Thunder Fox

Thunder Fox (サンダーフォックス) is a run and gun video game released in arcades by Taito in 1990 and for the Mega Drive in 1991.

Thunder Fox
Developer(s)	Taito
Publisher(s)	Taito
Designer(s)	Hiroyuki Maekawa
Programmer(s)	Wolf Kato Youichi Oki Takahiro Natani
Artist(s)	Noritaka Kawamoto Nishikawa Kenji Hazama Minako Morimoto Koji Omae Takashi Yamada Seiji Kawagishi
Composer(s)	Kazuko Umino
Platform(s)	Arcade, Mega Drive, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch
Release	June 1990: Arcade[1] 1991: Mega Drive
Genre(s)	Run and gun

Plot

In the year 199X, the world was lost in a vortex of terror. Malicious terrorism gripped the land, the sky, and the sea. There were two brave men who fought against this reign of violence. They were the anti-terrorism team, "THUNDER FOX."

Gameplay

Thunder Fox is a horizontally scrolling shooter, where the players take control of agents Thunder and Fox.^[2] Thunder is more efficient with firearms, while Fox is better in using a knife.^[3] The levels are all divided into multiple sections, from a military base to a plane.^[4] The action is focused on close combat with using the knife to attack, but there are also other weapons dropped by enemies like grenades, flame-throwers and handguns.^[5]

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Thunder Fox on their August 15, 1990 issue as being the thirteenth most-successful table arcade unit of the month.^[6]

Leisure Line magazine reviewed the arcade game and rated it 8 out of 10.^[7]

Legacy

Thunder Fox was included as part of the Taito Legends compilation set for the Xbox and PlayStation 2 in 2005. It was later included on the Japanese-only Taito Memories II Gekan for the PlayStation 2 in 2007. It was also re-released by Hamster Corporation for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 as part of the Arcade Archives series on January 30, 2025.^[8]