Next up in my Fortnite Chapter 4, Season 2 Battle Pass review is Thunder.
Thunder is a bipedal lizard man who rides a motorcycle and wears a red leather jacket like the one Michael Jackson wore in “Thriller.” That right there is enough to sell me on Thunder being one of the best skins in Fortnite’s Chapter 4, Season 2 Battle Pass – but wait, there’s more.
As if Thunder being a bipedal lizard man motorcyclist with Michael Jackson drip (he’s also flexing gold chains, gold rings and a gold watch) wasn’t enough, he’s also a Japanese sushi chef, and according to his description, “the coolest lizard in the Peace Syndicate,” which makes him something of a secret agent as well. (The Evie character, who was part of the Chapter 3, Season 3 Battle Pass is also a member of the Peace Syndicate.)
I mean, just check out base skin Thunder’s loading screen art by Liam Brazier and tell me that isn’t fun. You can’t.
Thunder loading screen art by Liam Brazier/Epic Games
Thunder’s sushi chef appearance is accentuated in his Midnight Snack Thunder variant outfit, which can be unlocked on his second item page. Whereas in his base style, Thunder has olive-green skin, the Midnight Snack Thunder variant has white skin with red and black blotches similar to a snake or a komodo dragon. The detail in Thunder’s leathery, osteodermic-looking skin is also highlighted in this variant; while I like the base skin’s look more, from an aesthetic standpoint, the detail that went into the Midnight Snack Thunder look is to be commended. This version of Thunder also is wearing a sushi chef hat and a white and blue embroidered leather jacket, a white t-shirt featuring a carp holding a sashimi knife in Japanese ukiyo-e styled-art, and matching blue and white pants.
One gripe I have with Thunder is that as cool as his glider, a futuristic motorbike named Stormcloud is, there’s very little which differentiates it from any other run-of-the-mill glider you could pair him with. That is, when you deploy Stormcloud, Thunder immediately balances on top of it like a surfboard without any other interaction beforehand, and coasts on it in said manner all the way down to the ground. He doesn’t even give the motorcycle engine a throttle with a twist grip before he balances on the bike like the Fortnite Ghost Rider skin does with the Ghost Glider, a small touch that adds a lot of personality to the Ghost Rider skin. This isn’t something that’s exclusive to the Thunder in that all characters surfboard down on motorcycle-esque gliders, but the lack of interactive flair is noticeably disappointing, especially because the glider is so fitting for his character.
Midnight Snack Thunder/Epic Games
That being said, pretty much everything else about Thunder in the Chapter 4, Season 2 Battle Pass is impressive. His character selection screen animation features him flicking his tongue like a snake and popping his jacket collar.
His signature emote, “Chef’s Special”, features Thunder dropping into a split stance and pulling off various knife-twirling tricks, with the lyrics “Anything you need I’ll get that/Lemme take the lead, don’t sweat that/If you wanna eat I’ll chef that/Come on move your feet, I rep that” are sung in the background. It’s a goofy, overly ostentatious emote and a lot of fun.
If you’re not feeling the Stormcloud motorbike glider, you can unlock a second glider for Thunder via the Chapter 4, Season 2 Battle Pass weekly quests, a standard parachute with his sushi-knife wielding carp logo on top, as well as a bunch of different sushi rolls on shiso leaves lining the wings.
Rumbling Thunder, a skin which features Thunder in a yellow jumpsuit, can be unlocked by completing seasonal quests for Weeks 3-5. This outfit on Thunder gives off definite Bruce Lee from Game of Death vibes, and looks awesome when paired with a katana sword harvesting tool such as Michonne’s Katana or the Murumasa Blade that came with the Wolverine Zero skin (for Fortnite Crew members.)
Thunder also wields the Kaiju Cutter as a harvesting tool, a metal club fitted with spiked, reptilian skinned-ornaments. Although it’s a fairly simple in appearance and use, the name Kaiju Cutter lends Thunder some more personality lore-wise on account of its name and implications. Kaiju is the Japanese word for the country’s famous monster movie genre, with the Godzilla franchise being the most notable. In fact, Thunder’s in-game ID is Character_LocalZilla. What makes this so interesting is that this suggests Thunder might not simply be a lizard man, but a kaiju who has taken human form, or a kaiju that is more human in size and appearance, like Minilla, the son of Godzilla. Obviously, adding kaiju to Thunder’s already impressive resume would make him go from one of our favorite skins in the Chapter 4, Season 2 Battle Pass to all-time Fortnite great.
Thunder, Fortnite: Chapter 4, Season 2 Battle Pass review/Epic Games
What do you think of the third skin in my Fortnite Chapter 4, Season 2 Battle Pass review, Thunder? Do you enjoy playing as a bipedal lizard (possible kaiju) man motorcyclist sushi chef with dope streetwear style? Let us know in the comments.
Check out my reviews for the previous Fortnite Chapter 4, Season 2 Battle Pass skins: Renzo, the Destroyer and Imani.
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