Hardcore challenge for the fans of side-scrolling arcade shooters!

Story

The dark, evil and mysterious god only known as Bacterion is engulfing entire universes in its dark and annihilating grasp. The malignant germ has thus infected many planets, Gradius among them. The Gradius Federal government is preparing to launch a counter attack into the eternal darkness known as The Dark Milky Way where Bacterion is residing, to stop the destruction once and for all. Brave fighters head out into the unknown to fight the destructive god. Will the Gradius fighters be able to save the galaxy?

The Game

Graidus III is faithfully following the lineage of the Gradius series, and is thus an action filled horizontally scrolling shoot ’em up with lots of weird mutated monsters, robots, enemy spacecraft and imposing bosses. The game is perhaps best known for its unforgiving difficulty level and it’s fair to say that it is aimed at the hardcore fan base and shooter enthusiasts in general.

Gradius III is originally an arcade title. It was converted to Super Nintendo and released in Japan back in 1991 and now it is available in Europe through Wii Virtual Console, the Gradius Collection released for Playstation Portable and Gradius III & IV for Playstation 2.

This Super Nintendo version is a faithful port of the arcade original as comparing the two, they look and play almost identically.

You’ll be controlling your star-fighter called M.A.X (Modulated Artillery Exalter) blasting enemies, collecting power-ups and avoiding hostile environmental elements. Some segments in the game features very wide environments where you can fly vertically too. This is a very nice addition to the side-scrolling concept and it introduces huge areas to battle on as well as some exploration to the mix, where you can try different paths and see which one works best for you.

Content

The difficulty level can be adjusted in the options screen, and Easy doesn’t actually mean easy in this game; it just means ‘less impossible’. The game has ten levels, albeit fairly short, they’re packed with enemies and hazards. For those especially tricky parts and bosses you are almost required to know which strategy to use in advance if you hope to prevail. This means that you will be at a huge disadvantage on your first few attempts. Memorization is of course a big part of the game, as it allows you to act proactively. Mastering the game on the Normal difficulty level would probably take weeks of intensive playing.

The Dark Milky Way is an incredibly dangerous place and there are many hazards to look out for. There’s living plants, bubbles that explode, Easter Island heads that shoot laser rings from their mouths, thief robots that steal your precious support weapons called Options, volcanoes, dragons and sand monsters. In your mission to destroy the Bacterion you must travel through caves, slime, space, magma, strange floating islands in the space and of course the lair of the dreaded Bacterion.

Before you embark on this dangerous mission you must select armament for M.A.X. The weapons come in three different categories; Missile which is a support weapon / air to ground type weapon. Double includes all weapons that add firepower to the standard vulcan fire cannon and Laser that uses different laser technologies to cause massive focused damage. You’ll see a chart of all available weapons and you can easily pick the weapons that you want to use. This feature alone adds some replayability based on that you try different weapon setups between tries, and you’ll need to try them all to find your preferred combination.

Besides these weapons there are also other power-ups like the Option pods that follow your ship around to provide additional fire power, the Mega Crush bomb that wipes all enemies from the screen and the defensive force shields that has the ability to absorb enemy projectiles.

When you’ve selected your weapons the game starts. M.A.X. starts with a standard vulcan fire gatling gun type weapon and to gain the more powerful weapons you selected you need to collect power capsules. You can then use these to select and level up the weapon of your choice accordingly. You need to be strategic about which weapon you select in which order. Once your weapons are strong enough you basically only need to collect for the force shield which is the only way for you to withstand more than one hit.

The game starts nice and slowly but will pick up the pace in no time. Upon reaching the first cave, which is a sand cave of some sort it becomes obvious where this game sets the standard – enemies are entering the screen from every direction and bullets seem to be constantly gracing your ship. Without a doubt this is a heart pounding game that demands your utter focus at all times. You also need to have both endurance and reflexes of a weasel to survive longer than a few minutes.

As mentioned, the Super Nintendo version of Gradius III emulates the arcade quite well, with a few exceptions. The most obvious difference between the two (other than the minor downgrade in graphics) is the fact that some enemies and levels have been removed from the home version. This means that the home version could be considered somewhat easier in comparison. There is also some differences in what weapons are available – the weapons in the Super Nintendo version tend to be more useful and better balanced compared to the arcade ones. There is also content added to the home version that is not present in the arcade version.

You get four credits when you start the game and each credit means three lives. You die from one single hit if you don’t have a force shield and those are relatively rare. When you die, you’ll lose all your collected weapons which makes death very punishing, and it can be quite tricky to recover from. This is perhaps the biggest and most common struggle in Gradius III. Fighting without any power-ups is an uphill battle that can be very discouraging and put you on tilt.

When you’ve lost your lives you get the chance to change your weaponry, and the game resumes from the last checkpoint, which is nice, but it won’t save you from a tough spot where you are low on power-ups.

Another notable feature in the Options screen is the option to use Auto Shot. This is a built-in rapid fire feature that will save you from constantly having to press the fire button, and I think it’s only fair to have it enabled. There’s also an Auto Power-up mode that automatically upgrades your weapons when you collect power capsules – a pretty useless feature in my opinion.

Multiplayer

Gradius III has a two player mode which is similar to the ones present in the previous Gradius games – you simply take turns playing, so there’s no simultaneous multiplayer. While this might not be the most exciting multiplayer mode, it can be fun if you’re dueling for the high score top spot, or just competing to get the farthest.

Graphics

The graphics can be described as colorful 16-bit goodness – it really looks and plays like an arcade game. Occasionally the hardware struggles to handle the large amount of sprites on the screen, which makes the game slow down significantly. This does increase your chances to survive because it gives you that much more time to react to incoming hazards.

Most of the time the game runs with no significant problems though and is a pleasure to watch and play. Each level looks entirely different and the scenery is quite detailed. The designs of the monsters and enemies are inspiring – sometimes outright creepy – and it all makes for a truly memorable shooter.

Sound

The music sounds like Gradius is supposed to sound – it has great melodies that evokes the fighting spirit, and there are darker, more ambient tones in the mix too.

The sound effects are pretty standard stuff but doesn’t really fit the game because they almost sound ten years older than what the graphics looks like – a minor issue in this case in my opinion. There is a voice that announces which weapon you select and it sounds nice and clear.

Summary

Shoot ‘em ups are pretty rare on the Super Nintendo and since this is a really good one, it makes it that much more special, in my opinion. Gradius III is for the hardcore shoot ’em up fans. It’s a very challenging game and it can feel daunting to play the same levels over and over if you get stuck on a difficult part or a seemingly unfair boss battle. Perhaps a practice mode would have helped?

If you’re into side scrolling shoot ’em ups you shouldn’t miss out on this one as it is a true gem and a real challenge for the most devoted.

Developed By: Konami
Published By: Konami
Version Reviewed: Super Nintendo
Genre: Shoot ’em Up
Players: 1-2
Also Available On: Arcade, Wii (Virtual Console)
Released: 1991-08-23