Hungry for more Super Robot Taisen? This should hold you over- until you throw the cartridge into the wall.
Since this game was released in 1993, it's reasonable to accept at least some level of sophistication from this game, compared to earlier games on this system. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case – but with good reason.
Unlike the Original Generation games, much of the appeal to this game is not the graphics (even if those rare 3D moments look fantastic for the era), nor the sound – it’s the fact that there are a handful of actual anime shows licensed for this game. The more notable ones include the Gundam franchise’s releases up through early 1993, the Mazinger family, Getter Robo (and its sequel, Getter Robo G), Combattler V, Daitarn 3 and Raideen the Brave.
Actually, that’s almost all of the shows licensed for this game. However, Banpresto decided to create some of their own giant robots for their game. However, there aren’t many to find in this iteration of the series, but the original creations also stretch out to the main villains for this adventure as well – which does make up for that.
Instead of just following one sole plot of any one show, SRT 3 combines the plots of each show into one long story. While this can get convoluted at points – including ignoring which characters should die when, as well as progression of technology in the Gundam shows, the entire effect is rather charming. Seeing the heroes of so many anime shows interacting is a treat in this game, even if the plot itself is shallow in itself – aliens coming in to bump off Humanity after a long-fought war, using mankind’s own weapons against them. The player is given a chance to control which storylines they choose to follow, though, granting the chance for each play through to be somewhat unique.
People who have played Super Robot Taisen Original Generation 1 and 2 for the Game Boy Advance will really recognize some parts of this game – much of the plot after the Divine Crusaders battles in that game were lifted from this game, at times almost line-for-line. Indeed, many characters survived the transition over from SRT3 – including the boss characters.
This game’s not much of a looker, either – each robot (and their various forms) get one sprite each for the most part, with something looking similar to their attack shooting out of their body. This makes for a rather underwhelming effect overall, and feels really cheap, even for 1993.
The sound isn’t a whole lot better, being midi variations of the main themes for each show involved – though exceptions are made when the theme song doesn’t work as a battle theme. Very well done, though is a little awkward at times.
The game itself is rather simple – it is a strategic turn-based game. While this sounds awkward at first, one quickly gets the hang of using spirit spells to enhance the characters for a brief time and laying the pain down on the computer.
Between levels, you are allowed to upgrade your characters, but there is a serious limit to how far they could be upgraded – often costing enough reward money to feed a proverbial small nation. Pilots can also be switched from robot to robot, but pilots are restrained to their own continuity – you are unable to have Amuro Ray from the Gundam universe piloting the Makoushin Wind-God Cybuster, for example. Masaki Andoh is actually unable to pilot anything else, because of a plot reason (Cybuster chose him).
However, once you begin to play the levels, problems with the game become evident. Some fans are derisive about this game – and rightfully so. Winkysoft got this game subcontracted to them by Bandai’s Banpresto and made some very awkward decisions.
For example, after movement, one is unable to fire any projectile weaponry – despite the shows the robots are based on doing what the game will not allow you to do.
Not only that, but the computer-controlled enemies are often running about in mecha that are fully-upgraded compared to your own. A simple Zaku II from the first Gundam show will often have about 3,000 HP, whereas your own comparable GMs from the same show will start off at 1,500.
This would not be bad if it were not for the fact that at some points, the computer actually cheats. Enemy mecha like the Gundam GP-02 are more than capable of taking out your command ship with a single blast from their weakest weapon – an embarrassing and scarring event if one happens into it.
Winkysoft even granted bonuses to mecha that did not have them in their original show – Zeta Gundam’s The O being the biggest offender. While already strong in HP and amour – and nearly un-hittable in the first place, Winkysoft added something known as an ‘I-Field’ to The O. This blocks almost all projectile weapons, forcing you to move into melee-range… and probably become torn to shreds by the pilot of The O. And it only gets worse from there on out.
There are cheats floating about for this game, including infinite cash – but without the ability to upgrade the damage one can do with the weapons, even some of the strongest robots become screwed over in the end.
However, despite the flaws over the difficulty, this is a pretty good game for the era of the SNES. While it doesn’t hold up to even the early Game Boy Advance SRT games, Super Robot Taisen 3 is definitely worth a look – and beating this game is somewhat of a badge of honor among fans these days.
Considering that this was actually my first Super Robot Taisen game, I may be going easy on the game, but I find it coming in at about a 5.1 overall. It would have scored much higher if the difficulty had been much lower, but this is still worth a look if you’re bored and need something to do.