Few shooter franchises bear the prestige of Technosoft’s Thunder Force series, and the name is almost synonymous with the Sega Genesis. Indeed, the three games on that platform are widely held in high regard, and parts three and four are often referred to as classics. The series made the jump to 32-bit hardware with a fifth installment and then lay dormant for over a decade, until it was suddenly jerked back onto consoles with the recent – and import-only – Thunder Force VI for the Playstation 2. We’ve waited ages for this game, but with a new team behind the design and those fabled 16-bit days drifting farther and farther away, is this the reboot the property needs? You’ll have to read our full hands-on to find out.