The run and gun are one of my favorite genres of video games, I have always found them much more entertaining than shoot em up, although they are games with many similarities. This game that I will talk about today I discovered a few days ago and what I found curious is that my first thought when I saw it was that I thought it was some Dragon Ball pirate game, since the main character has some similarity with Goku and also the way in which the protagonist of this game attacks resembles the way the protagonist of Dragon Ball launches his energy attacks or the Kamehameha. But the most curious thing about this game is that its sequel, which came out many years after this first part, its protagonist grows up and looks like an adult version of Goku, it is quite clear its inspiration, although I will talk about that in the next review.
Today's Retro Review is about: Thunder Hoop.
I found the story of this game quite interesting and for a game which includes video game genres such as run and gun, action and platforming, I have to admit that compared to other similar games, this story is better told, at least its main premise. Anyway, the story of this game begins when Doctor Daniel Genbreak, who is an expert in genetics, has been accused of having created very dangerous creatures through genetics, so people fear that this could endanger humanity. Due to this accusation, Genbreak goes into a rage and does something not very intelligent on his part and creates hundreds of mutants which he releases to cause all kinds of chaos and destruction.
I mean, I think Genbreak has serious anger problems and despite being very intelligent he is not very rational, really. But anyway, due to all this chaos caused by the now villain of the story, a group of scientists have agreed to make war on him, so they manage to create through genetics (yes, another group of scientists using genetics), a biological weapon which will be responsible for eliminating any existing threat. That weapon is: Thunder Hoop, which is a young man who has been genetically modified to be able to use powers and also has superior physical capabilities. In a few words, the story of this game is a criticism of the pharmaceutical industry and the genetic industry, which is affecting society... just kidding, we are facing an entertaining game where we will eliminate a lot of mutants in the most striking way possible by means of Kamehamehas although they are not really Kamehameha.
Thunder Hoop's graphics are very good, highlighting by far the design of our protagonist, which has a relatively large size, so we can be able to appreciate a lot of details that are not bad at all. Although Thunder Hoop's design is quite simple, as it consists of red clothes and nothing else (besides his resemblance to Goku), however it is a pretty solid character design, which looks good on screen. The scenarios are also quite good, there is a lot of variety of places to go and have very well designed, ambience and characteristic elements. The game maintains an anime aesthetic, which we can see both in the game itself, especially in our protagonist, as well as in the official art and concept art.
At the level of animations is not a game that is a great graphic portent, that is to say, it does not have exceptionally fluid animations or much less varied, but at least the little it has is not something that looks rough or stiff on screen, I think the developers of this game were able to achieve good results despite certain graphic limitations it has with respect to this aspect of the graphic section. Something I had not mentioned is that there is a lot of variety of enemies, many of them with very curious designs, such as flying fish, which are very rare to see, as they are floating around the scenarios, other designs look funny as they are rare and even look a little ridiculous and others are the classic designs of mutant enemies, but in general terms they fit very well with the aesthetics of the game.
The soundtrack of Thunder Hoop is decent, really in this aspect I do not have much to contribute more than what can be appreciated by listening to the soundtrack. And is that this game contains music of energetic tones, some other calmer and with a lot of rhythm, which contributes much to the moments of action and for the setting of the stage. The sound effects I really did not like much, some of them sound strange and I think some of them do not fit very well with what they are supposed to represent.
Thunder Hoop is a game which contemplates several elements of various genres of video games, which we have mainly to the genre of run and gun, platforms and action. A game whose frenetic, fast and violent action will be present at the first moment in which we have control of our protagonist, until the end. So there will be very few moments of calm as we will be in a constant attack on enemies, dodge their attacks, jump from one platform to another, in short, this is a game full of action. As is classic in games of this style, we will have to advance through a series of scenarios full of enemies to eliminate, to achieve this, our protagonist has a good set of skills that we will use throughout this adventure. In each final stage of the scenario we will have to fight with final bosses, which will provide a relatively high challenge, since this game has a somewhat high difficulty curve.
Our character can perform his attacks in different directions, thus giving us an advantage over other similar games, which we can only shoot in a limit of them. We can enhance the attacks of our character by means of items that we can find in the scenarios. These types of attacks are very varied and some are more useful than others. Some enemies can also be eliminated by jumping on them (just like in a classic adventure game). But really Thunder Hoop is a game that becomes quite difficult at times, as the number of enemies that appear on screen is often overwhelming, luckily the game does not slow down when there are many enemies on screen, because if it did it would be something totally frustrating.
Thunder Hoop is a good game, visually outstanding and although difficult at times, in the end it turns out to be a very entertaining game with great action moments from start to finish. Its difficulty curve is high, although with a little practice and concentration there is no insurmountable challenge.