Thunder Force IV

Thunder Force IV (Lightening Force in America) pushed Mega Drive to its absolute physical limits. Multiple parallax layers with different scroll speeds created extraordinary visual depth. Bosses were enormous and spectacular, filling the screen with complex bullet patterns. Toshiharu Yamanishi's heavy metal/techno soundtrack is unanimously considered among the hardware's best — Metal Squad and Lightning Strikes Again are tracks genre fans know by heart. Action was so intense even the powerful Motorola 68000 suffered slowdowns in extreme moments — but those slowdowns were almost part of the experience. For shmup fans, it's the 16-bit Holy Grail.