Thexder/テグザー (Sharp Mz-2500, 1986, Game Arts/Hibiki Godai/Satoshi Uesaka/You/Hiromi Ohba/Akira Eye)

This is Thexder/テグザー for Sharp Mz-2500 and for the first time in years along with this being the games 40th Anniversary. I finally decided to have all the courage and beat all 16 levels while also showing four other rare ones as well. Before I do so, I think I should explain the story:

The weapons development vessel “Reipina” was captured by magnetic lines emanating from the mysterious asteroid “Nediam” and became unable to escape. Nediam demonstrated overwhelming defensive capabilities against external laser and missile attacks. Investigation revealed that the magnetic lines were emitted from a device within its interior. These magnetic lines only affected large objects like the Reipina.

Therefore, the Raypina required an attack using smaller craft unaffected by the magnetic field. The latest prototype weapon under development, the Hyper Dual Armor “THEXDER,” was selected for this mission and launched toward Nediam.

So, you are basically controlling the Hyper Dual Armor named Thexder, it can shoot out laser to vaporize enemies, protect itself with its shield for some time and transform into a jet to fly through gaps. You start off with 100% Energy during the games beginning. Energy Max determines the amount that you are allowed to have with the maximum being 500% and no more. Find hidden enemies to increase it. You can also get 100000 bonus points at the end of a level which depends at random. For every fourth level reached a boss is spawned in as a generator that must be destroyed so you can move on to the next area of the level. Enemies are easy to get pass as long as you follow their oblique zig zag pattern because they are here to annoy you and damage the robot. Walls are also installed as a way to ambush you. The game ends once destroying Nediam or your energy level is at 0%.

This is a really cool game to play and I'm glad to beat it for the first time while showing it off to you all. The Ending Music is Moon Light Sonata by Ludwig Von Beethoven which fits perfectly for the end. I should also mention that this game took me three days to beat which is an awesome record for me to achieve since I couldn't pass the Nec Pc-8801 version because of the missiles. The game also has references to one of Game Arts earliest games like Mr. Knotts from Cuby Panic which is a game that I'm familiar with who is now an enemy that can be shot for some energy and fun fact some of the sound effects were in fact reused for Thexder. There is another game called Thexder 88 which is a newer version updates the text letters and the game graphics.
The Ports it was on:
Nec Pc-8801
Nec Pc-8001MkIISR
Sharp X1
Fujitsu Micro-7
Famicom
Sharp Mz-2500
MSX
Nec Pc-9801
Apple II
Apple IIGS
MS DOS
Commodore Amiga
TRS-80 CoCo
Apple Macintosh
Nintendo Switch