44| Rolling Thunder 2

Released: 1991 (Exact date unknown)

Definitive Version: Arcade; Also on: MD, Virtual Console for Wii

Before Street Fighter II stepped on the scene, arcades were dominated by two genres: beat-em-ups and run-and-guns. Games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Sunset Riders dominated arcades. Whether it be at Chuck E Cheese or a Mom n' Pop establishment, any arcade would have rows and rows of cabinets of games in these genres. Due to the Super Nintendo and Mega Drive still being relatively new or not even released during the heyday of these genres, the only option most had to play a reasonable version of these games was at an arcade. In today's world, these games are either widely available to play or are lost in time, depending on your stance on emulation for abandonware. While there are a lot of quality series in the run-and-gun genre such as Gunstar Heroes, Contra, and Metal Slug, none of them are quite as enjoyable to me as Rolling Thunder.

In this write-up I will be talking about Rolling Thunder 2. The easiest way to explain the Rolling Thunder games is that they are typical run-and-gun games, but with dash of Time Crisis. These may seem like polar opposites, but the game achieves this blend very well. Essentially the player can choose between two characters, with the ability of a second player to tag along if they want to. The player walks around the screen, but can only progress by walking to the right. Soon enemies and multiple platforms appear. Enemies obviously need to be shot at, otherwise they shoot at the player. The player can have the character hop up or down on different platforms. No matter which floor the protagonist is located on there will be boxes and similar items about. The player can move their character in front of these objects, where they can duck and cover to dodge enemy bullets. When the wave of bullets come to a brief halt, the protagonist can stand up and fire bullets at the enemy killing them. It takes the duck and cover aspect of Time Crisis and uses it very well. The difference is that this game is 2D and came along years earlier. The game also has a set amount of bullets the player can use per gun. When a weapon is out of bullets, the gun fires seldomly and bullets move across the screen very slowly. Fortunately there are doors to enter that either give the characters more bullets, more powerful ammunition, or even a different weapon. There is also a timer that counts down at each level. If the level isn't cleared by the end of the timer then the stage is automatically failed.

What makes the game interesting besides its duck and cover mechanics, is that it is very vertically orientated. As said before, there are multiple platforms to hop on to. Namco took note of this, and had the level design take advantage of this. Not only do levels often require the player to switch platforms more often, but there are levels that are designed entirely to be scaled vertically top to bottom as some type of maze. This is something very rarely seen in these types of games, even today.

The presentation of the game is a bit disappointing. It comes of in trying to be hip and smooth '70s spy thriller film, but falls short of it. The beginning of the game features some pretty cool music and character art that really sets the tone of the game. Unfortunately, this seems to get lost at many points of the game with music awkwardly switching to more traditional synthy game music of that era. You can still technically hear the hip and smooth '70s soundtrack in the music somewhere, but it's been considerably buried. The title still does a reasonable job in establishing a tone, but I feel that if the developers put in a little more effort into into the aesthetics of the game, it could have been something really special.

Another flaw with the game is its difficulty. I will admit I don't play this game with a partner, but in single player mode the game is just far too difficult. It isn't Metal Slug per say, but it is still a bit tough at times, especially in certain stages. To be more specific, it isn't really the stages themselves that are difficult, but more so certain parts of their stages. The game for example relies on a duck and cover system, but sometimes the player find themselves juggling to take out enemies on more than one front. This makes things very difficult as the game gives each character two hits before they die. To be fair, each character has two or three lives, but that only goes so far when you are stuck at a certain group of enemies.

The game also has a story...and there isn't much to say about it. Basically, satellites from countries around the world are being destroyed. The lack of information puts the planet into chaos. It turns out that the once defeated terrorist group Gelda has regrouped itself and is off to try and take over the world. It is decided that two agents, Albatross and Leila, will be sent to save the day. It is pretty forgettable, which is to par with games of this era.

Rolling Thunder 2 may not be perfect, but it is an arcade classic that is one of the go to games to play when bored and looking for a bite sized playthrough. The mechanics are fun, unique, and challenging. While run-and-guns started to become focused on being as chaotic and frantic as possible, Rolling Thunder always took the more calm and strategic approach. That alone makes it stand out from the pack. Unfortunately, these games never really got their due. While the series was moderately successful in North America, it never gained the popularity that Contra and Metal Slug had, nor the cult status that Gunstar Heroes did. This has led Namco to be very apathetic toward this series, proven that the only title in it available for modern home use is the second entry on the Wii's Virtual Console. And it isn't even the arcade version, but the Sega Mega Drive one. Though to be fair, it is a pretty good port and an okay substitute. But being that re-releasing old titles is so common these days and cost very little, there is no excuse not to be able to play the definitive version of any of these games on a modern platform.