Thunder Force III

Thunder Force III

Title screen

Developer:	Technosoft
Music:	Toshiharu Yamanishi, Tomomi Ōtani
Program:	Izumi Fukuda, Takashi Iwanaga, Haruhiko Ohtsuka
Art:	Osamu Tsujikawa, Yoichi Muto
Release date:	June 8, 1990
Previous game:	Thunder Force II
Next game:	Thunder Force IV

Thunder Force III, released in 1990, is the third entry in Tecnhosoft's Thunder Force series of games, and the second to be released for the Sega Genesis. This game notably removes the top-view stages entirely and simplifies the weapon system, making the game much more easier compared to its predecessor. Thunder Force III would end up being a success, spawning an arcade port titled Thunder Force AC, which also got ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as Thunder Spirits.

Since the game is pretty generous with extra lives, less severe with its punishment on death, and has very strong weapons, Thunder Force III is a rather easy game to 1CC on default settings and doesn't need as much practice compared to other games in the series.

Gameplay Overview

Thunder Force III is similar to it's predecessor, which has a heavy focus on weapon usage and memorization. Enemies come in from all directions, which usually requires the correct weapon for the right scenario. Losing a life results in an instant respawn and the loss of the currently equipped weapon excluding the starting weapons (Unless the difficulty is on Mania, then all weapons are lost.)

Controls

---

The player controls the Fire LEO-03 "Styx", which has the ability to change between four levels of speed and cycle up to 5 weapon slots. The controls can be changed in the title screen by holding A and pressing Start on the title screen. Below is the default controls set by the game.

• A: Speed Change. The Styx can cycle between four different levels of speed which starts from slowest to fastest, starting from the slowest again after reaching the fastest.

• B: Fire Button. The game has a built-in autofire.

• C: Weapon Select. The next available weapon in the weapon bar is selected, reverting to the first weapon after reaching the end.

Weapons & Items

---

• Damage: 6 per bullet.

The starting front-firing weapon, which can be upgraded to Sever. The weapon itself fires pairs of bullets from the front. Despite being a starting weapon, Twin-Shot's damage output is decent enough, as it is able to easily take out most aerial popcorn, however its larger hitbox makes it somewhat tricky to hit ground targets and some larger enemies or bosses. With CLAWs equipped, up to four more bullets are added to damage output, providing a slight damage boost.

• Damage: 6 per bullet.

The starting back-firing weapon, which gets upgraded to Lancer. Back-Fire provides a single stream of bullets from the back and the front. It is the weakest weapon in the game as its damage output is split in half. Giving it very few niche use cases if Lancer is not acquired. The CLAW upgrade for this weapon is the same as Twin-Shot except backwards, providing the same damage output as Twin-Shot from the back without CLAWs.

• Damage: 6 per segment, 36 total per beam.

An upgrade to Twin-Shot. Sever is by far the strongest weapon in the entire game in terms of damage, firing high-speed lasers that rapidly alternate from the top and bottom of the Styx. The laser fired is split into four segments which quickly pulverizes any enemy in front of it and trivializes bosses. Adding CLAWs provide two extra beams, effectively doubling the damage output.

• Damage: 9 per bullet.

An upgrade to Back-Fire. Lancer fires two large projectiles from behind and one from the front. It has far better coverage compared to its non-upgraded counterpart, being very effective on large groups of enemies coming from behind while also providing decent firepower from the front. With CLAWs, two extra projectiles fire from behind.

• Damage: 6 per segment.

Fires large wave projectiles that pass through terrain. If the top or bottom half of the projectile makes contact with an enemy, its other half will split and spread apart. Wave is useful for crowd control, however it can be overshadowed by Hunter in most use cases if available. With CLAWs, two of the split projectiles fire from them, increasing the weapon's coverage significantly.

• Damage: 18 per missile, 6 per bullet, 12 per CLAW wave.

Launches anti-ground missiles directly above and below that crawl along the ceiling, floor, and walls alongside a standard shot from the front. Fire is very effective at taking out ground targets, the missiles' ability to crawl on any surface makes it useful to hit enemies in hard to reach areas. However just like Wave, it is also overshadowed by Hunter. When using CLAWs, they will fire out short-ranged wave projectiles, providing extra defense from incoming enemies all around.

• Damage: 3 per missile.

Fires volleys of 3 homing missiles, which home onto any enemy on the screen in addition to passing through terrain. Despite being the weakest damage-wise, they provide the best coverage in the entire game, making most sections in the game significantly easier and make the Wave and Fire weapons obsolete. CLAWs add two additional missiles to each volley.

A pair of options that circle around the Styx, boosting the firepower of all weapons and blocking incoming bullets. They do not damage enemies on contact.

Provides up to 3 hits of protection, which blocks all bullet, enemy, or terrain collisions. Getting hit with a shield will provide a brief period of invulnerability, turning red if the shield is on its last hit. Shields in general are far more useful than earning extra lives, as they allow the player to take a hit without losing any weapons especially on Mania difficulty. Shield pickups are very rare and only appear a few times throughout the whole game.

Extra Lives

Score based extra lives are earned at 20,000, 50,000, then every other 50,000 points. 1-UPs can also be found frequently as an item picked up throughout the game.

Rank

---

Unknown. Add details here.

Stages

---

The stage select screen

The player can choose which stage to start on. The stages the proceed in a clockwise order around the stage select screen.

• Hydra
• Gorgon
• Seiren
• Haides
• Ellis

When all five initial stages are complete, the player proceeds to the final stages in the following order:

• Cerberus
• Orn Base
• Orn Core

Scoring

---

Add details here.

Strategy

See (Template Page)/Strategy for stage maps, enemy and boss descriptions, walkthroughs, and advanced play strategies.

---

This section details some particular strategic information about the game and its gameplay, such as hidden 1UPs and some basic scoring tricks. For anything particularly deep or highly complex, you can probably leave it in the Strategy page.

(Currently evaluating whether or not this specific section should even include information outside of the separated Strategy pages. Worth thinking about as a community.)

Story

Basic story breakdowns, plot information, and endings are included here.

If there is no story at all, or any information about the setting, then this section can be omitted. Try to include at least small things here when you can.

---

Development History

If available, you can include information here about the hardware, the development of the game, and its general reception. Try to have as much information in this section cited as possible.

---

Version Differences

• Include information here about differences in a game between various versions. This includes regional differences, patch updates/bugfixes, and the like.

---

Trivia

• Cool facts and random tidbits go here!

---

Gallery

See (Template Page)/Gallery for our collection of images and scans for the game.

---