NOTE: This review was written for version 1.2 and may be outdated.
O jeez... When RT first came out and I played it for a bit, I didn't see the big deal. I didn't even see a deal at all. Now, I look at this, see the deal, and that which made it seem big, the problem is I can't seem to reconcile the hype and amount of fun this game is: Lots of hype, seemingly not enough fun.

Ingenuity- ***/5

If I play an MZX game, it had better have something that other games don't. This game has nothing new, nothing impressive, nothing remotely interesting about the way in which it is played compared to other MZX platformers. In fact, I'd say the game mechanic is my biggest problem with RT. The entire game is based on and uses exclusively this platformer engine. Along with the "Super-Running," Punch, and Dash attacks, there is still nothing terribly endearing about the way this game is supposed to be played. There's certainly nothing new about it, and FOR GOD SAKE for all that those speed runs were kind of neat, (I won't go further than neat) They served no purpose and did nothing but take of 1000x15 of space. That's not good level design, that's just a bunch of crap while pressing and holding 1 direction. However, I haven't seen the idea for this running thing applied to an MZX game before. That's where 3 stars come from.



Story- **/5

Boiler plate, ever so slightly entertaining before being predictable and then senseless. Enerjak gives you the crystal cause.... He's such a nice guy? Ugh. Anymore qualms that I list will spoil things, so I'll just say, this story is just so simple, predictable, and as linear as the gameplay that it makes me wish there were less of it.



Aesthetic- ****/5

These are not good graphics. They aren't. Too bad Ryan. It works, but so do smilies and square rooms. HOWEVER, this category isn't called graphics, it's called aesthetics. These graphics work really well for what's going on. There is also a lot of cutscene 1x1 char editing going on which works, but when the text is in one place, it's hard to recognize anything happening below it especially with only a tiny 1x1 being edited. Overall on aesthetics, RyanThunder(The person) has a thing that he does which works for all of his games. When it comes down to it though, there is nothing 5 star about this aesthetic. Maybe in a different game it'd work, but here, it just looks kinda lo-fi, however endearing it might be. The intro scores this up to 4 stars.



Fun- **/5

This is where RT loses the most points. Say what you will about MZX platformers, there is a proper way to execute a platformer for 1x1 that works pretty well. THIS. IS. NOT. IT. Between the tedium of precise jumping with a character that's hard to even see half the time and left/right not responding in time, you'll find yourself damning Ryan's name for the amount of checkpoints. For all that I bet 1CC is possible, I don't want to be the man who bothered to get good enough at it to do that. This game at one point or another, ceases to be fun and starts just getting frustrating. Maybe it's different for some people, but in the case of my experience, I could barely push myself through: the game isn't fun enough, it's not compelling enough, it's not a 5 star game. FURTHERMORE, the enemies aren't fun, they aren't interesting, they're tedious. They're annoying. There's nothing redeeming about that. The bosses pretty much all require one strategy to defeat which usually entails being in one place and jumping. And instant death causing spikes in a 1x1 platformer: The invisible wall maze of modern MZX games... Ugh.The gameplay just isn't fun enough.



Sound- *****/5

Great music. Great sound. Seriously: good job.



Despite my better judgement, something makes me want to give this game 4 stars. It's of that amount effort put in to it that you really start to appreciate that someone made this for you to play. -- I wont, though because of the fact that I had almost no fun with this game after a certain point and it doesn't keep my interest well enough to be even close to 4 stars. If an MZX layman were to pick this game up and play it, they'd last 3 minutes before saying "What the h*ll is this?"



Ryan Thunder is a plenty good game, but difficulty doesn't make up for simplicity. It is not a brilliant piece of work, it is a showcase of hard work and careful tuning. Nothing more. If that work and tuning yielded a game that was more fun, it would have done better by me.

Edit: Aw, crap... This is totally a four star game.

UPDATE: While the game is broken per version 1.2 (yes, Maxim, you didn't notice that) I'll just say this: I stand by everything I said before. I DO, however, want to expand on the music:

The themeing for this game is impeccable, Ryan wrote a theme, used it in permutations throughout all stretches of the game without making it tired, and did so while making every single track unique and REALLY fun to listen to. This is something you will find in almost NO mzx games. I can only even think of one other game that does that with music as well as Ryan Thunder.

While I'm at it, I'll add to the gameplay as well. On my latest playthrough, I noticed that it wasn't that the game was too difficult for me, it was that I couldn't rely on logic or my own control to have any one thing happen the way I wanted it to. The jumping engine is sloppy and inconsistent, especially when added to things like moving platforms. The attacks aren't intuitive to use to their best ability, relying on the player to put themselves 2 spaces away from a moving target is a BAD PLAN and in NO WAY FUN. The enemies are easily ignored, right up until the glichout that kills the game if you haven't killed x # of them. (In V1.2, this WILL be fixed shortly)

I have to say... Despite all my qualms, every mzxer should play this game. It is a must-play. It has all the character and inexplicable charm that an mzx platformer should be... I don't know HOW given all the things about it which I cannot STAND, but it manages to be a good game even still.

It's a 4 star game, and I stand by that firmly. Play it, but don't expect to be stricken with amazement by anything but the intro sequence. (WHICH IS AMAZING. SERIOUSLY.)

NOTE: This review was written for version 1.2 and may be outdated.
Man, the opinions on Ryan Thunder are extremely divided. One side thinks it's crap, and the other enjoys it greatly. I'm on the side that really, really likes it.

Complaints include "bad graphics," "difficulty too high" and "1x1 platformer." But none of this matters. And with the release of version 1.2, even the second complaint listed carries much less weight.

I can't pretend to understand the perspective of those who are highly critical of this game. It is an extremely well put together product. It's made of simplistic and sometimes even crude elements, but as a complete piece it is brilliant. The words "retail quality" come to mind. You see it immediately with the opening cutscene which has over a minute of hand-drawn animation.

Based on an examination of the game's code, it is, by the author's admission, a mess. But the controls are about as tight as they can be in Megazeux at 15 FPS. Yeah, 15 FPS...but it looks about as smooth as text mode can be. And despite the appearance of its code not inspiring much confidence, the game is very hard to break. At version 1.2, it might not even have any more weak points.

On top of this, the levels are long and varied. The enemy programming is simplistic but is done in such a way that it still makes the later zako segments difficult. The bosses, though, are excellent examples of simple robot-based enemies. Boss battles are pattern memorization things, but even a good memory won't help unless your reflexes are also up to the task. And yes, parts of the game are a bit difficult, but nothing about it seems unfair. And version 1.2 addresses any remotely valid complaints. If you lose, it's something you did wrong.

But yeah, every object in every level seems to have a reason to be there. There was no slacking whatsoever on the level design. You have to know all of the game's mechanics if you want to do everything in the levels. And even with the use of only a single set of tiles and one palette, the levels still look nice and are distinguishable from one another.

The music and some of the sound effects are original, and are also excellent. Nearly every board has its own song, and though some are kinda similar to others, nothing in it is bad or out of place. Though I would have preferred to see a completely original set of sound effects, basically everyone else "samples" stuff anyway.

There are other very good platformers written in Megazeux, but among them Ryan Thunder is, at least in my opinion, unmatched. You really ought to play it.