LifeisXbox’s Thunder Kid II: Null Mission review | Surprisingly, the first Thunder Kid was released less than three months ago, which makes you wonder how much changed for the sequel, and you’re about to find that out. Keep in mind that I didn’t play the original, but by watching bits of a walkthrough and reading Aaron’s review, which you can read [HERE], I have a pretty good idea of how the game is. The Xbox version of Thunder Kid II: Null Mission was developed by both Renegade Sector Games and Eastasiasoft Limited and published by Eastasiasoft Limited.
Most Memorable Moment
I’d say that the most memorable moment I had with Thunder Kid II: Null Mission was fighting a specific boss. He was a bit difficult to fight and, at first glance, I thought I wouldn’t be able to defeat him because I was getting FPS (frames per second) drops in it, which made the fight harder than it was supposed to be, but I managed to defeat him regardless.
ℹ️ Reviewed on Xbox One | Review code provided by PR/publisher, this review is the personal opinion of the writer.
What we Liked!
- What’s new | Since there isn’t a whole lot of new stuff to talk about, I’ll mention what’s new in comparison to the first game, because new things are always welcome. Most of the chapters take place in different locations than the ones from the original while looking better than the original did, and there are two more levels and one more boss to fight than there were in the first game, that’s about it.
- Decent art style | The art style of Thunder Kid II: Null Mission looks like a slightly improved version of the one from the first Thunder Kid, with most of the levels looking better and with better-looking textures on them. Thankfully, it manages to capture the nostalgia factor from old games while looking cleaner than most of them were back then.
Mixed Feelings
- I’ve heard that before | Even if the soundtrack isn’t inherently bad, each of the game’s seven “chapters” only features one song that plays across all levels aside from the boss battles. Except for the last boss fight, which for some reason uses a different song for each of its two phases, all of the boss fights share the same song. All of this demonstrates sloppiness in the soundtrack’s creation and offers nothing to make it stand out.
- Bosses | Most bosses in Thunder Kid II: Null Mission aren’t too interesting to fight, not because they don’t stand out from each other in design, but because they don’t feel fun to fight. There are a few cool mechanics in the boss fights, for example, one in the very first boss where he attacks the ground near you, and another one that you can see in the first image of this review that I found to be the most interesting one, with the vines being the unique factor. Most of the other bosses just shot a lot of lasers, “laser balls”, and missiles like other common enemies did, which felt okay to play but nothing as cool as I expected. Also, five of the seven bosses use the same arena to fight them in.
What we Disliked
- I’ve seen that before | Just by looking at the images on Aaron’s review I could see that assets were reused for the sequel. In fact, I accidentally took a screenshot of an area that is straight up the same one as it was on the first game, it almost looks like I reused his screenshot. From what I’ve seen of the original, there are reused enemies, effects, scenery, menus, and other elements, which was extremely disappointing to see.
- Not much new to play | If it wasn’t obvious from my previous points, there’s a lot that is reused from the original Thunder Kid in this sequel, which also extends to the gameplay as it has no new mechanics, you can only move, shoot and jump. Just like in the first game, there is one collectible for each level, and you can pick up health dropped from enemies. They even reused most of the achievements from the first game, only changing the background image of them and changing the ones related to bosses.
How long to beat the story | 1h – 2h
How long to achieve 1000G | 30min – 1h
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Hi there, I’m Gabriel Colombo (Hence my reviewer name), I live in Brazil and I’ve been gaming since I was around 5 years old. Xbox became my main platform on the Xbox 360 era, before that I had played a bit on PC, Polystation (basically a skinned SNES), PlayStation 1 and 2. I really enjoy to experience immersive worlds, but I also enjoy playing silly games to have a laugh or just have fun.
