92 - Thunder Force III (Megadrive)

Some would argue for the fourth entry in Tecno Soft's shmup series, but TFIII came along at a perfect time for me. I was deeply in love with the Megadrive and this game pretty much encapsulated everything that was great about the machine. It's a stunning technical achievement - fast, furious and very challenging. It's a real old-school shmup, forcing improvement as much by memorization as reactionary skills.

The icing on the cake is the soundtrack, which is probably one of the finest ever created for a videogame. Every single stage has a fantastic, memorable tune which really made the Megadrive's FM chip sing. In my opinion few developers could get a handle on how to best use the machine's distinctive sound, but Tecno Soft certainly had it down to a fine art.

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