Format: Super CD-ROM²
Genre: Shooter
Developer: Red Company
Publisher: Hudson Soft

Gate of Thunder features some of the most memorable and varied enemies in any schmup, ranging from giant, multi-part space ships, giant wurms that fly out of the ground, and a massive underwater sea creature. Stages have incredible amounts of parallax scrolling, richly detailed background with tons of animation, and the framerate never wavers from a perfect sixty frames-per-second. Sublime!

It's said that people who play Gate of Thunder frequently pause the game during play just to listen to the music-- and it's not difficult to believe. Lots of rockin' guitar, fancy drumming, and catchy baselines, along with some ultra catchy melodies. The music combines with phenomenal sound effects, including a slew of outstanding digital samples.

Almost certainly created as an answer to Technosoft's excellent Thunder Force III, Gate of Thunder's level design clearly takes massive inspiration from the aforementioned Mega Drive classic. Stages morph and take clever turns, and there are even moving platforms and ledges that must be navigated. The weapon upgrade system is also similar in its simple-but-interesting to use style.

Gate of Thunder is like Thunder Force III taken to the next level; it has very similar mechanics and takes what works from that title, but between the hugely rich and detailed graphics, unbelievable aural characteristics, and super clever enemy and boss designs, really ups the ante. When you put all of the pieces together, the game has that precise quality-- that frantic, in-your-face effect combined with a constant "wow!!" factor-- to which every schmup aspires.