| Raiden III | |
| Developer: | MOSS |
| Series: | Raiden |
| Genre: | Scrolling shooter |
| Modes: | Single-player, 2 player Co-op |
| Arcade System: | Taito Type X, Taito NESiCAxLive |
| Platforms: | Arcade, Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Network, i-mode, Yahoo Mobile, EZweb, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S |
is a scrolling shooter video game developed by MOSS, licensed by Seibu Kaihatsu, and published by Taito in 2005. It is the fourth game in the Raiden series. Raiden III uses the Taito Type X arcade hardware, giving full 3D graphics to the series for the first time. The game was published in the US by UFO Interactive Games, in Europe by 505 Games, and in China by Soft-World International Corporation. An enhanced version, Raiden III x Mikado Maniax, was released in 2023.
Raiden III shares the same mechanics as the previous games in the series, while introducing new mechanics to set it apart from its predecessors. Players are given a new primary weapon, the piercing Proton Laser, and a new missile weapon, the Radar Missile. New mechanics introduced in this game include the Flash Shot multiplier, which increases score the faster an appearing enemy is destroyed, and Double Play, which allows one player to control both ships with one controller. Raiden III is the first game in the series to give the player craft smaller hitboxes. The bombs were changed to deploy instantly and cover the entire screen, as opposed to the earlier games' delayed explosion and smaller area of damage.
The game consists of seven stages of increasing difficulty, with the first three levels taking place on Earth and the last four taking place in space.
In Raiden III, the Crystals have begun another invasion of Earth. VCD deploys a new model of the Fighting Thunder, the ME-02, to stop the Crystals and save the Earth. The game's ending sequence shows the player's Fighting Thunder craft landing on the wreck of another Fighting Thunder craft, transforming into a Fairy.
The Windows port of Raiden III was published by Soft-World International corporation. It includes an English translation of the Japanese text. The Windows version was re-released internationally on download services in 2014. The Windows version is a nearly perfect port of the arcade version.
UFO Interactive Games obtained the publishing rights to the PlayStation 2 version of Raiden III and released the game in the US in April 2007.
The Yahoo Mobile, i-mode, EZ-Web versions contain 3 difficulty levels.
An enhanced version, Raiden III x Mikado Maniax, was released on February 23, 2023 in Japan for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.[1] North American released was on June 6, 2023 and European and Oceania released was on June 9, 2023.[2]
The game capture DVD of Raiden III was released on November 2, 2006. The DVD version contains 120 minutes of footage, while the CD version contains 70 minutes. Its features include: