qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnml ------------+-+------------------ {_| |_} /| _|_|_ |\ ( |/_____\| ) |--`/_/ | \_\'--| ____ //( ) | \\ ____ | ++ |==|\___/ \___/|==| ++ | \__/ | ___ ___ | \__/ __\/oo X []\/__ || [\__/_\__/] || ~~~~ ~~~~ ---------------------------------------------------------------- Hello, and welcome to my guide for the ever-so difficult shooter: Super Thunder Blade. This guide is intended to help those in need, and show you the ropes in this hell ride. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Super Thunder Blade. SEGA/SEGA For GENESIS Copyright 2009 iheartpancreas Gamefaqs.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- ============0 ========= CONTENTS ========= ============0 Notes ------ ----------------[NS] Walkthrough ----------- Stage 1----------------[SG1] Stage 2----------------[SG2] Stage 3----------------[SG3] Stage 4----------------[SG4] My Take ------- -----------------[MT] Legality -------- -----------------[LG] Vrsn History Thanks -----------------[AB] ---------------------------------------------------------------- ======= NOTES[NS] ======= Super Thunder Blade is an old school shooter that was available on the GENESIS, the Mega Drive, and the Arcade. One thing to take note of, is that if you are playing this on the Mega Drive, there are some differences. The game got its recognition by being extremely hard. It can can get frustratingly difficult at times, but if you know a good pattern to use, it can be pretty easy. Note that even if you were watching this, and opposed to me describing it to you, you'd still probably find a lot of difficulty with this game. The game was meant to be relentless, and therefore, kept you wanting to take your revenge on it by beating it. So yeah, some patience, and practice may be requried, but hey, let's stop talking and get to shooting, shall we? ----------------------------------------------------------------- ============ WALKTHROUGH ============ ============0 ========= STAGE 1[SG1] ========= ============0 Keep firing, and take out the two helicopters that come your way. Move from the right, to the left to avoid the enemy's fire. This is easier said than done. Watch out for the small orange ball-like shapes. Avoid them like the plague. Try to move in the direction away from them as soon as you see them materialize. You'll have a little more breathing room when you get past the buildings. Then you can evade easier, with the added breathing room. Move up and down as needed as well. Staying stationary will get you nowhere. Keep up with the maneuvering, and you'll soon come across a halt. The foe is a ridiculously over sized tank, of sorts, and it's firing multiple rounds at you. Just keep firing away, and move around to avoid its fire. Moving in this fashion typically helps best: ---------1--------2-- 6-- ---3 ---------5-------4-- The numbers, in sequence shows your position on the map, and as the numbers get higher, that's the direction, or path you can take. He should go down fairly quick if you keep shooting, and avoid as much fire as possible. When you pass on by, continue your shooting as usual, and try not to touch any of the enemy fire. Later on, the enemies come on with great succession. However, as hectic as it can be, you can avoid taking damage altogether if you set up a good rhythm. Remember the circular motion. Don't forget to move up and down, as well. Should you find that that route is best, consider moving like this: ---1 ------2 --------3 -------4 -----5 --6 -7 ---8 -----9 ---10 In a zigzag kinda way. Eventually you'll come across the boss. The view will change from semi first person, to a top down view. Fire down at the huge carrier-the boss. It's a lot more difficult to dodge the fire this time around, but you can simplify things by attacking the cannons. Some can be found [ ] [ ] [ ] x x [ ] [ ] [ ] x x where the Xs are located. Take out the jets before they can take off, but the cannons are your main priority. It is also easy to get shot down from attackers in the middle sections. Moving from the far left to the far right is the best way to tackle this boss, but success depends on how many attacks you've evaded. Soon, you'll see this boss go down. ============0 ======== STAGE 2[SG2] ======== ============0 Alright, let's get those trigger fingers itching. First, make sure not to crash into the large structure. Fire away at the enemies, and remember the dodging maneuver. It still works here, but there are numerous pillars that make things that much harder. Another structure whizzes into view shortly. You'll then have an open area to move through. This should make dodging a little easier, but watch out for the trees. Avoid the next structure, and don't forget about the helicopter foes. Keep moving around at a steady pace. Along with more pillars, you now have stalagmites and the like to contend with. Avoid them. The main brunt of the enemy forces are more toward the middle section. So keep this in mind. When you get past, watch for the next structure. In the open, you also have to watch out for ground force attacks, and trees. The ground forces are where most of the fire wil come from, but just dodging to the top won't help due to helicopters. Dodging should still be fairly easy, but things can go wrong really fast if you lose rhythm. I found dodging like this helps: ---------------1------- ---------2 ----3 4 5 6 -------7 --------------8 ----------------------9 Provided you keep an eye out for trees. This also works when ascending upwards. Avoid the structure, and watch out for oncoming pillars. In a short while, you'll have a helicopter mini boss to deal with. It fires from its wings, but in the middle, it shoots missiles at you. ---X------()-------X M The Xs indicate where the rapid fire comes from, and the M shows where it launches missiles. You're in a wide open area, so you can easily dodge unhindered, and even take no damage. Moving in a circular fashion makes short work of this baddy in no time. ---X------()-------X M This is the enemy d d d d ---X--d---()---d----X d M d d The Ds indicate how you should go about taking him out. He'll go down before you know it. Move along, and watch out for more pillars and stalagmites. When a large number of them come into view from the middle-top area, dash to the far left, or right out of harm's way. Keep moving, keep firing, and keep using the techniques from before. Watch out for the structures that come into view. You can tell they're coming when you see a change in scenery in the horizon. After getting you fill of shooting down choppers and tanks, you'll go back to that top-down view to face then next boss. Things are a little harder when the view is like this because your dodging capabilities are some what limited, and it's harder to predict where the fire's coming from. Anyway, the boss is a humongous kind of tank....of sorts. It fires from its cannons in the middle. You can avoid them altogether, and then focus on destroying the next couple of 'em to make things manageable. Move to the near-ends of the right and left of the screen while shooting to take out any cannons you hit, and avoid fire. Keep this up, and you'll be pleasantly surprised at how quick this boss battle is over. ============0 ======== STAGE 3[SG3] ======== ============0 Alright, now you'll be flying over high seas. And your first foes will come in the form of battleships, and helicopters. The battle ships are fairly large, but can be out manuevered easily. When you notice an abundance of air and sea based enemies on the screen, dodge by moving right and left about half way below the screen. When there aren't as many helicopters, dodge in the upper half of the screen. There will be some fighter planes passing through, so be careful. When you notice a pause in the action, watch out. The mini boss will show his ugly head. Watch out for the chain of fire as it emerges from the distance. Dodgin from the right to the left should be done in this manner, carefully - - -6 -4 -3 - - - -5 - -2 -1 And then head down and continue firing. This dude shouldn't be too difficult to take out, in fact, he'll be downed in a few moments. More enemies will show up, but as long as to primarily stick to the middle and lower screens, and dodge accordingly, they won't give you much trouble. You'll fly sky high in a little bit, and will be looking down. This is an obvious indication that you'll be tackling a boss soon. It's an oversized stealth flyer, and aside from the cannon fire, it shoots out green balls of pain at you. This can get really difficult. X [ ] X X | | X X X X X X X There's fire coming from the Xs, and the huge cannon in the middle as well. Things can get really hectic, but you'll want to take out the cannons on the sides and avoid the man one altogether. X [ ] X --- X | | X T ---- T X X X ------ X ------- X X The Ts indicate where you'll want to spend most of your time shooting,and the dashes show a rough indicator of where you'll be dodging. Even so, the amount of fire can still be overwhelming, so you still need to keep on your toes. The next series of cannons are parallel from each other, and are in the middle. Dodge from side to side, but alternate paths, depending on which way the majority of fire is coming from. Keep this up, and you'll be done with this nuisance once and fore all. ============0 ========= STAGE 4[SG4] ========= ============0 Now, you'll be moving at a slightly faster pace than before. Take out the ships, and the helicopters, but watch out for the buildings, and the structures that protrude from some of them. [ ] [ ----- ] [ ----- ] [ ----- ] [ ----- ] The dashes show any variation of where the structures come from. Sometimes it is a single structure, and more often than not, you'll have to dodge a tight space in the middle of two long structures. Couple that with the fact that there's as much enemy fire as ever, and you'll soon realize you've got a really difficult level on your hands. You should know how to avoid the enemies that pass. However, knowing what to do doesn't really make things much easier. Keep your eyes peeled, and your fingers in tact. After the seemingly incessant barrage of structures, and enemies, a really brief pause will signify the mini boss. Or should I say, mini bosses? Watch out for the fire, and when the bosses finally do show up, they'll float around, and wreak havoc. Damn robots. Dodging is your main priority, don't worry if it takes a while, but you should focus more on taking little to no damage than attacking. After that little torture fest, proceed and take the enemies out as usual. When the pause and shift in axes comes, you'll know what kind of battle you're in for. First off, expect numerous cannon fire, and moving cannons. When you pass the first batch of cannons, sticking to the right side tends to help in avoiding further damage. Don't use it as a crutch, though, as the screen is constantly moving up. Moving from one side of the screen to the next is very helpful, but only if you can get the timing right. Take out, at all costs, the cannons that are closest to you, but your main focus should be on dodging. After taking out the huge cannon, another will open up from right under it. It fires a devastating amount of balls at you, but you should be able to predict the movements. Your goal is taking out the three cannons that are firing at you 789 ? ? ? ? ? ? 123 The more you take out, the harder it gets to dodge, ironically. Any way,like before, take out the ones closest to you, then tackle the sides. When just the 789 remains, be sure to move to the far left and right while shooting to avoid damage, and get this over with. Firing the middle is the final phase, and once you're done with that, you're done with the game. Wow, that was hectic. Who knew how old school games with simple mechanics could be so hard? I did. Well, mostly because I grew up playing old school games, but also because......they are. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- ======= MY TAKE[MT] ======= Putting memories, and nostalgia aside, I still feel that this is a pretty solid game. I prefer my games to be really hard as opposed to really easy. But I don't necessarily condone 'cheap'. I feel this game as a fairly good balance between fun, and addictiveness, but the difficulty may put some people down. The action is intense, and is basically non stop. You have to at least give it that. If this is your first game of this type, it may be hard to love. If you've been playing a lot of these kinda old school games, you'll probably like it, but may find the design a bit inconsistent at times. All in all, this is a fun game, and if you have the skill and patience, a blast. I would recommend it, and I believe it's even on the Wii Virtual Console now. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ ========== LEGALITY [LG] ========== This guide is copyright of 2009 iheartpancreas and is only to be viewed on: Gamefaqs.com Super Thunder Blade is a product of SEGA and is developed by SEGA. Contact me at woopdeefrickin@yahoo.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- ========= VERSION HISTORY[AB] ========= I'd first, like to thank Gamefaqs for allowing me to post this guide, and hope it has helped you in your playthrough. I'd also like to thank you for taking the time out to read this walkthrough. VERSION 2.0 - Continued walkthrough to completion Finished up extra info. VERSION 1.5 - Added walkthrough and extra info. VERSION 1.0 -Stated Guide. Setup, and frame