Thunder Cross (サンダークロス) is a horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up arcade game released by Konami in 1988. It used a "layered scrolling" background, a new 2D graphics technique at the time. The game spawned a sequel, Thunder Cross II, in 1991. Owing to several similarities, Space Manbow (1989) may also be considered a spin off. In 2007, Thunder Cross was included as part of the Oretachi Geasen Zoku Sono budget series on the PlayStation 2 in Japan.[2]

Carrier Air Wing, released in Japan as U.S. Navy (ユー・エス・ネイビー Yū Esu Neibī), is a 1990 side-scrolling shooting game released for the CP System arcade hardware by Capcom. It is the spiritual sequel to U.N. Squadron, released during the previous year. As with the original, players chose any one of three different jet fighters and battle their way through ten enemy-packed stages. Other ideas carried over from U.N. Squadron include the shop, which allows players to buy weapon and shield upgrades for their jet fighter between stages, and the energy bar, which is replaced by a "fuel bar" which starts full at the start of each stage and decreases as time passes with some fuel lost each time the plane is damaged.