Merry Christmas Eve! Konami’s scrolling space shooter Gradius III is now playable again today as part of Hamster Co.’s Arcade Archives series.
Available for $7.99 on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch digital stores, Arcade Archives GRADIUS III was released on Dec. 24, 2020. The game’s description says it supports one or two players, though I think it was originally a single-player game. A custom mode allows players to change various settings and start the game from a favorite stage.
Gradius III came to Asian arcades in 1989 and Nintendo’s Super Famicom in 1990, then was a launch title when the console was released in North America as the Super NES a year later. It follows Gradius and Life Force (Salamander in Japan) in the Gradius video game series.