The Wonder Years 2.14.08: Week 43 - Rolling Thunder 2
Posted by Owain J. Brimfield on 02.14.2008
Is that the delicate sound of thunder?
Welcome to the column where all gamers of a certain age come to wallow in 16-bit nostalgia. I'm your host, Owain J. Brimfield, and I'll be discussing some of the hidden gems and instant classics of gaming's golden era. Some of these games may crop up on the Wii's Virtual Console at some point, some may be consigned to the annals of history. Either way, they're worth tracking down if you missed them first time round, or replaying if you were lucky enough to catch them. Let's take a trip to:
ROLLING THUNDER 2
(Namco, Genesis, 1991)
Heading back to the late 80s, you have to think that Namco pretty much scored instant cool points with the release of a coin-op titled Rolling Thunder after its eponymous, fictitious Interpol espionage agency. A name that frankly radiates machismo and hardcore gaming credibility, it also manages to give the first-time gamer a pleasingly accurate overview of what the game itself entails - after all, what genre could a game called Rolling Thunder belong to if not the famous "run & gun" category? Well, I suppose at a stretch maybe some sort of helicopter-based militaristic action title, but more on that particular theme next week. It's a title that specifies exactly what the game is about - side-scrolling, handgun-firing, terrorist-murdering, damsel-in-distress-rescuing action. The original game met with a fair degree of success, and the turn of the decade saw a sequel released that traded on much the same template as its ancestor. Of course, we're not to bemoan RT2's lack of ambition when that template is solid and stylishly executed - it's all about feeling as cool as a secret agent possibly can. Anyway, matters are only aided by the fact that the protagonist is named Albatross.
The plot picks up where the original left off - evil terrorist organization Geldra has moved up in the world since last being seen kidnapping female Interpol agents in New York, and led by the less-than-ominously named Gimdo is now set on every bad guy's true goal, World Domination. Let's face it, every villain secretly wants to achieve this, even if he denies it up front. Of course, with a quest for world domination comes an Evil Masterplan, and Geldra's is suitably megalomaniacal - they're out to destroy the world's orbiting satellites in an attempt to cripple the planet's global communication infrastructure, and they're doing a pretty decent job of it too. Enter Rolling Thunder: the aforementioned Albatross and his sultry companion, the erstwhile damsel Leila, who are apparently the only people capable of infiltrating Geldra's headquarters and putting a stop to the evil shenanigans. It's worth mentioning at this point that, despite featuring the same characters as the previous game in the series, the action in RT2 has mysteriously been transposed from the 1960s to a modern day setting. Still, ours not to reason why, I guess, especially when it allows for our heroes to battle enemies that look suspiciously like cyborgs.
If I can retrace my steps a little, it's actually a bit of a disservice to call RT2 a run & gun title, as the pace of the game is far slower than Contra and the rest of the R'n'G ilk. Albatross handles very much in an old school manner, with all of his jumps, crouches and weapon firings feeling very rigid to the touch (there's also the old cliché of being unable to fire while in mid-air, but hell, at least he has one up on Mega Man). Thankfully, the enemy patterns take this very much into account, and the action is a lot more, for want of a better word, conservative than many of the game's brethren. Coupled with a handgun that runs out of ammo surprisingly quickly and you have yourself a much more strategic actioner than you might expect, with a lot of scenery being used for cover in an attempt to quickshot or blindside enemies. Inkeeping with the general feel, power-ups are accessed via ducking into various doors in the background of the levels, which offer brief respite from any Masker attacks but can prove as much of a hindrance as a help in the heat of battle, as enemies sometimes (remarkably for such a game) show enough initiative to congregate around your hiding place.
With only eleven stages on offer, and only a handful of those featuring anything in the way of an end-of-level boss, you might figure the game wouldn't last too long, but the deliberate pace combined with the relative weakness of the main character allows the cartridge to stay in your console for longer than you might anticipate. The enemies aren't especially tough, but limited ammunition means you have to place precision above anything else, so it'll take a fair few goes (aided by a good old-fashioned password system) to see the demise of Geldra. And, in true arcade tradition, a second, harder run-through can be unlocked by completing the game for a first time. There's also a reasonable co-operative mode, which suffers from a little slowdown but is otherwise fun, although Namco missed a trick by having petite Leila handle in exactly the same manner as the burly Albatross, as that would have added a neat further dynamic to the action. Graphically speaking, the game is nothing spectacular, although the locales are nicely diverse, ranging from seaside towns to desert bases (clearly Geldra has a better budget this time round), but the music is certainly pretty memorable - although maybe that's just my love of old-school arcade music shining through.
I must admit to being quite surprised when news originally broke that RT2 would be released on the Virtual Console, as I'd always thought of it as the forgotten title in the series, especially when compared to its younger sibling Rolling Thunder 3, developed specifically for the Genesis by Namco. It's certainly not aged hugely well either, although it's still good for a nostalgic blast or two - I guess the R'n'G doesn't appeal to a lot of gamers anyway, but throw in the more tactical elements of RT2 as a spanner in the works and the game's target demographic becomes questionable. Should we eventually see the other two titles in the series turn up on the Wii's service then that would make more sense. In the meantime though, it's certainly worth a play to check out the relatively unique blend of gameplay elements, and you can do a lot worse than dive into the world of international espionage, because let's face it, there aren't many things cooler than that in gaming. Except playing as a hot chick and blasting a cyborg with a laser... wait, you can do that too? Well what are you waiting for!
Rolling Thunder 2 trivia
The first Rolling Thunder was ported to the NES, which makes this one of the very few franchises whose original was exclusive to Nintendo and whose sequel was exclusive to Sega.
The game's soundtrack is available on CD, under the catchy title of Namco Game Sound Express Volume Five. Lovely.
Interpol, surprisingly, doesn't actually have a taskforce named Rolling Thunder. That's a missed opportunity, frankly.
Rolling Thunder 2 is an honorable mention in my official all-time Top 100 games.
Reactions and interactions
A couple of people last week picked up on Syndicate's seeming resemblance to a certain Rockstar video game...
Posted by: Travis
"The pre-cursor to the Grand Theft Auto games, and much more compelling to complete by what you said. I shall have to track this game down now, and take a crack at it."
I guess it's more compelling if you prefer the cyberpunk universe to the real world setting of GTA - I guess Syndicate is kind of similar, in retrospect, to GTA 2, although I certainly preferred the former. But then, I am a sci-fi nerd. Glad you said "track down" and not "download" too, because as you know I don't condone that sort of thing, at least in a public forum.
Posted by: IanM
"Wow. Syndicate. WHAT A GAME!! I remember back in 1993 i think it was, in the summer holidays when I was off school. I had an Amiga 500 and basically dedicated my 6 weeks holiday to playing Wings, Prince Of Persia and Syndicate.
There was a cheat I barely remember where if you named your team something you'd get almost infinite money & loads of team members. It was devilishly hard in places and a real innovater of it's time. Rockstar must've been influenced by this for the GTA Series. Thanks for the nostalgia. Gonna go home and install this bad boy on my PC!"
If I remember correctly, it was "Cooper Team" that unlocked all the goodies for your syndicate. And by "remember", I of course mean "looked up on GameFAQs". Not sure if that worked on the 16-bit version though, it may have been exclusive to the Amiga. Oh for the return of school holidays and six-week gaming binges...
The Videosphere
Let's take a look at this week's video highlight. I figured I should maybe start using this section to bring you guys something a bit more relevant to the product at hand, so from now on this section is going to contain gameplay videos of whatever I've been discussing each week. So, for your pleasure, here's the first few stages of the arcade version of Rolling Thunder 2.
General indulgences
Every week in this section I'll endeavor to provide you, the faithful readers, with a fascinating insight into the various forms of entertainment currently dominating my spare time.
This week, I have been mostly enjoying:
Geometry Wars Galaxies, which is gloriously old-fashioned and immensely playable, despite it being an epileptic's worst nightmare. Given its low retail price, it's one of the best bargains available on the Wii.
Elect the Dead by Serj Tankian, which isn't anywhere near as good as I thought it could be. It's kind of like what you'd imagine a System B-sides album would sound like. I wonder if Scars On Broadway's debut will be any better?
Spaced, which now that I'm rewatching the first season isn't as obviously comedic as I always thought it was, nor is Jessica Stevenson quite as attractive as I used to think. The show is still funnier than most nineties' television, though.
and eBay, which has brought me several hundred quid over the last few days. Cheers, gullible interweb shoppers!
And finally…
As always, reader feedback and suggestions are welcome, I respond to everything so just drop me a line or leave a comment. You can also check out my science fiction column "The Flux Capacitor" over at 411 Movies. Next week in "The Wonder Years" - a geopolitical action-thriller... with explosions! Until then - keep it real, keep it retro.
