Reviews

1985 Firebird Software (UK)
by John Cain, Kevin Moughtin and Mark Alexander

I'm surprised I never heard of this game before. Thunderbirds was a very popular series backs in the 60/70's and even back in 80's with the occasional rerun or appearance in music videos and other stuff.
Naturally a game would soon or later be made, and here it is, hidden from me all this years. I must admit I not the biggest fan of puzzle games, but the idea behind Thunderbirds, which could have borrowed it's name from a lot of series, is in fact very good.

You alternately control the green ship and the cyan blue rocket (?) and must use each to clear the obstacles of the same colors, while progressing thru the mazes until reaching your trapped colleagues thus freeing them. The game requires the obvious strategy any puzzle of this sort demands but keeps the spirit of the good old maze games alive and the two combined is great fun.

This game forces you to think tiwce before each movement , in this sense Thunderbirds is a mental game ... two spaceships and one objective : to escape from the pyramid .

Colorful and well designed ... Thunderbirds is an example of what mental games should be .

Not a classic , but quite good !!

A really annoying game in that it had great potential and really good ideas, its just imcompentantly written. Its like an early Lost Vikings and does capture the feel of Thunderbirds of using the ships for a heavy-equipment rescue mission. But the controls are horrible, the music is horrible and the graphics look cheap. Its a sad waste of the license.

Never liked those ridiculous puppets, but the conversion game for the Spectrum is really cool. It's a maze/puzzle game in wich you control a rocket and a spaceship to progress through an ancient temple by pushing stones to free two egyptologists. In each screen you must use a stategy as each ship can push a kind of stone (depending on the colour).

A very original game with a lot of fun.

by John F. Cain, Kevin A. Moughtin, Mark Alexander
When talking about obscure good games that slipped through the cracks, this is should be one of those mentioned, I discovered in the last two days. Because it's very good. A tv licence programmed by John F. Cain of Booty fame, and we can find its tradermark in the moving waters in the main screen, but it's not a platform game, it's a puzzle mixed with a maze game, and it could do even without the Thunderbirds imagery. The presentation is great, nice tune, well drawn and coloured intro scenes, very satisfying sound effect when you push a block of stone and make it fall. Because the main problem in the game is pushing green and cyan blocks in order to make your way through the labyrinth without getting stuck, blocking your way to your "partner". Yes, you have a "partner". In fact, you move two flying vehicles, and you can and must switch between them, because only working as a team you can proceed in the game: only your cyan vehicle can push the cyan blocks, and only your green vehicle can push the green one. The graphics are a good old stuff thing, the animation is smooth and there are no flickerings. It is mighty playable and addictive. One of the best of the year, probably. A nice discovery.
4/5 [or even 4,5/5]