Gradius III
Third scrolling shooter in the Gradius series.
Gradius III is a scrolling shooter video game developed and published by Konami for arcades in 1989. It was originally released only in Japan on December 11, 1989, and is the third game in the Gradius series. The arcade version was not released in the West until it appeared in compilations for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Konami
- Director
- Hiroyasu Machiguchi
- Series
- Gradius
- Platforms
- Arcade
- Super NES
- PlayStation 2
- PlayStation Portable
- Genre
- Scrolling shooter
- Modes
- Single-player
- Arcade system
- Konami GX945
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
The player pilots the Vic Viper starfighter against the Bacterion Empire across ten levels. Stage 4 is a bonus level with a third-person perspective, no enemies, and free floating power-ups; the player must avoid walls. Two hidden levels are based on early sections of Gradius and Salamander. The game includes familiar weapons, level layouts, and enemies. Unlike some later versions, the Japanese arcade release lacks a continuation feature; losing all lives ends the game. The Japanese version offers a beginner mode for the first three levels, after which it prompts the player to try technical mode, which can loop endlessly. The Asian (non-Japanese) arcade release omits the beginner mode and retrospective introduction but reduces overall difficulty. Gradius III introduces Edit Mode, allowing players to mix and match missile, double, laser, shield, and special power-ups into custom combinations, though some weapons are exclusive to either pre-defined or custom schemes.
Release
A port for the Super Famicom was released in Japan in December 1990 and for the Super NES in North America in 1991, featuring reduced difficulty and additional armaments. It replicates the arcade's slowdown but removes the pseudo-3D and crystal stages; the cell stage becomes the final stage with a new layout and soundtrack. A new boss, Beacon, appears at the end of a high-speed stage that corresponds to the one in Gradius II. Unlike the arcade version, the Super NES port allows players to continue after losing all lives. A harder Arcade difficulty can be unlocked by tapping the A button 16 times in one second on the options screen, but it is not an accurate port of the arcade version. This port was released on the Wii's Virtual Console in North America on April 23, 2007, and in Europe and Japan in September 2007. A soundtrack with original and arranged tracks was released by Konami on the King Records label on February 21, 1990, composed and performed by Kukeiha Club with Miki Higashino. Additional arrangement albums followed, including Gradius Arcade Soundtrack on April 24, 2002, and Gradius III Symphonic Poetry on June 5, 1990, which contains orchestrated tracks from Gradius III and earlier games.
Reception
In Japan, Game Machine listed Gradius III as the third most-successful table arcade unit in their January 15, 1990 issue. The game received positive to favorable reviews. IGN gave it 8.5 out of 10, praising graphics and gameplay, while GameSpot gave the Virtual Console version 7.0 out of 10, criticizing its high difficulty. In Famicom Tsūshin, two reviewers appreciated the adjustable difficulty but still found the game challenging; a third noted the SNES version was modified considerably and played more like Gradius (1985); a fourth felt the game was not difficult enough and lacked the arcade's excitement. GamePro's The Feature Creature called it one of the most durable side-scrolling shooters. Entertainment Weekly gave it a C, stating it was similar to previous Gradius games. Super Gamer gave the SNES version 78%, calling it a great arcade game. In 2018, Complex ranked it 46th on their list of best Super Nintendo games, and IGN placed it 45th in its Top 100 SNES Games, praising the visuals, environments, and bosses.
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