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5 /5

A side-scrolling shoot-'em-up, Gate of Thunder asks players to take control of the space-craft "Hunting Dog". You fly left-to-right mostly, with occasional vertically-scrolling sections, and use several different weapon styles to defeat your many foes. Along with Esty in her ship the "Wild Cat", you must defeat the forces of General Don Jingi, who has plans of taking energy from the star of Aries.

Playing as the pilot Hawk, players must avoid collisions and weapon-fire from the General's "Obellon" army. Consisting of many different types of enemy, the army has a massive, sprawling force of guns, turret, ships, battle-stations and mech-type units. Their fire-power is immense and you are the single opposing force!

Gate of Thunder allows players to choose in real-time from three weapon-fire types. A blue-coloured electrical fire, a green-coloured wave-fire, and a red-coloured quake-type fire. Along with this, players obtain homing-missiles and the assistance of the "Wild Cat" which orbits the ship separately. Gate of Thunder also features a critically acclaimed soundtrack that remains a talking-point to this day.