Showing posts with label Thunder Spirits for SNES print ad (1992). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thunder Spirits for SNES print ad (1992). Show all posts

Friday, February 6, 2015

Thunder Spirits for SNES (1992)

Thunder Spirits for SNES advertisment
Original ad published in EGM's 1993 Video Game Buyer's Guide (late 1992).
Press to view or download image in higher resolution. 

Historical Background and Graphical Analysis


Thunder Spirits (1991) for SNES has an interesting story that sets its apart from other 16-bit side-scrolling shooting games. A solid effort in its own regard, it brings the same pedigree as the very popular Thunder Force series for Sega's Genesis.

In essence, Thunder Spirits is a modified version of Thunder Force III, released in 1990 on Sega's machine. In brief, it's a very good game. One of the best 'shmups' of the 16-bit era. 

However, Spirits is also the home version of Thunder Force AC  (1991), an arcade game published by Technosoft only after the success of Thunder Force III on the GenesisSpirits, on the other hand, was released by Seika. Both Seika and Technosoft, I believe, were part of the gigantic Toshiba corporation. Some argue that it was published by different labels and adopted the "Spirits" suffix to avoid any problems with Sega's publishing standards. 




These differences would have to be well established in the print advertisements for both games. As I wrote about it some days ago, Thunder Force III has an amazing print ad taken directly from the box-art that gamers purchased. The fire phoenix you see in the ad are actual enemies of the game. Thunder Spirits goes in a whole different direction. A dubious one.

That cool fire phoenix I talked about earlier? Gone. Your cool ship in the foreground? Gone. Instead, you see some weird dude in the middle of an acid trip. This was somewhat normal during the 90s, a decade were too much neon and trippiness produced the results you at the top of this page. Good game, terrible print ad. Stranger still when you notice the actual box-art for Thunder Spirits is very cool.



Thunder Spirits for SNES print ad copy



Hurl through space

It’s so fast, it’ll make your teeth rattle. So intense it’ll make your toes curl. So action-packed, you’ll go rocketing, blasting, and splashing your way through 8 stages in Thunder Spirits, the Super NES Action/Arcade classic. It may take facing horrific 3-D creatures & multilevel scrolling. It may take a will of iron & nerves of steel. But you’ve got what it takes! Even if you have to hurl. 


Seika