The difficulty holds the game back, but R-Type 3 is still a very well-constructed side-scrolling shooter
Game-play/Play-mechanics: On the surface, most of these 2D side-scrolling shooters appear to have little to set them apart from each other, however there are certainly some different development approaches taken that will distinguish some shooters from others. While many shooters entail a various onslaught of adversaries and patterns to overcome set to an intensive pace, R-Type is more of a thinking man’s shooter, with a more tactical feel to the action and the player sometimes being required to carefully place the ship in certain positions as to not trap itself, and to proceed with a hint of caution. Personally I prefer the first concept that I explained, but R-Type 3 is still a fun and well-constructed game nonetheless. You can choose from three separate weapon systems at the beginning of the game, and there is also a charge super-shot that can be charged up to multiple levels of power, as well as an option satellite to manipulate. Levels are long and methodical, and the game is very difficult much of the time, and will require much trial and error due to the thinking portions; what I don’t like about these thinking segments is that the main objective is to figure out exactly where to place the ship for safety, and there is only one way to play the game in these instances, as opposed to the game-play having a second nature about it with the player being able to instinctively react to danger, like is the case in many good shooters. You will get both type of game-play situation in R-Type 3 to be fair, but certain levels in the game like level 4 are of the “one specific method or perish” variety.
R-Type 3 is also a checkpoint shooter, where if the ship is destroyed the game will restart at a pre-determined checkpoint each time, the alternative to this for some other shooters is using all of your lives without interruption and starting the level over if they become exhausted, or a continuity shooter. I prefer the continuity style of game-play to what R-Type offers. That doesn’t keep the game from having fun-factor or being worthwhile however, as there are many cool sequences in the game and the controls are very well-tweaked. Weapon choices are good all-around and bosses and level-design are both solid. Because the game is so challenging, replay value is not quite what it could be, but I still had plenty of fun playing through the game in spite of the marginally excessive difficulty.
Visuals/Artwork: R-Type 3 is one of the more impressive shooters visually for SNES, the environments range from outer space, to organic alien areas, and also mechanical type locales, with everything looking quite good or adequate at the worst. The game makes nice use of the more sophisticated special-effects that the Super Nintendo is capable of, with plenty of advanced scaling and rotation effects to mesmerize the player. (Okay, it did back then) The level-four boss features some of the smoothest and best rotation effects that I have seen for a SNES game, and the bosses are screen-filling with many cool attacks and movement patterns. Firepower from the player ship as well as enemies also features a sharp and dynamic look.
Music/Sound: The music in R-Type 3 is mostly good material and a couple of compositions-the level one theme and boss music-stand out as being very well arranged, and the rest of the selections range from decent to good pieces. Many of the pieces have some portions that sound really catchy and clever and other arrangements within the same pieces that are unremarkable. The music is usually pretty heavy sounding but also slightly detuned, which I have lukewarm feelings about. Sound-effects are standard for the genre and well-implemented, the sound samples are well-worn territory for the genre, and that is just fine. R-Type 3 is a quality and worthwhile shooter from beginning to end, but it is not among my very favorite games in the genre due to the reasons explained above.