I first came across Rolling Thunder 2 during
the heady Mega Drive days of the early 1990s and loved it instantly. It’s one
of those rare games that actually evokes a sensation of identity with the main
protagonist during play. You dodge bullets, hide in doorways and defeat waves
of evil henchmen - in essence you feel just like a real secret agent!
Released in 1991, Rolling Thunder 2 was a
port of the Namco produced arcade game that was released a year earlier. This
home version also has a few extras thrown in for good measure. Extra levels,
power-ups, story cut-scenes and a unique password system were all added to beef
up the home console offering.
The game is a side-scrolling "run and
gun" affair in which you play a secret agent on a mission to track down
the crime syndicate Geldra. Two playable characters are featured: a suave Bond
styled male named Albatross, and his female counterpart Leila (complete with
bad 90s perm!). Co-operative two player is supported and really adds to the
fun! I stress that the two player offering is “co-operative” because it relies
on you sharing weapons, ammo and health power-ups. There’s no room for loose
cannons in the war against Geldra!
Gameplay is a mixture of gunning down waves
of henchmen and also memorising the patterns of when they appear. Conserving
ammo and dodging enemy attacks plays its part as well. If you should find
yourself with an empty chamber your gun is still capable of firing a fairly
lame single bullet at a time until you can find somewhere to restock. Each
level has two floors that you can switch between with a high jump and enemies
spawn on both floors. There are multiple doors in each stage that offer refuge
from being attacked and they also house power-ups including extra health, ammo
and special weapons. You can pick up machine guns for rapid fire and
flame-throwers for when you want to get up close and personal! Most levels also
have secret doors containing power-ups but there are no visual clues as to
their locations – you’ll just have to experiment.
Enemies come in a variety of guises, from
standard henchmen that vary in strength to stage specific ones that you’ll need
to figure out before attacking. There are henchmen with force fields,
scorpion-like guys that can disappear into the ground and enemies that copy
your moves by hiding in doorways, peeking out periodically to try and put a bullet
in your skull! Even bats and panthers make an appearance to try and take you
down. There is a boss battle every few stages and these vary in imagination and
difficulty. If there is one flaw with this game then the difficulty spike is
probably it. The levels themselves are challenging but it won’t take you long
to get past them if you persevere. The bosses however are a different story. A
couple of them verge on being plain unfair and this can be a little
frustrating. Having said that they are far from being impossible and there’s a
great sense of achievement to be gained from besting them.
The graphics in the game are decent enough
although they hardly push Sega’s 16-bit masterpiece to its limits. Having said
that there’s a nice consistency to the quality of the stages, the backgrounds
and the enemy design. Animation and collision detection are both good, meaning
you’ll never die and be sat there wondering what the hell just happened. The
music is good, with suitably spy-themed jingles and there’s even the obligatory
Egyptian theme for the desert level!
Rolling Thunder 2 really is a great game –
one of the Mega Drive’s many gems! At the heart of a well presented package
lies a core game mechanic that, quite simply, is just a hell of a lot of fun.
Grab a copy, grab a mate and get after Geldra before they destroy all of the
world’s satellites!
This review will self-destruct in 10
seconds.
