Thunder Force IV

If the third installment showed what the Mega Drive could do, the fourth raised the bar so high that no one reached it for a long time. Thunder Force IV from 1992, released in North America as Lightening Force, is to this day considered by many to be the technical and gameplay peak of the entire series.

The core of the gameplay stays true to its predecessor: a horizontal shoot 'em up with the ship Rynex, a switchable arsenal of weapons, and adjustable speed. The novelty is a substantially expanded play space, where the screen scrolls both up and down, so the player must watch for threats from more directions. The levels are vast, full of detail, and capped off with inventive, often gigantic bosses.

Technosoft delivered utterly masterful work with the hardware here. The game features multi-layered parallax scrolling so dense that the screen at times resembles a living picture, and effects that competed even with arcades. The soundtrack, to which composers including Toshiharu Yamanishi contributed, is still celebrated as one of the best in the history of game music ever.

Culturally, Thunder Force IV cemented Technosoft's reputation as the queen of console shooters and became the benchmark against which other shmups on the Mega Drive were compared. In modern times the game has seen a re-release, among others as part of the Sega Ages collection on the Nintendo Switch, which made it accessible to a new generation of players.

Today Thunder Force IV remains one of the most revered titles of its genre and often appears in rankings of the best Mega Drive games. For shooter fans it is a mandatory classic that, even after decades, feels brisk, visually rich, and musically utterly exceptional.

Why play: The peak of classic horizontal shooters, with vast levels, breathtaking graphics, and one of the best soundtracks in gaming history.