Super Thunder Blade/Gameplay

Controls

 * : Use the direction pad to control the helicopter's movements. Pressing up makes the helicopter dive until it lands on the ground.  Pressing down makes the helicopter climb into the air.  Pressing left or right directs the helicopter to fly in either direction.
 * or : Press either the A or C buttons to fire your weapons. Whenever either button is pressed, you simultaneously fire your Gatling Gun and heat seeking missiles.  You can hold either button down for continuous fire.  While the Gatling Gun shoots bullets near-constantly, only one pair of missiles can be on the screen at one time.
 * : Press and hold the B button to activate the air break. By doing this, the helicopter will decelerate from top speed until it is simply hovering over one location.  Release the B button to accelerate back to top speed again.
 * : Press the start button to begin a new game, or to pause the action mid-game.

Thunder Blade
You are the pilot of the Thunder Blade throughout the game. No background is provided for this particular mission. Your only objective is to stop every hostile threat that you encounter in order to defeat a renegade military. In order to do that, you must guide the Thunder Blade through enemy territory, and utilize it's offensive capabilities to the fullest.

As you pilot the Thunder Blade, you have control over several aspects of its movement. You can guide it to the left and right as you fly forward through the skies. You can rise high into the sky, or drop low enough to land on the ground. Although you automatically fly through the game at top speed, you can utilize the air-breaks to slow you down in order to avoid getting hit, or to give yourself more time to strike an enemy. As you play the game, you'll notice that the helicopter has a very heavy feel to it, as though it is sluggish to change direction. Keep this in mind as you move through the sky, and plan to evade enemy fire very early on, or you'll have difficulty staying alive.

You have two weapons at your disposal: a Gatling Gun, and heat seeking missiles. You have an unlimited supply of each of these. The Gatling Gun is capable of firing a non-stop stream of bullets but does less damage. The missiles are capable of doing tremendous damage to any machinery caught in the explosion, but can only launch one pair of missiles at a time. As an upgrade to the original Thunder Blade, these missiles are heat seeking, and target the nearest enemy within range, whether on the ground or in the air.

The Thunder Blade does not possess a tremendous amount of armor. You will fall out of the sky if you are struck by an enemy projectile, or if you collide with an enemy, building, or terrain. You begin the game with two extra lives, and you can earn more by accumulating enough points. If you lose all of your lives before you complete the games four stages, the game will end. If you've advanced beyond the first stage, you'll be given the chance to continue from where you left off three times before you are forced to start back over from Stage 1.

Main Menu
From the Main Menu you may choose to Start a new game, or you may choose to go to the Options menu to change the settings of the game. Provided you died after completing the first stage, you can also choose to Continue from the beginning of the last stage you died in. You may only do this three times before the game forces you to start from the first stage again.

Options Menu
From this menu, you can configure the following settings:
 * Difficulty:You can choose between Easy, Medium and Hard difficulty. The harder the difficulty, the more aggressive the enemies are and the more frequently they shoot.
 * Control:Choose Normal to keep the controls like the arcade where pushing makes the helicopter rise, and pressing  makes the helicopter dive.  Or choose Reverse to switch these controls.
 * Players:You may choose to begin the game with 3, 5, or 7 extra lives. The default is 3.
 * Sound Test:You may play any of the game's 23 background music tracks. Select a number and press any of the fire buttons to play the track from the beginning.