Gradius III

"Hard, Frustrating, Fun.."

Note: my rating scale is different from most rating scales. 5 is average, 7 is very decent, 10 is perfect.

Concept
You're a spaceship (in space) shooting down alien-like ships and getting power-ups. For each yellow/orange enemy you kill you get an orb-like item that adds to your power-ups. For every orb you get you can choose to use it on different power-ups, like if you get 1 orb, you speed up. 2 orbs you get missiles, etc. The cool thing is you have the option to choose your power-ups, but only if you want to.

controls
The controls of this game is rather simple. All you is press B to shoot, and use the directional pad to move. And trust me, you will NEED to know some excellent dodging techniches.

music
I just wanted to point out that this is some great music for such an obscure game. Even though it has like 3-5 tracks, they are all pretty catchy. Even the "Game Over" theme makes me happy.

Replayability
I must say, I found this game at a pawn shop when I was much younger, but this is another SNES game that fails to get old. I think I play it atleast once a week. If I want to kill 10 minutes or put an hour into it and quit playing because I can't beat the third boss, it never gets stale.

difficulty
I must point out, this game is EXTREMELY hard. I never get past the third boss, but for some reason its fun. I've thrown my controller down too many games, screamed profanities at the top of my voice, and even broke a few consoles, but this game for some reason has never made me that frustrated. It does suck when you die because you start from where you died with NO POWER-UPS. And its REALLY hard.

Overall
This game is very fun, but VERY challenging. I've never met someone who has actually beat this game. I do suggest if you can find it though, picking it up.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/11/07