Thunder Cross II (Arcade, 1991) Completed 1 Credit, 1CC to 2-4 - Loop 1 No Death [4K]

Another horizontal shooter? It couldn't be! I kid - they are one of my favorite genre of all games, and Konami made some great ones. This time I played on the Arcade Archives port on PS5 in "High Score Mode". Usually I'm fine with using MAME on my PC, but recent WolfMAME versions have really bad tearing when vertical scrolling occurs in gameplay and in the end credits. I'm really impressed with the accuracy of Arcade Archives ports every time I play them; Hamster really does an excellent job getting things right. After playing both Thunder Cross games, I might prefer the first one slightly more than this game. This is due to how the second game's difficulty curve works. In my opinion, the first game is bit easier because you have to route a little more strictly in Thunder Cross II. Also, enemies (especially bosses) are absolute damage sponges and take a lot of hits to kill when compared to the first game. In the second loop, this even more evident. I do prefer the soundtrack of the second Thunder Cross over the original. The BGM in stage 3 (called "Heavy Metal Bomber") is a great track to listen to when you want that "blood pumping" feeling:    • Thunder Cross II (ARC) - Heavy Metal Bomber   The first loop is doable without autofire, especially if you use player 2 side. There is a reduction in number of hits needed to kill bosses for pink ship, which is why the Arcade Archives shows what side the player used when viewing the leaderboard. I used the 15Hz autofire setting for this gameplay, which is slowest setting offered. Here is my final placement, 42nd overall at this time: https://imgur.com/bmThhPT Thank you for watching, as always! #retrogaming #arcade #longplay