Thunder Cross (arcade)
Thunder Cross is a size-scrolling shooter released as an arcade game by Konami in 1988. This type of game was extremely common during this time period and while Thunder Cross is a decent game, it doesn’t really stand out from the crowd. In fact, a home version was never released in North America.
Thunder Cross did offer a few features that were new at the time, including multiple scrolling background layers. The arcade game was popular enough to spawn sequels including Thunder Cross 2 and Space Manbow though I don’t think either of these was released outside of Japan. There was also a budget home release of Thunder Cross on the PlayStation 2, but only in Japan. There is also an upcoming PlayStation 4 downloadable release but again, I believe it will only be available in Japan.
Short of tracking down an original arcade machine, there aren’t a lot of ways to play this game. You could track down the Japanese only PS2 release but the best option is probably emulation via MAME. It’s worth a try if you are a fan of shooters like this.
