Thunder Striker

Thunder Striker is a top-down shoot ’em up in which you pilot the high-tech modular aircraft Thunderstriker to save Earth. You blast through stages and fight bosses, switching weapons to meet each situation. The game recreates the look and sound of late-1980s handheld games as the fourth entry in the Game Buddy series.

Change your weapons

Picking up power-ups lets you adjust the trajectory of your primary weapon and choose among three secondary weapons. The primary weapon switches between a standard beam and spread shot; the same item can also provide bomb ammunition. Secondary weapons can each be powered up to five levels, so you can choose a combination suited to each stage and boss.

The secondary weapons are:

• Vulcan: a wide-range rapid-fire attack for small, fast-moving enemies.
• Homing Missiles: rockets that automatically target enemies, useful in stages with many foes.
• Laser: a forward-firing weapon that deals high damage, particularly against bosses.

If a fight gets hectic, you can use a bomb to clear some space and gain temporary invulnerability.

Game modes

Thunder Striker has three modes: normal, practice and boss battle. You can also adjust the difficulty.

Retro presentation

The game uses 8-bit sprites and sounds inspired by early handheld games, alongside chiptune music. Its gameplay includes an on-the-fly shot-changing mechanic.