabinet that introduced the use of force feedback, as the joystick vibrates during gameplay. A sit-down unit was also released, replacing the force feedback with a seat that moves in tandem with the joystick.
Versions of the game were later released for the Sega Master System, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX, TurboGrafx-16, Sharp X68000 and ZX Spectrum. The Nintendo 3DS remake was released as a 3D Classic in Japan on August 20, 2014, in North America and Europe on May 14, 2015, and in Australia on July 2, 2015.
A follow-up, Super Thunder Blade, was released exclusively for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis.