Sentences written about this title, gathered by type from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles (as of 2026-8-30).
It is the sequel to Operation Wolf, which was released by the same company in 1987 and became popular.
Like the previous title, this one was a hit around the world, and its system became established as the de facto standard of the genre until the appearance of Lethal Enforcers (Konami Digital Entertainment).
Reviewing the Super NES version, GamePro praised the colorful and detailed graphics and strong sound effects, but criticized the repetitiveness of the gameplay and the slowness of the aiming reticule, and concluded that this Operation is a success.
Hiroyuki Sako, the developer, recalls that when his superior brought the matter up, there was an instruction to "make it 2-player simultaneous play".
In the "3rd Gamest Grand Prize" (1989), run in the game magazine Gamest, it took 24th place among the hit games of the year.
Commodore User said it "takes all the best elements" of Operation Wolf, including "the brilliant graphics" and "action blasting", and added "a two-player option, a brand new perspective and some really clever scenario ideas".
At a British game industry awards event held at the end of 1989, Operation Thunderbolt was awarded "Best 16-bit arcade license translation" for Ocean Software's home computer conversions.
SNES version - not released in Japan.
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