Namco, like many companies, have some IPs that they no longer use. Whether or not it’s worthy of being revived depends on the series altogether. And for this IP, James Bond was still a hit so cash in while the agent genre is hot.
First off, Rolling Thunder (ローリングサンダー Rōringu Sandā), developed and published by Namco, it was released in 1986. I will first review the Arcade original.
Albatross, member of the WCPO’s (World Crime Police Organization) “Rolling Thunder” espionage unit, is tasked with rescuing his partner in crime, Leila Blitz, from Geldra, a secret society in New York.
Leila: For fucks sake, I don’t want to be another damsel-in-distress.
Namco: Look, just do this once and you get to be playable in the next game.
Leila: K Fam!
The game is a side-scroller Run & Gun where you play as Albatross as you shoot your way through masked enemies of many diverse colours. There are two stories, though both stories have multiple stages but are near enough the same as each other with Story 2 being much harder. You can go left, right, jump and shoot with your pistol.
During the game, levels will have doors, enemies will come out of them, but there are doors that will refill your ammo for your pistol. But occasionally, you can enter doors that will get you a machine gun with limited ammo and rapid fire.
It’s another simple Arcade title, hard as balls, slow as molasses, mediocre at best with clunky controls due to the fact that you can only shoot horizontally despite later enemies placed above you so it’s also bullshit, checkpoints that are very far and few between, and level design that I could describe as bearable. I think that’s the best way to describe this game, bearably slow but was fun for its time. It’s a game that was great for the time, but is dated in every way possible.
It got an Famicom/NES port, which was released in 1989 in Japan and in the US. Namco released the Famicom port in Japan. But the US release was published by Tengen, Atari’s publishing company to release unlicensed NES games. It’s a long story and there’s many online documentaries explaining the legality of it all.
The game is similar to the original, a few additions are made like adding passwords…though the only ones you get are for Story 2 and the levels in Hard Mode so…your loss for those who can’t get good like…me…sobs Oh, did I tell you that the this port has a Hard Mode after beating the Normal Mode?
Either way, it’s similar to the Arcade original, and considering the issues I had with that game, almost to a fault.
Next up is Rolling Thunder 2 (ローリングサンダー2 Rōringu Sandā Tsū), released in 1990 in Japan, and in 1991 in the US and Europe.
The Geldra organization is back and is destroying satellites to cut off everyone because they’re dicks like that. WCPO’s Rolling Thunder task force is tasked with stopping them once again.
Player 1 is Leila and Player 2 is Albatross, meaning that Leila was finally told to NOT get kidnapped. But either way, the game is very similar to the original game. In fact, other than varied level design like a desert for example, the gameplay is left unchanged…and I still don’t like it, since it hasn’t improved upon anything other than graphics…even if the game is slightly better in a sense but I just still find it dated, and this was a game from the early 90’s.
Like the first game, it also got a port. This time in the form of a Sega Mega Drive port, released in 1991 worldwide.
The game is a port in a literal sense but at the very least has three extra levels for your troubles. But the game is similar to the original regardless and same ol’ crap, though it does include picture cutscenes for story progression to make it feel like a proper console game.
And finally, Rolling Thunder 3, developed by Now Production and published by Namco and was released in 1993 in the US only. Yep, the third and final game never came to Japan and Europe, does that mean anything. Well…
Set during the events of Rolling Thunder 2…so yeah, that means no Albatross and Leila and the only agent is newcomer Jay, who’s assigned to find and take down Geldra’s second-in-command, Dread. The plot is a little more simple but is more cinematic in terms of cutscenes and the like and I kind of miss Albatross and Leila. But hey, at least we have Jay…and Ellen (who’s playable if you know the code ‘GREED’…I don’t get it either).
It’s yet another Rolling Thunder game but actually has some changes that make the game a bit better. You can pick which secondary weapon to use before a level, these weapons include a Submachine Gun, Shotgun, Bazooka, Flamethrower, A Laser Gun, Regular Grenades, Flash Grenades and Cracker Grenades or a Cannon. Oh, and once you use a secondary weapon, you can never use it again so…damn it.
The gameplay is the same as the previous titles, still clunky, and still annoying, but they added shooting whilst jumping and diagonal fire, so some of the clunk has been reduced and you can hit enemies in more directions…OK you still can’t shoot vertically, but one improvement at a time I guess. But for that reason, despite being mediocre at best, I can happily call this the best game in the series as a result…even if it’s still bloody hard.
You know what, why not add one more game to this retrospective, even if it’s not technically a Rolling Thunder game, but it’s more of a rip-off, but also has relations to the Famicom port of Rolling Thunder. Oh, and it involves drugs.
Code Name: Viper, known in Japan as Ningen Heiki Dead Fox (人間兵器デッドフォックス Ningen Heiki Deddo Fokkusu, “Human Weapon Dead Fox”), developed by Arc System Works and published by Capcom, it was released in 1990 in Japan and in the US.
This would be the fourth game from Arc System Works, with the first three games being console ports, but I’ll explain in a bit.
Our main protagonist, Kenny Smith, code name “Viper”, and an agent of the 98th Special Forces, is tasked by Director Jones to investigate a drug syndicate in South America (of course). But there’s a twist near the end of the story and I honestly don’t care.
It’s weird that this game was able to get away with referencing drugs in a Nintendo game, in America no less. But this was the time when the “Say NO to drugs” campaign was still shoved into children’s’ throats, so I’m guessing that this wouldn’t be too controversial.
Like Rolling Thunder, you can walk left and right, jump and shoot, up and jump to jump to higher platforms.
In this game though, opening doors are much more important as you can rescue hostages, collect items and rescue a captured commando in each level to actually exit the level. Each rescued commando will unravel the words in a letter, hopefully figuring out who’s behind the syndicate.
The gameplay is smoother, feels just right for a Rolling Thunder game, to the point where you realise that the rip-off is better than the original series. it’s not as clunky as the original, the controls are more manageable and you’re able to shoot and move around in mid-air, something the third Rolling Thunder game did, but Code Name: Viper did it first. But the difficulty is still there and some of the bullshit remains, but at the very least is more fairer.
The graphics look great for the NES and the level design can be very similar to the original Rolling Thunder game, with some areas improving from it too. The music is really good, this is because it was composed (apart from Level 1) by Yoko Shimomura, whose known for a lot of Capcom classics and even modern songs of today.
Now the reason the game is similar to Rolling Thunder is because Arc System Works (known for their stylistic fighter titles) were the developers who ported the original Rolling Thunder game, then developed this game afterwards. I’m guessing that they wanted to make their own Rolling Thunder game done right and for that, I’ll commend them for that.
And that’s it for the Rolling Thunder Retrospective…I’ve had more boring days in my life. Yeah, I didn’t enjoy this series, I’m not fond of any of the games but the third game is close. So if it can never see a return, I won’t get miffed about it. But for those who have played it and enjoyed them, all the more power to you. But if you haven’t played them, I’d say give them a try but I wouldn’t wholeheartedly recommend them to fully experience them all.