Rolling Thunder (NES)

Tengen week comes to an end.

Difficulty: ***1/2
Controls: ****
Sound: **
Graphics: ***1/2
Overall: 13 stars out of 20

Secret agent Leila has been kidnapped! The nefarious Evil Society has nabbed her as she was about to unwrap one of their conspiracies! As Agent Albatross you're sent from your organization to rescue her!

With five stories and a multitude of areas to get through, Rolling Thunder is no walk in the park. You have three lives and two continues to get to Leila before the Evil Society puts an end to her! Going around and rushing through each area is a sure fire way to get yourself killed. And in the latter stages (the jumping ones) you'll want to take your time! One of the most difficult parts of this game is the platform areas. You'll have to jump from place to place usually with a flying enemy coming straight for you! Not fun.

For the most part Albatross controls very well. You fire your various guns with the 'B' button. You jump with the 'A' button. If you hold 'up' while pressing 'A' you'll do a super jump. Also one thing that really bugs me is the fact that once you jump, your only going one direction (which is realistic). Make sure you plan your jumps accordingly.

One of the low points of the game. You get maybe four tracks in the game. Not very much variety in each tune either. The ones that are there are just ho-hum really. The sound effects are decent enough. But the sound your machine-gun makes...its like you're stretching a cat! One other good point however, when you run out of continues Mabu appears on screen and laughs at you (I love that!)

You see an abundance of mask enemies in the game. And while there is some variety to them, they are mostly colour swaps. But you also get some variety with bats, panthers and fire creatures! And those guys look cool. After completing a few areas you'll begin to see some cut scenes of the fair Leila. What will happen to her!? One more thing. When you bite the dust as Albatross he'll flail around and slump to the ground (awesome death sequence!)

Rolling Thunder will have you swearing with its brutal enemy placement. As well the jumping areas are very difficult in the latter portions. Thankfully there are passwords you can obtain! The controls are nice and tight, although when you jump you can't change your destination. The sound is very limited. While the music that's there is alright, more could have been done. The graphics are nice, clean and colourful. The masked enemies for the most part are colour swaps of one another, but there is some variety. Now lets all do the masked guy pose!