R-Type III - The Third Lightning

User Summary

R-Type III - The Third Lightning is one of the better shoot-em-ups for the SNES, and for the R-Type series in general. Generally well-received on release, the game is a horizontally-scrolling shooter, tasking the player with defeating the evil Bydo Empire once more.

Unlike previous games in the series, The Third Lightning gives you a choice of weapons systems - Forces - to take into battle, with the Standard/Round Force being joined by the Cyclone Force and the Shadow Force, each offering three types of bullet to power up. The charge cannon also returns, though it now comes in two modes: The standard Wave Cannon lets you charge up a powerful bolt, and double-charge for a massive bolt that spans half the screen height. The Hyper Wave Cannon gives you the same powerful bolts for a single charge, but double-charging sacrifices size in order to let you rapid-fire charged up bolts, but requires a cool-down time before you can charge it up again.

The game has since been released in a GBA version (considered inferior due to a variety of problems) and a Wii Virtual Console version of the original SNES game.