Lightning Fighters was released in May 1990 in North America.

In Lightning Fighters and Trigon, the original Japanese version, there are different rules depending on whether you start the game with one or two players. In a one-player game, you start with no bombs, and when you die the game restarts you at a checkpoint. In a two-player game, each life starts with one bomb, and when you die you respawn in place. There are some powerups that only appear in a two-player game and one that only appears in a one-player game. The game type cannot be changed once the game starts. A second player cannot join an originally one-player game; conversely, if one player dies in a two-player game the game remains in two-player mode and the second player can rejoin at any time.

In Lightning Fighters, even if you start a one-player game, the game is always in two-player mode: you respawn in place when you die and you start each life with one bomb stocked. This means that a second player can join midway into a one-player game. Unfortunately it also means that the powerup that only appears in one-player games in the other versions, does not appear at all in the US version.