R-Type III: The Third Lightning (アールタイプ3Ārutaipu 3), is a shoot 'em up game released in 1993 for the Super Nintendo. It was later ported to the Game Boy Advance and the Wii's Virtual Console.
The dark forces of the BYDO Empire threaten humanity yet again, with more powerful weapons than ever. Over the past few years, they have crept close to Earth, building hidden bases for their fleets. The Earth Science Center had believed that all of the BYDO Empire was destroyed. Now they know that somewhere a BYDO mother ship carries the remnants of that foul civilization.
Earth will be overthrown unless the latest R-series vessel, the R-90, can defeat BYDO's armies. Equipped with the mighty Round, Shadow, or Cyclone Forces of power, the R-90 can warp into different dimensions and meet the enemy ships and ground troops on an equal basis. As the Captain of the R-90, you must seek out the mysterious mother ship and destroy it to save humanity.
The R-90 Ragnarok has more than enough power for this mission. The Ragnarok was so powerful, in fact, that its latest version/model in R-Type Final was reduced in power and some of its abilities were split amongst other ships.
A notable difference between the Japanese and Western regions is the stage boss at the end of Acid Creatures, in the Japanese region, the pilot is attacked at this point by large sperm-like swimming creatures whereas the other region replaces these to swimming eyeballs that still retain their sperm-like shape.
This is the first game installment of R-Type series to directly developed for home consoles without arcade port.
