ThunderCats

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thunder, Thunder! THUNDER! ThunderCats HO!
by Brendan Onfrichuk

April 16, 2007

Those were the words that echoed through my family room many years ago. I can't even remember how old I was but I can certainly remember Lion-O's adventures with the ThunderCats. I wasn't born yet when the ThunderCats series ended but It was in re-run all the time in my youth and our video store was heavily stocked with ThunderCats tapes. When I heard that ThunderCats actually had a video game I knew I just had to play it. So hop into the Thunder Tank and lets take a drive to the Cat's Lair.

Gameplay

It seems that Mumm-ra has stolen the eye of Thundera from Lion-o's Sword of Omens and kidnapped the other ThunderCats. It's up to Lion-o to fight off the mutants and make his way to Mumm-ra and get it back. The game's gameplay is very simple. It plays like most other platformers really. You need to make it to the end of the level while fighting off the constant attacks of mutants such as Jackelman, Monkians and others you remember from the show. You can find different weapons such as your Sword of Omens that you start off with or a laser rifle. You will be given the chance at bonus rounds to save one of your fellow ThunderCats but if you die you will move onto the next level. You will even be given the occasional choice of selecting a different path for Lion-O to take. This will end up giving you different scenery but not much of a difference in the levels themselves. You need to jump platform to platform and if you fall into water you will drowm (cats can't swim). You will even be able to break open powerups such as lives to help you out along the way. One hit and your dead. This makes the game increasingly intense. You will need to get really good at fighting off the billions of enemies coming from left to right. This can be a bit repetitive especially since the enemies simply get faster and larger in numbers in the later levels. But this game is pretty fun for the most part.

Graphics

While not the best game for the ST it is on par with most. Lion-o has plenty of detail and all of the mutants that you love to hate are here. Mumm-ra will even transform and a big detailed ever-living Mumm-ra will over look you from the top of the screen. This game has plenty of colors and overall Thundercats is easy on the eyes. And I don't know if the two games are related but this game looks much better than the ThunderCats game for Commodore 64 (chalk one up for Atari)

Sound/Music

A bit bland and disappointing but the music at the title screen is not the theme from the show. Sound effects in the game are done well though. It is simply disappointing that they couldn't have made the show's theme song into this game.

Control

Very simple, The controls only need one button. This would make a nice 2600 port if any ThunderCats fan wants to take on the challenge. You only need to press the button to fire and up to jump. These controls work perfectly and are bound not to cause confusion.

Overall

This game is a fun platformer and even more fun for ThunderCats fans. It may be simplistic but it will certainly bring a few half hours of fun to anyone who picks it up. Fan or not.