Thunder Force III is a scrolling shooter game developed by Tecno Soft. It is the third chapter in the Thunder Force series. It was released in 1990 in Japan, Europe and the United States for the Megadrive/Genesis game console. During the same year, it was retooled into an arcade game named Thunder Force AC. In 1991, Thunder Force AC was ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and was renamed Thunder Spirits (presumably because the Thunder Force franchise was associated with Sega).
In September 2016, at the Tokyo Game Show, Sega announced that they owned all the intellectual property rights of Tecno Soft. To commemorate this, Sega re-released Thunder Force III in 3D as part of Sega 3D Fukkoku Archives 3: Final Stage (Sega 3D Classics Collection 3) for the Nintendo 3DS.
The game was later included as one of the games bundled with the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Mini.
Story[]
The ORN Emperor has been transferred to a different location through the five subspace transfer systems that exist on the five planets of the ORN System (Hydra, Gorgon, Seiren, Haides and Ellis), so it became impossible to locate and attack it from normal space. Many times we have tried to send armored divisions to these planets, but none of them succeeded because of ORN's powerful unmanned defense system "Cerberus".
For this reason, the Federation has made an all-out effort to develop the highly mobile fighter Fire LEO-03 "Styx", which is small enough to pass undetected by Cerberus and has a firepower comparable to that of large battleships. The pilot chosen for this mission is Captain Jean, grandson of the hero Edra of the battle against Dyradeizer, and the navigator is Lieutenant Sherry, daughter of the hero Reid of the Plealos destruction operation.
The fate of the Galactic Federation is on their hands. Will the Galactic Federation finally end this war after 100 years of battle? Will the ORN Empire prevail? And will peace return to the galaxy?
Gameplay[]
For Thunder Force III, the free-directional, overhead stage format featured in the previous two games is removed and replaced entirely by the horizontally aligned stage format. The horizontal format becomes the new standard for the following games.
The player is allowed to choose which of the initial five planets (Hydra, Gorgon, Seiren, Haides, and Ellis), to start on. After the first five stages are completed, the game continues for a few more stages into ORN headquarters.
The weapon system from Thunder Force II returns in this game, with some modifications. Some weapons from Thunder Force II are reused or modified slightly (the enhanceable Twin shot and Back shot remain the defaults), while others are completely new and exclusive to the game.
This time, when the player's ship is destroyed, only the weapon that was currently in use is lost (unless it is a default weapon and assuming the game is operating at the default difficulty settings). On any higher difficulty modes than the default one, all weapons are lost when the ship gets destroyed. CLAWs also make their return and have the same behavior and functions, except now when the player collects the CLAW item, the ship automatically receives its maximum two CLAWs (again, CLAWs are lost upon ship destruction in every difficulty modes). Also, when using most weapons, the CLAWs will mimic the ship and fire the same weapon (similar to the Options in Gradius games). The final new addition is that the player's ship now has a speed setting, which can be increased or decreased across four levels at the press of a button.
Differences between versions[]
The main difference between Thunder Force III and its variations, AC and Spirits, is that the "Haides" and "Ellis" stages in Thunder Force III are not found in the variations and are replaced with entirely new stages. The variations also removed Thunder Force III's gameplay option to choose the starting stage and always start on the "Hydra" stage. Besides these changes, the versions play about the same, although slowdown varies and the music instruments, and some of the tracks are considerably different.
Characters and Ships[]
- Captain Jean R. Fern: Pilot of the Fire LEO-03 "Styx". Jean belongs to the 110th Space Aviation Division of the Galactic Federation Army, and is the grandson of the main character Edra N. Fern, the pilot of the Fire LEO-01.
- Lieutenant Sherry M. Jupiter: 16-year-old navigator of the Styx, she belongs to the 119th Space Defense Battalion of the Galactic Federation. She is the eldest daughter of Reid A. Jupiter and Diana Lynn, the pilots of the Fire LEO-02 "Exceliza".
Stages and Bosses[]
| Stage | Name | Boss | BGM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hydra | Gargoyle | Back to the Fire |
| 2 | Gorgon | Twin Vulcan | Venus Fire |
| 3 | Seiren | King Fish | The Grubby Dark Blue |
| 4 | Haides | G-Lobster | Truth |
| 5 | Ellis | Mobile Fort | Final Take a Chance |
| 6 | Cerberus | Cerberus | His Behavior Inspired Us With Distrust |
| 7 | ORN Base | Base Guarder | Hunger Made Them Desperate |
| 8 | ORN Core | Khaos | Final Point |
Enemies[]
Gallery []
External links[]
| Thunder Force III / Thunder Force AC / Thunder Spirits | ||
| Characters | Jean R. Fern • Sherry M. Jupiter | |
| Ships | Fire LEO-03 "Styx" | |
| Stages | Hydra • Gorgon • Seiren • Haides • Ellis • Cerberus • ORN Base • ORN Core (TFIII) Graveyard • Ruins Inside • Original Battleship • ORN Core (TS) | |
| Bosses | Gargoyle • Twin Vulcan • King Fish • G-Lobster • Mobile Fort • Cerberus • Base Guarder • Khaos (TFIII) Roll Gunner • Defense Satellite • Khaos (TS) | |