Thunder Cross Cheats & Cheat Codes for PC, Nintendo Switch, and More

Thunder Cross is a 1988 horizontal shooter developed and published by Konami. It was originally released exclusively for arcades, but was rereleased on PlayStation 2 in later years, and even featured as part of the Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PC.

Its critical and commercial performance at the time was strong enough to warrant a sequel, arriving three years later. However, it’s a game very much of its time, with little intention from Konami to revisit the series.

Thunder Cross Premise

Thunder Cross‘ gameplay is played entirely from a horizontal point of view, with enemies coming into view from the right as players speed their way through levels. The action can be played solo, or with another player cooperatively, only adding to the chaos.

With seven stages in total, the difficulty only ramps up as you progress. To help with this, Thunder Cross offers a few different customization options. You can equip your ship with up to four “options,” which fight alongside you automatically. In the European and Japanese versions of the game, you’re able to arrange these options wherever you’d like on the battlefield, which adds strategic play to Thunder Cross.

On top of this, you have access to three different weapons to equip on your ship. There’s the Vulcan, which is a rapid-fire weapon. Then, there’s the Boomerang, which offers bouncy bullets to add to the mayhem. Finally, there’s the Tail Gun, allowing you to shoot backward and forward at the same time. This small amount of variety is enough to ensure you can play through Thunder Cross a few times and have a fresh experience.

Thunder Cross Main Characters

As a horizontal shooter, Thunder Cross doesn’t have much story to speak of. In the game, you take charge of a nameless pilot in charge of a Blue Thunder M-45 (Red Thunder for player two).

Although the protagonist might be unnamed, the game does have a named boss to fight at the end of every Stage. Here are the bosses you can find in Thunder Cross:

Thunder Cross Titles in the Series

During the late ’80s and early ’90s, Konami was one of the most prolific video game developers out there. For context, in the year of Thunder Cross‘ release (1988), the studio released a total of 15 games, meaning resources were spread thin. As a result, turning Thunder Cross into a massive franchise wasn’t necessarily high on the list of priorities.

While one sequel to the original game was produced, it was never released outside of Japan, restricting the potential for a wider fan base to really develop. After this, it would be 28 years before we ever saw the franchise again, with the original game’s inclusion in the Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection. This compendium celebrated the arcade classics of decades gone by, but there’s no sign that we’ll ever see a new title in the Thunder Cross series, at least any time soon.

• Thunder Cross (1988)
• Thunder Cross II (1991)
• Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection (2019)

Thunder Cross Cheat Codes

With Thunder Cross being exclusive to arcades for so many years, no cheats were ever found (or created) for the game. If they exist, no one has managed to come across them yet, meaning you’ll have to complete Thunder Cross legitimately.

Usually, many games from this era have a dedicated community that takes over and creates cheats and mods for others to use. However, this isn’t the case here. Again, this is probably the result of Thunder Cross being exclusive to arcades for so long before finally coming to other platforms. You won’t find many players with an entire arcade machine in their home, which adds an extremely high barrier to entry for the creation of mods and third-party cheats.

Thunder Cross Cheat Code FAQs

Will There Ever Be Thunder Cross Cheats?

We’d say the overall chances are pretty slim. The game was released first in 1988, and no cheats have been created in the nearly four decades since. Even with its rereleases Arcade Archives and Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection, no one has taken it upon themselves to create some cheats for the newer versions.

If it was going to happen, we think it would have by now. Still, we hope so!

Does Thunder Cross Have Achievements / Trophies?

If you purchase the game on PlayStation 4 as part of the Arcade Archives series, there are six trophies to collect in Thunder Cross. Here’s the list in full:

The image featured at the top of this post is ©Screenshot from Thunder Cross.