A marginally better experience than Rolling Thunder 2. Gone are the god awful platforming sections (mainly referring to round 9 of RT2) and awkward elevators (rounds 10 and 11 of RT2), and in their place are some okay-ish vehicle sections as well as extra hidden levels.
You can now shoot diagonally and, in general, there are more health pickups. Perhaps the biggest new feature is the ability to pick a special weapon before entering any of the main (non vehicle) rounds as well. If you choose to forfeit this bonus, you'll find that the doors marked as "S" (for "special") will give you health instead of ammo- there's actually a bit more strategy this time around which is nice. Last, but not least, you're also given a knife that can be used to conserve ammo by meleeing grunts.
The game is still brutally difficult, and in some ways, is even harder than Rolling Thunder 2 despite all of these new advantages. Enemies are far more aggressive- now being able to toss grenades on the upper and lower sections of the stage instead of just being locked in to wherever they're situated. Boss fights range from incredibly simple (round 7) to ungodly cheap (final boss, which I thankfully found a good cheese for and didn't feel bad for it in the slightest after an hour of attempting it the "right" way). The game is also very stingy with extends- you won't be able to find hidden 1ups by shooting random parts of the environment anymore and you'll need to accrue quite a score to earn them naturally. Thankfully, it's still unlimited continues and instead of being yeeted back to a poorly placed checkpoint you'll reappear right where you died this time.
Like the last game, the music and anime style cutscenes are top notch although I think I prefer RT2's soundtrack. There's also an incredibly clean audio sample that plays if you take too long in a stage.
Overall, this is the most player friendly of the Rolling Thunder games and probably the best one to start with. It'll still peg you mercilessly, but at least it uses lube.
You can now shoot diagonally and, in general, there are more health pickups. Perhaps the biggest new feature is the ability to pick a special weapon before entering any of the main (non vehicle) rounds as well. If you choose to forfeit this bonus, you'll find that the doors marked as "S" (for "special") will give you health instead of ammo- there's actually a bit more strategy this time around which is nice. Last, but not least, you're also given a knife that can be used to conserve ammo by meleeing grunts.
The game is still brutally difficult, and in some ways, is even harder than Rolling Thunder 2 despite all of these new advantages. Enemies are far more aggressive- now being able to toss grenades on the upper and lower sections of the stage instead of just being locked in to wherever they're situated. Boss fights range from incredibly simple (round 7) to ungodly cheap (final boss, which I thankfully found a good cheese for and didn't feel bad for it in the slightest after an hour of attempting it the "right" way). The game is also very stingy with extends- you won't be able to find hidden 1ups by shooting random parts of the environment anymore and you'll need to accrue quite a score to earn them naturally. Thankfully, it's still unlimited continues and instead of being yeeted back to a poorly placed checkpoint you'll reappear right where you died this time.
Like the last game, the music and anime style cutscenes are top notch although I think I prefer RT2's soundtrack. There's also an incredibly clean audio sample that plays if you take too long in a stage.
Overall, this is the most player friendly of the Rolling Thunder games and probably the best one to start with. It'll still peg you mercilessly, but at least it uses lube.