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Rolling Thunder Game Review

Rolling Thunder is a 1986 run-and-gun shooter action game produced by Namco and released on arcade systems. It is a classic of the genre.

This game is regarded very strongly today, but it should have more of a cult status within the run-and-gun genre as it is undoubtedly a classic. I personally played the NES port on that console’s emulator, which is apparently the hardest of all the versions.

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You control Albatross, a member of a crime police organization espionage unit. He has to save a female agent named Leila from a secret society named Geldra. The story isn’t really rich, but for a 80s action game, it’s more sophisticated than most, being very much reminiscent to James Bond movies. That spy angle was quite intriguing here.

The game has two stages, each consisting of five sections, making for ten levels overall. That’s way too short. For an arcade game, it’s fine. But for a console game, it felt overly brisk and I wished for more levels. You shoot with a standard pistol, but interestingly you can run out of ammo, and then you have the option to shoot bullets, but they are incredibly slow and almost pointless.

They are replenished when you enter a door. These doors offer a hiding place as well as full replenishment of ammo while some even give you a special sub machine gun that will make you indestructible. Going on a killing spree with that gun was super fun, but also short as it goes away rather quickly, which was a smart choice.

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You can also use the many crates that exist in these stages to take cover, which made for a very sophisticated, varied gameplay for such an early game. Jumping is rather awkward, however. You can jump to a higher platform and continue fighting there, which was fantastic and again it made for a more diverse gameplay, but the jumps on the ground are very slow and Albatross is too clunky in this respect.

The enemies are actually terrific. There are different types of enemies here and you can deduce what each one does through their coloring. These masked hunters have a color that determines their attack patterns and strength. Some only have one life, but others have two or even three while a couple even have the ability to shoot while kneeling or throw grenades.

Rolling Thunder is an incredibly hard game not just because the A.I. is surprisingly competent, but also because you basically have just two lives. If you get shot for the second time, it is game over, which led to an immensely difficult gaming experience, but I loved taking on that challenge. The only issue is the final boss. The Geldra leader Maboo is cool and menacing, but that boss fight was extremely difficult to the point of being nigh impossible to beat without the help of save states.

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The level design is pretty terrific throughout. The sound is excellent and the score is amazing, fitting its spy narrative effortlessly. The character animations were solid too (the hooded soldiers look very eerie) while the overall graphics are excellent for this time. I just wished for more variety in these stages as they look too similar to each other. The gameplay is surprisingly versatile and just shooting your way through each stage was so much fun. It’s a highly entertaining, though short experience.