Thunder Force III

サンダーフォースIIIGenesis, Arcade, SNES, Saturn +21990

  1. JP1990
  2. NA1990
  3. EU—
  4. RU—

Thunder Force III kept its name in every region (サンダーフォースIII in Japan); its arcade adaptation is Thunder Force AC, and the Super Famicom version is Thunder Spirits. The arcade adaptation was re-released on Switch as Sega Ages Thunder Force AC in 2020.

Thunder Force III is a scrolling shooter developed and published by Technosoft for the Mega Drive in Japan on 8 June 1990; it reached North American Genesis owners in October 1990. The third Thunder Force dropped the overhead stages of the first two games and went fully horizontal.

Aboard the FIRE LEO-03 Styx, a small craft built to slip past the ORN defense system Cerberus, the player picks the order of five planets, Hydra, Gorgon, Seiren, Haides and Ellis, before three final stages at ORN headquarters and a showdown with the bio-computer Cha Os.

The game spawned two adaptations: Sega's arcade Thunder Force AC in Japan in December 1990, and Thunder Spirits, published by Toshiba EMI for the Super Famicom in December 1991. The Mega Drive game was later included in Sega 3D Fukkoku Archives 3 for the 3DS in 2016 and on the Mega Drive Mini, while Thunder Force AC came to Switch through Sega Ages in 2020.12

Names and releases

RegionTitle on the boxPlatformDatePublisherSrc
NA Thunder Force III Genesis October 1990 — 1
NA Sega Ages Thunder Force ACArcade version; same date in Europe Switch May 28, 2020 Sega 1
JP サンダーフォースIII Genesis Jun 8, 1990 Technosoft 2
JP サンダーフォースACThunder Force AC, on Sega System C-2 Arcade December 1990 Sega 2
JP サンダースピリッツThunder Spirits; English Wikipedia gives 27 December, Japanese Wikipedia 31 December 1991 SNES December 1991 Toshiba EMI 1
JP サンダーフォース ゴールドパック2Thunder Force AC with Thunder Force IV Saturn Dec 6, 1996 Technosoft 2
JP サンダーフォース ゴールドパック1Compilation with Thunder Force II MD; English Wikipedia gives 27 September, Japanese Wikipedia 27 August 1996 Saturn 1996 Technosoft 2
JP セガ3D復刻アーカイブス3 FINAL STAGEPort by M2; digital sales ended 21 December 2022 Nintendo 3DS Dec 22, 2016 Sega Games 2
JP SEGA AGES サンダーフォースACArcade version Switch May 14, 2020 Sega 2

Also known as: サンダーフォースIII JP2Thunder Force AC JP1Thunder Spirits JP1

Box art by region

  • Thunder Force III box art, North America release
    NA Thunder Force III
  • サンダーフォースIII box art, Japan release
    JP サンダーフォースIII

Box art © its publishers, shown to identify each release. Scans: libretro-thumbnails.

Version differences

  • GameplayMega Drive/Genesis

    The Mega Drive game has a stage select for the first five planets; on higher difficulties losing a ship strips all weapons.1

  • ContentArcade (Thunder Force AC)

    Thunder Force AC looks almost the same as the Mega Drive game but drops the stage select and software autofire, has fewer 1UPs, gives a 100,000-point bonus per remaining ship and replaces some stages with ones from Thunder Force II.2

  • ContentSuper Famicom (Thunder Spirits)

    Thunder Spirits is based on the arcade version, with its own sixth and final stages, several changed levels and a noticeably different soundtrack.2

All differences (5)

Reception

Famitsu scored the Mega Drive version 31/40 and Thunder Spirits 23/40. Mean Machines gave the Genesis game 86% and MegaTech 89%. Mega ranked it 17th among the top Mega Drive games in 1992, and in 1997 Electronic Gaming Monthly placed it 59th among the best console games of all time, calling it the best Genesis shooter.1

In lists

Sources

  1. 1en.wikipedia.org
  2. 2ja.wikipedia.org

Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13

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