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Has anyone out there ever played Thunder Force part one? I didn't think so. When Tecno Soft released the Thunder Force Gold Packs on Japanese Saturn, they left it out of the collection, for some strange reason. But hey, you gotta put your past behind you... Thunder Force 5 is the latest in this 2D side-scrolling shooter series, exclusively for the Sega Saturn... The Japanese Saturn, that is. You may not be to move the ship with your mind, but this is still a phenomenal shooter, with many innovative features and plenty of style.

Do you think SNK fighting game intros are fast? Did you barely catch a glimpse of Geese Howard in real Bout Fatal Fury's introduction? Well, that's slow, baby, compared to TF5's super-faster-than-light cinematic intro. I think I almost caught site of a nice hand-drawn still picture of the game's heroine, Cenes, in between the fast-moving text and flashes of light, but that coulda been the gallons of Yoohoo I drink every day talking. The game actually has a great, complicated storyline about a super-computer turning against its creators, and the evil that machines of war carry with them, but you wouldn't know from an intro that lasts about as long as it takes to load (slight exaggeration). But hey, there aren't any FMV ships flying around, making it feels like a classic-style cinema, kind of a good thing. Some of you lesser-minded people out there don't even watch intros, even when your boyfriend kindly records them for you on videotape, so why am I even complaining?

Before you start the game, but after you're finished not caring about watching the beginning, you'll want to stop by the options menu and set things up. It's made out to look like the interface for the ship's onboard computer, meaning it looks smoother than silk, but takes a bit too long to get things done. Anyway, there are tons of options, including difficulty, soundfx/music balance, ship speed, and you can even configure how your weapons list looks while playing the game (to make it take up less screen space). All the while tiny numbers and command lines scroll by in the bottom of the screen. The date and time, according to the Saturn's system clock is even displayed up top... That's so much detail it hurts! Perhaps some day Thunder Force 5's option menu will receive its own game, as it so truly deserves.

The best options feature is the key assign. With it, you can choose to either select guns by switching through them with a single button, or for the more hardcore amongst us, use a different button on the controller for each of the game's 5 guns. This is way better than having to slowly cycle through the weapons until you have the one you want, but you tenderfoot gamers out there may have a hard time remembering which button corresponds to which gun. I love it, though, and consider this to be the best control scheme of any shooter, ever. And if that wasn't enough, you can use the loveable analog controller to move your ship-pure gaming pleasure. Works fine with a standard cpntroller too.

Finally, choose your stage from a set of 3 and you're off. Thunder Force 5 may have 2D gameplay but the look is certainly 3D. Just about every ship is polygonal, and many enemies zoom in and out of the screen for that 3D effect. Meanwhile, the backgrounds use some heavy line scrolling along with a dash of parallax and some transparencies. They're reminiscent of Darius Gaiden, but much better looking. However, I still find about 7 layers of parallax looks more impressive than a line scrolling floor with only 2 or 3 layers behind it. That's the "old-school" in me talking, most people probably won't mind. Without that line scrolling mess, it wouldn't have the dramatic camera sweeps at the beginning and end of each level, so it's easy to see why the developers chose that route. Some of the enemies, including a dead-ringer for the level 3 boss of Panzer Dragoon are huge and well-animated, and contrary to what some wimpy reviewer else-where said, the sprites look just fine on the backgrounds (unlike Final Fantasy 7). The whole game looks great, similar to Ray Storm on PSX, but the polygonal nature gives it a sort of "wet" appearance, unlike its crisp, hand-drawn ancestors. So it doesn't have quite the same feel as other Thunder Force games, but that's evolution for you... Eventually people will forget how to draw and we'll all have computer chips in our foreheads, I think.

One thing TF fans remember fondly is the music, and Thunder Force 5 does not disappoint. It's all techno (from Tecno Soft, what did you expect?) and suits each level perfectly. It kind of had to grow on me for some reason, but now I love it. However, it's still not music I would listen to in a CD player, and it can't touch the best shooter-music ever, which was in good old Gate of Thunder on Turbo Duo. Now THAT stuff would make warring nations stop for some coffee and donuts, if it were ever played on gigantic loudspeakers world-wide. The sound effects are top-notch, though, and even the classic "pitter-patter" gunshot sound made the cut. There is also a wonderful computer voice that announces each boss' arrival (cool multi-form bosses), and speaks some really-strangely written lines like "It died 3 times and was reborn twice". Even if that is wacky, at least there isn't one hint of Japanese text or speech in the game, making it an easy grab for importer players.

Of course, if you buy the Special Pack version of Thunder Force 5 you get a music CD, Best of Thunderforce, with eleven hot remixes of the music from past games in the series (but not part one, if there ever was a part one). They're cool, but very Japanese-sounding, so a few "Bob Segar" enjoying gamers may find it just too weird and nutty. Basically, if you like Japanese or classic game tunes, pick up the Special Pack, otherwise, play it safe and buy the regular version. Too bad you can't play Thunder Force 5 with the remixed music, that would have induced some nostalgaic euphoria in me, at least.

I already stated that the control is perfect, what about gameplay? Ooh, TF5 is soaking in gameplay! All 5 guns (you start with Twin and Back shot, and must collect the others, Wave, Hunter, and Free Range) are useful and good looking to boot. The Free-Range Laser is easily the best of the bunch. You aim it with the controller (rotating the line-of-fire on a 360 degrees axis), then hold the button and it stays locked on in that direction until released. Any enemy flying in its path will be shot down quickly. A weapon that actually takes some skill to use, how about that? Each weapon has a powerful Over Weapon form, rather special move-like, which drains energy from the 3 CRAW (which are similar to the Options is Gradius, except they don't absorb enemy fire) flying around your ship. Use it too much and your CRAW will disappear and need to be collected again, but they recharge after a while if used in moderation. Mastering use of the Over Weapons is essential to beating the game, since some enemies will probably waste you if not killed quickly enough. One of the coolest is when your ship receives an add-on (amidst a huge Star Wars-style space battle) for one level only, and gets a life meter and all Over-Weapon firepower... But don't forget, true strength is not of the body but of the mind.

Speaking of strength, if any of the 3 non-default weapons was selected when your ship is destroyed, it's gone, which makes the game even more complicated since you have to remember to stop using them if you're about to die. And die you will, because there are times when the screen is just too packed with fire, especially on the harder difficulties. The slowdown caused by intense situations is totally unintrusive, unlike what you my have heard, and like many Neo Geo shooters, it'll actually help instead of hinder. It seems that to beat the game on Hard, and even Normal at times, you MUST pause or use slow motion, which I hate, but that's what you get for buying a tough shooter. (Darius Gaiden had spots where there was NO way to avoid fire, but this isn't quite that bad.) To make matters worse, the final boss is WAY harder if you get to it without continuing. That's the only way to get the cool true ending, and let's just say the behemoth takes your ship and crushes it in its hands, literally. Then he makes the family pay for the bullets... Well, not the bullets part... Wrong behemoth!

I believe that like Resident Evil, TF5's programmers chose to make the game abnormally hard to mask its shortness. If you can't even get to the end, you can't complain about longevity. While my buddies the Oculicz family may enjoy super-toughness, there is such a thing as too hard for the casual gamer... Being a shooter God I was able to beat it, but several people I know who own it still can't do it. With just 7 stages, and a completion time of 45 minutes or less, this is the shortest Thunder Force yet... Reminds me of the first 32 bit games, great looking but over rather quickly. Actually, I can think of quite a few pleasureable experiences that ended prematurely, until I started taking vitamins.... But that's another story!

Thank goodness TF5 saves 45 of your high scores (allowing you to enter 8 character names) along with a few other stats like play time and times beaten, so you might actually want to try and beat your own record (an all-important feature in a shooter which Darius Gaiden sorely lacked). Besides, like any good shooter, Thunder Force 5 is so fast and fun to play that you'll go back to it time and time again. It may not quite exceed the previous installments in terms of quality, and like the others it's only a single player game, but it's still one of the finest 32-bit shooters, period. The best Saturn shooter so far may be the vertically-scrolling Sokyu Gurentai, but if side-scrolling's your thing, nothing else can touch TF.

Sega of America may have recently called Thunder Force 5's game play "dated" and passed on a US release (even though they released parts 2, 3 and 4 on Genesis), but keep in mind those guys can't put their pants on without help, and hey, none of them could tell a Saturn control pad from a waffle iron, if you ask me. Shooters are still alive and well overseas, and if you're smart enough to buy imports, give this one some thought because, to quote the game's computer voice, "This is where it all began!"