Varth: Operation Thunderstorm

Did You Know?

• In Japan, Game Machine listed Varth: Operation Thunderstorm as the seventeenth most-successful table arcade unit in its September 1, 1992 issue.
• RePlay reported the game to be the third most-popular arcade game at the time.
• Play Meter listed the title as the forty-ninth most-popular arcade game at the time.

Plot

The game takes place on a human colony on a planet named Varth. The colony is managed by a seventh-generation supercomputer, Delta-7, which controls all machinery on the planet. A temporal-spatial consciousness called DUO (Dimension Unbody Offender) spontaneously arises within the supercomputer and concludes that human existence harms the planet. DUO turns the planet's defenses against the colonists, laying waste to eighty percent of the colony. The colonists, having become dependent on the supercomputer, cannot fight back. The only hope lies in two pilots flying planes equipped with fourth-generation computers that DUO cannot control, as these craft are operated by humans rather than machinery.

Gameplay

Varth's gameplay closely resembles that of Capcom's 1942 and the broader 194X series. The player must destroy enemy units while avoiding hits, progressing through 30 levels that occasionally end with a boss fight. A single hit from an enemy causes the player to lose a plane. The distinctive feature of Varth is the Pod system. Picking up a pod item causes a pair of pods to follow the player's craft, each carrying its own weaponry. Pods can block most enemy attacks, making the player nearly invulnerable from directions the pods cover. The player can choose between two pod formations: fixed mode, where both pods stay directly in front of the plane, protecting the front but leaving the sides and rear exposed; and smart mode, where the pods remain 180 degrees apart and move in response to incoming fire. If enemy fire slips between the pods before they react, the player must dodge manually. The player has three weapon choices: a laser with sustained fire but low horizontal range; a machine gun with relatively high power and a potential spread as wide as the craft; and a multi-directional shot with wide range but the lowest sustained rate of fire. Pod weapons come in three types: homing missiles (weak but track targets), missiles (more damaging but fire only forward), and napalm (powerful but short range). Bombs allow the plane to perform a mega crash, the type of which depends on the player's current weapon. The laser produces an electricity attack covering the entire screen. The machine gun fires missiles that move from target to target. The multi-directional shot releases a single large burst that moves forward and then splits into many smaller bolts at the top of the screen.