Thunder Force III

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Thunder Force III/Thunder Force AC
System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Sega System C2 (as Thunder Force AC)
Publisher: Tecnosoft ( Sega)
Developer: Tecnosoft ( Sega/Tecnosoft)
Genre: Shoot-'em-Up

Thunder Force III (サンダーフォースIII) is a 1990 shoot-'em-up developed by Tecnosoft for the Sega Mega Drive and released exclusively in the US and Japan. It is the third game in the Thunder Force series and the first to debut on a Sega console.

Thunder Force AC title screen.

It was ported to Sega's System C2 arcade system in 1990 as Thunder Force AC. The port is identical to the console version, except Planets Haides and Ellis are completely different, the level layouts are somewhat different, the level select and level intros have been removed and continuing starts you where you died instead of at the beginning of the stage. This port was ported to the SNES in 1991 as Thunder Spirits.

Immediately after the events of Thunder Force II, the Galaxy Federation discovers five cloaking devices on five planets circling the ORN Empire's main base, and that any attempt to destroy these cloaking devices will result in ORN's Cerberus destroyer — capable of detecting and destroying large fleets — to take action. With this knowledge, the Galaxy Federation builds a new ship that is both powerful enough to destroy the five cloaking devices yet small enough to avoid detection by Cerberus.

Unlike its predecessors, III only features side-scrolling stages. fires; there is rapidfire. changes speed. changes weapons. Powerups are collected in the usual way.

Physical Scans

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  US cover

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  JP cover

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  JP cart