Thunder Force II
Introduction
Thunder Force II is a side-scrolling shoot ’em up developed by Technosoft, first released in Japan in October 1988 for the X68000 home computer before being ported to the Sega Mega Drive a year later. The Mega Drive version launched in Japan, Europe, and the United States, and was one of the six launch titles available for the Genesis in North America. Players pilot the FIRE LEO-02 ‘Styx’ starfighter through a mix of horizontally and vertically scrolling stages, switching between a locked auto-scroll mode and a free-roaming mode to hunt down enemy bases before facing off against the stage bosses. Thunder Force II marked the beginning of Technosoft’s long association with Sega hardware, setting the template for the Thunder Force series’ fast-paced weapon customization and boss encounters that later sequels would go on to refine.
↑ = up
→ = right
↓ = down
← = left
Z = A Button
X = B Button
A = X Button
S = Y Button
Q = L Button
E = R Button
Shift = Select
Enter = Start
