It was an incredibly tough scrolling shooter with a cool 60s spy theme.
We take a look back at Namco’s Rolling Thunder… You needed every extra bullet you could get, too:Rolling Thunderreally is astonishingly difficult.
This isnt the kind of game where you might simply react to things as they happen, either.
Because, for all its coin-guzzling excess, the game remains strangely addictive.
Rolling Thundershares some of the design philosophy seen in Namcos earlier space shooting games likeGalaxianandGalaga.
WhileRolling Thunderlooks very different fromGalaga, it shares a similar design philosophy.
The fluid animation, prowling, catchy music and digitized sound effects (Blam!
Rolling Thunders other masterstroke is its machine gun.
For a few glorious seconds, the frail hero feels invincible.
Nevertheless, I likedRolling Thunderso much that I bought the ZX Spectrum version when I got back home.
Removing the rose-tinted glasses, its easy to seeRolling Thunders flaws, even in its sparkly arcade incarnation.
Nevertheless, Id still argue that the games innovations are widely overlooked.
One year afterRolling Thunder, Sega madeShinobi, a walk-and-shoot game with remarkably similar mechanics to Namcos arcade machine.
You march along, jump on crates, shoot bad guys and leap up to higher levels.
Visually,Shinobis arguably worse thanRolling Thunder.
Sega also gaveShinobia ninja theme, which was far trendier at the time thanRolling Thunders swinging-60s spy theme.
The Sega Mega Drive conversion is also excellent, with additional levels that didnt appear in the arcade version.
The second sequel, released in 1993, only appeared on the Mega Drive.
Its the most obscure game of the three as a result, but its still a highly entertaining shooter.
Thereafter, Namco seemed to forget aboutRolling Thunder,and Im not quite sure why.
