Gradius III

by Nintendo

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000035Y0L
• Item Weight: 8 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,909 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

"A port of Gradius III was released for the Super Famicom in December 1990 and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1991 with the option of reduced difficulty and additional armaments for the Vic Viper. It replicates the slowdown of its arcade counterpart and discards the pseudo-3D and Crystal levels. It also introduces a boss called Beacon which awaits the player at the end of the new high-speed stage, which is a counterpart of the high-speed stage in Gradius II. Unlike any other version, the Super NES port is the only one that allow players to continue when they lost all their lives. A harder difficulty called "arcade" can be unlocked by inputting a code on the options screen, however, it is simply the same SNES game at a harder difficulty, and not an accurate port of the arcade version. In addition, most stages (and some bosses) from Gradius II will appear after the second level. This port was also released for Virtual Console on April 23, 2007." - Wikipedia

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A great classic, November 15, 2001

By 

Jeff Johnson "Jeff Johnson" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gradius III (Video Game)

I was no fan at all of space side view shooter games, but this one caught my interest. You start the game by selecting all of your weapons, then you are sent out on your mission to fly through scores of enemy space fleets, destroying them to collect powerups and at the end of each level destroy bad bosses. The bad part about the game is that when you die you lose all of your powerups, and start from scratch making it very difficult to get more powerups later in the game because of the difficulty. Another huge downfall is that the sixth level is virtually impossible without having super sharp reflexes. Its a classic that might not be for everyone.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great All-Around Game:, June 5, 2004

By 

Rob Swanson (Sanford, North Carolina United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gradius III (Video Game)

I grew up playing games like this.. awesome game, some drawbacks, but all around quite amusing..

Your start by selecting what upgrades you will save up for as the game progresses. You earn powerups by creating DESTRUCTION toward the alien kind and picking up the energy-things they leave after you blow them all away. As you get farther, you can get better upgrades, like shields, lasers, and the ability to shrink yourself so you can weave in and out between enemy fire.

Difficulty-wise its pretty tough... youll think u have everything, then BLAM, your hit, and you lose all the power-ups! not to mention a life. Once you get to the harder levels and mayors (the game calls the bosses mayors, cause the creators dont know how to translate, them crazy japanese ^_^), if you lose a life, its HARD AS MESS to get your ship back up to speed.. youll be like 'crap! this is hard as MESS!'. especially at this one level, i think its 5 or 6.. it runs UBER FAST!! youll die if you arent careful, UBER FAST too... those are about the only real cons.. now for the PROS!

There are many pros to this CLASSIC game.. for an SNES game, the graphics are quite surprising (good). Music is great, even though youll NEVER get it outta your head! Gameplay is great, cause its not too easy at all, but its still beatable with the right skillz. 2 player isnt bad, its just your everyday switch-when-you-die multiplayer system. Controls are very easy to use, too.

For a side-scrolling game, this one is really unique, and FUNTASTIC. if your looking for a few great hours of fun, try this SHTUFF OUT....

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Challange, May 5, 2004

By 

Jefferson Antalik (Vista Santa Rosa, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gradius III (Video Game)

Listen: Gradius 3, a king among games, a beast to conquer, a tiny dot of light in a compleate void. Not to mention the classic horizontal screen gameplay. For those who've never laid their eyes on this game: it constitudes of a single, space fighter on a mission to save planet Gradius. Two player game play is available, although each player will have his/her own mission. Your fighter starts of with very low speed and a weak cannon, you are you destroy the incoming enemy fighter chains and feed off of their energy in order to power up your plane. The more power-up you collect the more you have to chose from; speed, missiles, double, lazer, shield, and so on.

the game really is a madman, the difficulty lies in that the farther you advance the more crucial it is for you to be heavily armed, and although you are awarded many lifes for your score you must stay in one piece throughout the entire game if you plan on beating the whole thing: In the later stages it becomes very hard to power-up your fighter, and every time you explode into a million pieces you have to start from nothing.

This game really is a challange, the normal mode shouldn't be to hard, but hard mode is a for 1ST CLASS FIGHTER PILOTS only.