Thunder Force IV is one of those Genesis shooters that still holds up today—fast, punishing, and packed with that classic Techno Soft energy. You start off picking from a few weapon loadouts (I always go for the twin shot first), and then it just throws you straight into chaos. Enemy patterns feel brutal at first, but once you learn the rhythm, dodging through bullet hell while your ship’s weapons light up the screen is pure satisfaction.

The soundtrack? Absolute fire. Those crunchy synth tracks somehow make dying to the third boss for the tenth time less painful. And speaking of bosses, they’re these massive pixel-art monstrosities that fill half the screen—you’ll panic the first time one unfolds into some ridiculous multi-cannon death machine.

It’s not just nostalgia either. Even if you never touched a Genesis before, the controls are tight, the difficulty’s fair (well, "fair" for a ‘90s shmup), and blowing up entire fleets never gets old. Just don’t blame me when you get stuck replaying Stage 3 for an hour.