This part is genuinely fun, requiring the intense Zen-like concentration for which shooters are played, but it's over all too soon, after which it's back to the same ol', same ol'. The only real surprise is in the seventh level, in which your ship suddenly shifts into high gear and careens through the twisting halls of an alien base. The rest of the game's environments follow tried-and-true (which means boring) shooter archetypes: desert level, "organic" level, fire level, etc., etc. Not even Gradius III's soundtrack manages to make the player any less flaccid while a couple of tunes are catchy, the vast majority of them fit into that instantly recognizable genre known as "generic shooter techno/rock."Īnd the level design? Sure, you've got the compulsory laser-spewing Moai head level, which never fail to give hardcore shooter fans a collective boner, but it's ultimately just the same damn thing as seen in the first two games. Or, even better, behold the first boss, whose giant pincers snap open and shut with all the majesty of two frames. Animation is choppy at best your ship's laser beams are just solid blue lines that flicker as they cross the screen. Its graphical presentation is definitely below par the game relies way too much on a drab starry space background that makes it feel painfully generic. The slowdown in Gradius III is almost perpetual, which of course is a hindrance in a twitch-based horizontally-scrolling shooter like this.Įven before you realize the perma-Bullet-Time effect of Gradius III, it feels far from impressive. If more than a few sprites or one larger-than-normal sprite is present (which is almost always, and includes every one of the game's bosses), or you simply shoot your gun when it's fully upgraded, the game slows to a waddle. Yes, yes, this is a common issue in early third-party SNES games, and Gradius III was actually the first third-party game ever released on the system (just two weeks after launch.) Even so, the fact that slowdown is the first thing to come to mind when I think about Gradius III is not a good sign. If more than a few sprites or one larger-than-normal sprite is present (which is almost always, and incl."įirst and foremost: Gradius III has some of the worst slowdown ever seen in a scrolling shooter. "First and foremost: Gradius III has some of the worst slowdown ever seen in a scrolling shooter.
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