Thunder Force II GENESIS

Thunder Force II is Technosoft’s 1988 shoot-’em-up, alternating between traditional horizontal-scrolling stages and free-roaming, multi-directional overhead levels where you can fly toward enemy bases from any angle rather than being locked to a single scroll direction.

That structural split was unusual for the genre at the time and became a recurring feature of the Thunder Force series going forward. The Genesis version released in 1989 as one of the system’s earlier third-party shooters, built on the strength of Technosoft’s existing reputation from the original Thunder Force on Japanese home computers.