We first reported on the Thunder Hoop Collection back in May of this year, later following that up with news of its release date, and now we’ve has the chance to get to grips with the Thunder Hoop Collection’s arcade action for ourselves, and on the whole, it’s left us pretty much feeling cock-a-(thunder) hoop. The collection comprises both of Gaelco’s Thunder Hoop arcade titles: Thunder Hoop from 1992, and its sequel, TH Strikes back, from 1994.
Thunder Hoop is a side-scrolling 2D run ‘n’gun platformer in the vein of Capcom’s classic Bionic Commando, and in the game, you take on the role of Thunder Hoop, a very 90s-styled manga-esque action hero, who’s armed with killer throwing hoops that can be powered up into huge, satisfyingly devastatingly powerful hoops, and who’s going up against some unusually cartoonish enemies, who bring to mind the 1980s British children’s claymation series The Trap Door, which is, I appreciate, a rather niche reference, but if you’re familiar with said series, you should be able to picture the bulgy-eyed antagonists of Thunder Hoop pretty clearly. The game’s unusual enemies are a big part of its charm, and you can dispose of these enemies by shooting them with your hoops, or by bouncing on their heads, in classic platforming style, and having two different methods of disposing of your enemies makes getting past each one feel a bit like a small puzzle in and of itself, as you must work out which method is least likely to result in you losing a life. Because you will be losing lives when you play Thunder Hoop, as the has clearly been designed to keep you shovelling coins into the machine, which on this collection, translates into repeatedly pressing R2 to add more credits, which is a lot easier on the wallet!
Indeed, I suspect that it’s likely that the coin-gobbling design of Thunder Hoop may well be the reason the game didn’t receive any contemporaneous home ports at the time of its original arcade release, not making its way into homes for almost 30 years, until a 2021 release on Evercade, but that’s not to say that you won’t have a good time playing Thunder Hoop in the home, especially now you can now play it with as many credits as you like! Indeed, if you’re a fan of 90s-style action platformers, then we’re pretty certain you’ll have fun with Thunder Hoop, and also with its sequel. Which brings us to TH Strikes Back…
We’re not sure why Gaelco was so coy about TH Strikes Back being a sequel to Thunder Hoop, abbreviating its name to ‘TH,’ because upon playing TH Strikes Back, it’s fairly obvious that the game is, indeed, a sequel to Thunder Hoop, with a similar mix of platformery and shooting, albeit this time with a bare-chested Thunder Hoop showing off his impressive action-hero abs. TH Strikes Back also jettisons the first game’s weird cartoonish enemies, in favor of a more pulpy sci-fi flavored mix of baddies to contend with, such as metallic-bikinied ladies, lizard people who resemble the Kleggs from Judge Dredd, and a giant turtle with a spiky shell, who bears more than a passing resemblance to a certain nemesis of Mario’s. TH Strikes Back also ups the gore ante, with your enemies exploding in a satisfying shower of crimson pixels.
While TH Strikes Back is a slicker game than its predecessor, and while the game still involves a certain degree of weighing up the best way to dispose of your foes in order to avoid killing yourself in the process, the level designs are perhaps a little less clever than those of Thunder Hoop, but that’s not to say you won’t enjoy TH Strikes Back, as it’s still a very enjoyable 1990s arcade platform shooter.
In summary, while we probably wouldn’t go as far as to describe either Thunder Hoop or TH Strikes Back as a “lost classic,” but we definitely had fun with both games, and they feel rather like the video game equivalent of the direct-to-video movies of the 1980s and 1990s: perhaps not particularly original, but a great deal of fun in their own rights, and both well worth your time! and QUByte Interactive has certainly done a great service to the retro gaming community in making these mostly forgotten games easily available to a modern audience, and with the quality of life improvements that you’d hope for from suxh a release, such as a rewind function, save sates, and cheats. We’ve long been big fans of the publisher’s QUByte Classics line here at RetroNews, and with the Thunderhoop Collection, QUByte has found another release that’s highly recommended to all fans of 1990s arcade games who like to explore a little deeper than the obvious titles.
the Thunderhoop Collection was released yesterday (October 8, 2026) on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4&5, XBOX (version reviewed), and PC.
