R-Type III The Third Lightning
R-Type III The Third Lightning
R-Type III The Third Lightning

R-Type III The Third Lightning

$192.99
$225.99
$192.99

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Item Condition

Game only: the cartridge in a protective holder, no box or manual. Look over the photos for condition, packaging and details. Every cartridge's shell, label and board are checked for authenticity when it comes into the store, and it's tested before it's listed. It ships in a collector's bag or a hard plastic case.

Item Description

R-Type has always been about patience under pressure, and The Third Lightning is where Irem took that idea and built something specifically for the Super Nintendo. Super R-Type had been a reworked arcade sequel; this third entry was designed for the console from the start, and it shows in everything from its visual effects to the choices it hands you before the first shot is fired.

You pilot the R-90 against the Bydo Empire across six side-scrolling stages, and the Force, the indestructible pod that locks to the front or rear of your ship or floats free to soak up fire, is still the center of everything. The twist is choice. At the start of a game you pick from three Force types, the Round Force, Shadow Force and Cyclone Force, each changing the lasers you earn as you collect power-ups, and you also choose your style of wave cannon, including a hyper mode that fires charged blasts in rapid succession until it overheats. It turns a famously rigid series into one with real room to experiment.

The stages are classic R-Type: huge, deliberate, layered with traps and capped by enormous biomechanical bosses that look half grown and half built. Irem leaned on the Super Nintendo's scaling and rotation effects for some of the most striking moments in any 16-bit shooter, and the slowdown that dogged Super R-Type is much less of a problem here. It is tough and built around memorization, and deeply satisfying once a stage finally clicks.

Jaleco brought The Third Lightning to North America in 1994, and it has since become a favorite among SNES shooter players, often named alongside Axelay as the console's best. The game was later adapted for the Game Boy Advance, but the Super Nintendo original is the version Irem built it for, and the one that best balances the series' ruthlessness with a little freedom to play it your way.

Fast factsgame data via IGDB
Released
1993
Publisher
Zoo Digital
Developer
Raylight Studios
Genre
Shooter
Players
Single player
About the game

The evil Bydo Empire returns in this entry of the R-Type series. So climb into the latest R-Type vessel, the R-90, and blast through six side-scrolling levels on your way to destroy the Bydo mothership. Gameplay is still the classic R-Type way with huge levels and bosses. With your detachable laser unit, you can fire in front or behind your ship. R-Type III now features three different kinds of laser unit, selectable at the start of a game. Each offers different laser types depending on the power-ups collected.

Summary from the IGDB community database — the condition and contents of this listing are described above and in the photos.

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