Overall design lacks cohesion, boss fights blending into boss fights, empty rooms needlessly inserted as bridging devices, and sections streaming in warriors ad nauseum. A single attack button becomes routine, and leveling the sword through found power-ups (up to an electrifying third bonus) doesn't elicit any additional gain to the attack. Even the charged, furious laser beam – crucial in conquering bosses – hits with the same puff of smoke as stock attacks. There's no sense of the damage being done.
Thundercats has to work for its license, inserting the support characters as one-offs with no defining characteristics. None of them seem to do any additional damage or carry perks over the other. Lion-O can stock three of these support sessions max, crucial in tight quarters, but it comes down to playing favorites. With time, it's easy to see levels surrounding these additional sprites, but Thundercats sticks to a basic normalcy that dies under the weight of its own monotony.
Leaning into the retro community to ask them for a look is admirable in an era of bulky polygons and first-person views. Work was put into to ensure backdrops carry a murky palette to mimic the Genesis, and sprites have outlines that mimic many Game Boy titles. Animation is sparse for a reason, so at its most basic, Thundercats is competent. Everything closing in on those core ideas is what kills it.
Thundercats is rated E10+ (Everyone 10 and older) by the ESRB for Fantasy Violence.
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