Super Thunder Blade

Super Thunder Blade^[a] is a 1988 rail shooter game developed and published by Sega for the Sega Genesis. It sees players controlling a helicopter as they gun down military vehicles in various different environments. The gameplay follows the structure set by its arcade predecessor Thunder Blade (1987), with every stage featuring traditional rail shooting segment ending off with a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up boss battle.

Super Thunder Blade
European box art
Developer(s)	Sega
Publisher(s)	Sega
Producer(s)	Yuji Naka
Composer(s)	Sachio Ogawa
Platform(s)	Mega Drive/Genesis, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Virtual Console
Release	JP: October 29, 1988 NA: August 14, 1989 EU: November 30, 1990
Genre(s)	Rail shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player

The game was later released for the Virtual Console on September 17, 2007, and on the Nintendo Classics service on April 11, 2025. It was also included in the Sega Genesis Collection for PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable in 2007 and in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Gameplay

Super Thunder Blade is a rail shooter game. As in its predecessor, the player takes control of a helicopter which is used to attack a group of guerrillas. The helicopter itself uses guns and missiles, and can also air brake. A distinctive feature that also appears in the arcade game is the use of different viewpoints during normal gameplay and when fighting sub-bosses. The game utilizes a third-person perspective from behind the helicopter, similar to Space Harrier, but the camera changes to a top-down perspective when fighting bosses. The game has four stages to play.

Reception

The game received positive reviews upon release. ACE magazine rated it 880 out of 1000 and listed it as one of the top five best games available for the Mega Drive in 1989.^[1] Computer and Video Games rated it 80% and called it the "best version" of Thunder Blade on "any" system.^[2]

Reception

Review scores

Publication	Score
ACE	88/100
Computer and Video Games	8/10
IGN	4/10

The game later received mixed retrospective reviews in the 2000s.^[3] In 2007, IGN gave the game a 4 out of 10, citing a framerate that was "far too jumpy" and lamenting that the game "just couldn't make the jump to console" from its arcade cabinet counterpart.^[4]

Other versions

Super Thunder Blade is the title of the Mega Drive release. This was done to differentiate it from the Master System release, known as Thunder Blade, which was a port from the arcade version. There were few differences between the arcade and Mega Drive versions, save for some minor level development changes and the gameplay. The initial top-down sections (occurring before the third-person sections) were omitted from the Mega Drive version.

Notes

1. Japanese language: スーパーサンダーブレード, Hepburn romanization: Supā Sandā Burēdo