Thunder Blade

 is a third-person shooting combat flight simulator game originally released by Sega for arcades in 1987. Players control a helicopter to destroy enemy vehicles. The game was released as a standard stand-up arcade cabinet that featured the use of force feedback, as the joystick vibrates during gameplay. A helicopter shaped sit-down model was released, replacing the force feedback with a cockpit seat that moves in tandem with the joystick. It was a motion simulator cabinet, like the previous Sega Super Scaler games "Space Harrier" (1985) and "After Burner" (1987). The game's plot and setting was inspired by the film "Blue Thunder" (1983).
Versions of the game were later released for the Sega Master System, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX, TurboGrafx-16, Sharp X68000, and ZX Spectrum. The Nintendo 3DS remake was released as a 3D Classic in Japan on August 20, 2014, in North America and Europe on May 14, 2015, and in Australia on July 2, 2015. A follow-up, "Super Thunder Blade", was released exclusively for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis.
Gameplay.
The player controls a helicopter gunship using its chain gun and missiles to destroy enemy tanks, helicopters, and other vehicles and structures, to save his home country. Levels are in either a top-down or third-person perspective view. The boss levels are in the top-down view.
Development.
The game's plot and setting was inspired by the 1983 film "Blue Thunder". The game's title screen is a digitized still from the film.
Reception.
In Japan, "Game Machine" listed "Thunder Blade" on their January 15, 1988 issue as being the fourth most-successful upright arcade unit of the month.
The arcade game was well-received by critics. Clare Edgeley of "Computer and Video Games" called it "a helicopter simulation with several innovative features." She said it was "a brilliant game" with "superb" graphics and gameplay. "Your Sinclair" stated that ""Thunder Blade" is probably the game which took most of your money in the arcades this summer, probably one of the most eagerly awaited coin-op conversions".
At the 1988–1989 Golden Joystick Awards, the Sega Master System version of the game won Console Game of the Year. The ZX Spectrum version also received a Crash Smash award from "Crash" magazine.