Thunder Kid

While the colorful Retro 3D Graphics are nice and give the game nostalgic vibes with It's banger soundtracks, the gameplay itself is a mess. You can skip entire levels through the level select which ruins any sense of progression. Most enemies can be avoided which makes it pointless to kill them and since your character deals almost no damage the bosses are almost unkillable making the experience also frustrating.

Overall nice visuals but poorly managed gameplay.

A really fun and unique arcade style shooting game. Each level has checkpoints and a hidden coin. It is not required to kill all or any enemies in the level. There should be a pacifist achievement for completing a level without dealing damage/ Some levels end when touching a crystal, others the crystal is in a enemy and he must be killed to exit the level. The themes for each zone were vastly different from each other giving it a unique look and feel. Its lack of explanation and jumping right in to the game play is a lot of fun. Things that are red hurt. Its that simple. See spikes? yeah those are probably gonna hurt you. no hand holding just play the game. Im excited for the 2nd game in the series!

It's tough and good and has a fun art style to boot! There's also a sequel now, so if you liked this, there's more available! It's a little hard to describe but essentially it's an arcadey third-person shooter taking place across a variety of themed levels, typically culminating in boss fights each with different attack patterns.

It's nothing groundbreaking, but it's not trying to be; it sets out to be a fun, fairly challenging time and achieves that pretty well. Plus for the asking price, you can hardly go wrong here. Speaking of asking prices, if you especially like this game, you can also get it on Itch.io and give the developer more than they're asking for, so there's an idea if you're feeling generous!

(p.s. no this post isn't sponsored, i didn't receive the game for free, i just genuinely like the devs' work a bunch and like Itch providing options)

A hidden gem which calls on those old feelings from the low-poly era of video games and combines it with tight controls and short but well-made levels for a fun overall experience. If you miss the days of skill-based gameplay, and want to try something fun no other game has done before, this is your game.

longer, potentially spoiler-y review below:
Thunder Kid is a one-man love letter to the console wars era, where video games were still trying out all sorts of new things. I've never seen a game like Thunder Kid, so it's definitely trying something new - and it works. The core gameplay of Thunder Kid relies on jumping and moving around a semi 3D space to dodge bullets and shoot bad guys. And this is really where it shines - there are no upgrades, no lives, nothing except you and some responsive controls to master. It isn't too hard to beat the game, but it is hard to beat the game fast - it takes many attempts for an amateur, but just one go with precise movements for someone with more skill than me.
The storyline isn't complex, but it's serious yet funny in the same way as old TV show villains - genuinely villainous, but also kind of hilarious to hear talk. I enjoyed fighting the bosses, especially, to hear their little quips and quotes. My only gripe is that, since it took me several tries to beat each boss, it would have been nice to have a 'skip all text' button that I could use to get right back into the action instead of reading the same lines five times over after each attempt.
The graphics are... kind of like a rough draft, in my opinion. There's a fine line between charming and disappointing when it comes to graphics these days - they can be simple yet sweet, or they can look kind of rushed - and Thunder Kid really toes the line. Thunder Kid himself is great, with a solid design and bouncy animations. The enemies are fairly monochromatic - all being various shades of purple, red and gold - but it works well enough and their animations and designs are also well made (though I would have liked to see a few more interesting designs, especially for the emperor). The stumbling point is the environment. It's... plain and same-y, with the same elemental designs that have been in every game ever, with little to no cohesion. I liked the final area leading to the emperor the most, but even that was... meh. It was a background. There was no character to these areas, character they really could have used. Also, the text boxes were atrocious. It was difficult to see what they were saying against that checkerbox background.
Level design was very good, but I think there's a lot more that could be done with it. Nothing bad, just nothing that really wowed me with what could be done in this new perspective environment.
Speaking of which, the perspective. It's rigidly locked behind the player to give them a sense of depth and to let them know where bullets are, which is important in this game, but it also caused some graphical oopsies and made it a bit tougher to see. Due to this rigidity, the game stuck almost religiously to a three-abreast level design for most of the non-boss levels, and the boss rooms were (with the exception of the final boss) always plain squares. I really want to see a bigger playing field. Large areas with little defense lines, running between them to dodge bullets, maybe. Or pitfalls, large climbs like the taster from the snow levels, and even diagonals. I'd love to see that.
I have not yet played the second game in this series, but I have bought it and hope to play it soon. From the screenshots I'm eager to see how the game design has developed since.
Overall? I really enjoyed Thunder Kid. It was a short but sweet experience and it really stretched outside the box to build something that was both new and fun. Most importantly, it has a lot of room for improvement. If it were me, I'd take this game and run to the moon with it. There's so much potential here. Someone should give this guy a small but skilled team and some funds and tell him to go nuts with the concept. I want to see where it can go given the time and money to succeed.

Thunder Kid is a really comfortable kind of game. I mean, I wouldn't exactly describe the gameplay as "relaxing" - it's very much an action game and it requires quick planning and tight focus - but the style of the game's presentation is cozy. It feels like the kind of game I'd have grabbed from Blockbuster as a kid and devoured in a weekend.

I also want to mention that the bosses are the perfect level of challenging - hard enough to make you fail and reconsider your strategy, but not so difficult that you don't feel like you can take them down on your next try.

All in all, this is a really solid low poly game. I recommend grabbing not just Thunder Kid, but a few other games from Renegade Sector, turning out the lights, forgetting the world, and just immersing yourself in their aesthetic for a while.

You'd be surprised how refreshing it'll feel.

I wrote a review of this under my Indie Hell Zone curator handle, but this is an excellent game. It doesn't go beyond its premise, but the game is solid at what it chooses to do.

Megaman Legends except its good.

Rough around the edges but I have fun nonetheless

I've played this game for less than an hour and I already defeated the final boss. Not that I'm saying the game has bugger all levels, mind; it's just that Level Select gives you access to all of them right from the start.It also spoils the true final boss, which was a relatively surprising twist in a game that I had anticipated would have less substance than Tetris.After going through a handful of levels and deciding "Yeah, the game's not going to improve much from here, I take it", I just skipped to the final boss and won on my first try.

What would I describe as the worst part of the game? I dare say it's the primary loop of moving, shooting, and jumping. The game is more or less Mega Man put through the filter of Crash Bandicoot, and I will leave it to you to look at the screenshots and trailer to determine what I mean by that, except those games were 1) open-ended and varied in the former and 2) colourful and viscerally satisfying in the latter. Here, your gun makes the most unsatisfying "pew pew pew" ever heard, I get no satisfaction from shooting these robots, and there are times when you're tasked to jump over spiked pits, except depth perception exists and I fell to my death twice because I couldn't determine where I was landing.

I see a lot of reviews talk about "why can't I turn?" and, really, I don't see that as an issue. Or, at least, the issue.The issue is that I skipped by most enemies because they take way too many shots for me to kill, coupled with the fact that some of them require that I jump between shots because they're on a higher level than me, making them take even longer to kill. In Mega Man, being in 2D meant you couldn't simply circumnavigate the enemies and actually had to plan around them. In Crash Bandicoot, every enemy died in one hit. Boss fights were cool, though. I appreciated their dialogue preceding their fights.

I have to say, "Tales of the Renegade Sector" is a really cool name for a game studio, so I took the liberty of checking out their line of games. It's quite an expansive and varied lineup. I would dare to describe it as experimental, and I mean that in a good way. And All Would Cry Beware, which caught my eye, is also a really cool name for a game and the name perfectly fits with the idea of an adventure braving a new world and taking on everything in their path.

What I'm trying to say is, Renegade Sector make a lot of games that look cool, unique, and worth a shot. After all, no one has tried something like Thunder Kid before and I don't expect any of the other rampant pixel art-loving indie developers are going to give it a shot. It's just that their games feel incredibly insubstantial and unsatisfying, even if they have good ideas. I would very much like to see Tales of the Renegade Sector keep making new games. They have the heart and the will to take on new endeavours; they just need more skill to flesh out their games with more structure and satisfaction.

I'll be keeping an eye on you, lads. Keep it up.

Came across this game and others from Renegade Sector Games after recently playing "And All Would Cry Beware" and I'm really glad that I did.

What got my attention the most was the PS1/N64-era style graphics, and I was pleasantly surprised to find a a game that hits a nice middle ground between Megaman's overall structure, Crash Bandicoot's corridor-like level design, and some light bullet hell elements.

Even at full price this game is well worth your time. It's not perfect but that's to be expected by a game made by (I think) one person.

Overall I really like this game, but it's not without it's problems. Personally I'd recommend it, because it was fun for what it is. Though I think the price is a bit off given the amount of content available. Even on sale for 50% the value for me is a bit questionable in terms of value. Full price is definitely too high.

The problems in the game are that your gun is weak, which is fine early on, but after awhile and after they start putting road block enemies in your way that take ages to kill in later levels [these weird slot machine looking things for example] it just takes ages to jump and kill them. And the bosses take ages, it's more an endurance run than it is a challenge. It can be a challenge, but it's more artificial due to how little damage you do and most of them have hit boxes that you either have to hit while jumping so can at best get two hits in in a row, or most of the time one. Or they're small so hard to hit.

There doesn't seem to be a reason to collect coins outside the achievement, Giving a health upgrade or damage boost or something for it would've been nice. Collectables should add to the game to give reason to care about them, not just be there for achievements. Though the way one of them is hidden had me stumped and feel really dumb when I finally found it [with a hint by the dev on twitter lol].

There's one boss that lunges forward and unless you stand to either side of him at all times just barely shooting to where it hits his hit box you will not be able to evade him. You cannot jump to the side fast enough otherwise, even at the farthest distance. The game could have used a quick step. I think it would've been really cool to be able to do that and fit the bullet hell style gameplay well since you couldn't rely on it all the time as you may dash right into more fire.

I like that you can just opt to run by enemies if you evade their bullets. It's nice not to have to kill everything before going forward, makes the run throughs faster. Which is the main gripe of the game really, is that after a certain point you just want to get through it rather than keep wasting time killing everything. It feels more like a chore at a certain point. I think having different variety of weapons might have fixed that. Or at least allowed more ways to kill enemies than just shooting them.

I know that's a lot of negative criticism, but I still really enjoyed the game for the most part. I just see a lot more potential in it than what was there.

Oh and there's some dialog that goes outside of the dialog box. It's different sentences too, so I don't know why that is. They could have just been new lines instead of dumped out all at once. Strange issue. And I nearly forgot that there's no way to exit the chapter select, or at least I couldn't find my way out. I was in the middle of a level at the checkpoint and curious if the chapter select tracked collectables (it doesn't for some reason; though in the level it shows on the side if you got one), and ended up stuck. Didn't want to start the level over so had to force close the game to be able to resume.

whaaat a game

i really enjoyed the advanced difficult in spite of simple controls. the music was good enough and fit the look and style of the game, the boss fights are truly where this game shines, the platforming is occasionally painful but i very much suggest checking this out. looking forward to trying the sequel after completing this one shortly!

Thunder Kid is a tightly executed bullet hell in a style that fuses NES era style with low poly 3D. Controls are extremely simple - D-Pad controls the titular hero in a behind-the-back 3rd person shooter (think the base invasion stages in Contra, or Space Harrier). One button for Jump, one for Shoot forward, that's it. Gameplay is based on figuring out enemy timing and patterns. By dodging, and selectively eliminating enemies, the goal is simply to make it to the end of each level. Each area is ruled by a boss that ups the ante for bullet and beam pattern recognition.

There are no powerups or additional mechanics other than the occasional single HP restoration crystal dropped by blasted enemies. A steady progression of increasingly complicated enemy patterns and clever level design means you'll never even miss powerups. Progressive levels become ever more difficult but never truly unfair.

No unlocks or grinding here - Thunder Kid focuses on pure player skill at dodging, jumping and shooting. I'll be honest, there were bonus coins to collect *but I never figured out what they did*. There was no need to. Thunder Kid gives you all the tools to succeed. Your weapon is constant. Your speed is fast as fucking lightning. Play this with a gamepad.

The only thing lacking about Thunder Kid is its length - I beat it in just over 2 hours and only got stuck in a handful of difficult rooms. This is TK's only disappointment: because the gameplay is so tight and it's over quickly, you're left wanting more.
I can certainly see how this would be a speedrunner's delight.

If you're looking for a short and blessed experience blasting some blocky robots into oblivion, Thunder Kid will do it for ya.

TL;DR: Fast Paced Old School Fun at a Great Price

A lot of people here seem to compare Thunder Kid to Mega Man, but I’d argue it’s a lot more like the “base” stages from the first Contra mashed with the platforming of the early Crash Bandicoot games. At first, I was a little worried as the enemies start off really easy to avoid but thankfully by the last stages you’ll be narrowly jumping between moving platforms all while dodging homing missiles. However, if that still isn’t enough challenge for you, there are golden coins scattered throughout the levels that really take some skill and risk to reach, and they even have an associated achievement. Thunder Kid also features some really enjoyable bosses with satisfying patterns that were rewarding to learn and overcome. Although, I’d personally argue that the world six boss is a bit of a steep learning curve, the final two bosses are really awesome fights. It’s definitely worth the eight-dollar price tag, and I’ll definitely be looking into the other Renegade Sector games.

While it lacks a bit of overall polish, it's a pretty fun adaptation of the run and gun genre into 3D with a very charming style

Thunder Kid is like a 3D Mega Man game in an alternate universe where Mega Man Legends never happened and the Sega Saturn won the console wars. Responsive controls and crisp, bright low-poly/pixel art visuals at a smooth framerate, with the sole exception of the final boss, which goes all in on the bullet hell elements teased in prior levels.

"Mega Man meets Crash Bandicoot". Hidden gem is right. This is a fun behind the back shooter platformer that takes you down corridors of baddies. The bad guys are mixed and matched to make each scenario unique and increasingly challenging. The bosses are spectacles and the secret coin in each level is a nice bonus. Highly recommend this game and other Renegade Sector games!

This game is a hidden gem. It brings me back to the n64 era 3D days. There was a ton of variation with interesting levels that felt well designed. I only wish there were powerups to make you shoot further or faster. I had a blast playing this :)

Basically like a 3D MegaMan? Which means 3 things. I love the look, I'm very bad at it, and I'm incapable of judging it's quality. Maybe like, if you like MegaMan, but wish it was 3D, you'd probably like this?

A fun little retro styled run and gun but in 3D. The game kinda had that old DOS era stank to it. Definitely a good way to kill some time and worth it's cheap price.

Really solid, clean, and fun arcade-action title with a lot of charm. After playing through the first couple of levels, this is already one of my favorite action games I've played this year. Well worth your time!