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Rolling Thunder 3 Game Review

Rolling Thunder 3 is a 1993 run-and-gun shooter action game produced by Namco and released for Sega Genesis. It is a pretty good final installment in this series.

This was the third and final entry in the Rolling Thunder series. It was well received, though it continues to get the least amount of attention when it comes to this particular trilogy. I personally find it to be a surprisingly good conclusion, though I still prefer its predecessors.

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Leila and Albatross are absent this time around and that was an unfortunate set of circumstances as the new protagonist named Jay is utterly forgettable. The storyline overall is only serviceable, though the introduction of more cutscenes and animation made for a more varied gaming experience.

Another major downgrade is the absence of the two-player mode. This mode made for a truly terrific experience when it comes to the second entry, but here you can only play alone. They actually give you a weapon choice in this game, but I found most of the guns too similar to each other.

Rolling Thunder 3 is so much easier than its predecessors due to one change only and that is the option to shoot diagonally and while jumping. That made for a smoother experience for sure, but it also felt a bit too easy. However, this option was contrasted well with the much better and smarter A.I. The enemies here also fire grenades and shoot in multiple directions, making for more difficult levels.

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Speaking of the levels, there are ten of them in total here. Because the game isn’t particularly hard, certainly not to the degree of the original game, I found its length overly short. You can easily breeze through this entire game in an hour or so, which was way too short for me personally.

The levels are actually quite diverse. Most follow the regular formula of going around shooting enemies while also hiding behind crates or other objects, but there are three levels that take you to a different location altogether and a unique gameplay mechanic. Only one of these worked particularly well and that was the best level overall in my opinion.

That one is the plane level. It was so much fun hiding between the seats and waiting for your chance to shoot down numerous enemies. It’s by far the toughest level to conquer. The other two are driving levels and those are much less accomplished, though they are short enough diversions that they don’t ruin the experience. The final stage is also terrific and quite hard while the final boss was expectedly brutal to get through. They include a lot of bosses here, but they are all rather easy to beat once you realize their moving patterns.

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The enemies in Rolling Thunder 3 are colored differently as usual and all act according to their color. Some new additions even have five lives, which made it quite demanding to finish them off. As for the graphics, the game looks decent enough. There isn’t anything particularly unique about its presentation, but the color palette is pretty good and the characters look great. The score and the level design are both quite strong.