This 90s Arcade Game Looked Like Dragon Ball Z Meets Aliens: Thunder Hoop Collection – YouTube
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In the 1990s, Spanish videogame label Gaelco was responsible for a string of arcade games (and also electronic dartboards) that hardly anyone outside Spain knows about, bar perhaps the occasional breakout like World Rally.
Retro specialists QUByte Interactive are bringing two of Gaelco’s obscurities to Steam this year, resurrecting arcade action games Thunder Hoop and its sequel TH Strikes Back. The genetically engineered and oddly named Thunder Hoop of the title is a hand-blasting hero who fights armies of mutants unleashed by the evil Dr Genbreak.
The original Thunder Hoop, from 1992, is a platformer in which the teenage hero has to fight cartoonish monsters across a cityscape that includes the obligatory sewer and underwater levels. The 1994 sequel ages him up to a beefcake adult who has heard of shirts and thinks they’re for cowards, and includes a lot more run-and-gun action against women in latex, and a sequence where he goes Super Saiyan than flies into space for a Gradius-style scrolling shooter bit.
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Both games come with modern quality-of-life features like save states and a rewind function, as well as customizable screen filters for that CRT look. The sequel includes local co-op, while the first game’s multiplayer mode has to be played in alternating turns. The Thunder Hoop Collection will be available on Steam from October 8.