Rolling Thunder 3

The game maintains the "shoot-and-take cover" formula of the previous installments. In Rolling Thunder 3, the player progresses through ten levels and three secret areas (including an abandoned version of the original game's first stage) by shooting hostile enemies, replenishing ammo by entering specially marked doors, and dodging or crouching under enemy fire by hiding behind objects such as crates. Unlike Rolling Thunder 2, the game features only a single-player mode.

Rolling Thunder 3 offers its fair share of new features to the series. Players now have the option to select one weapon from a total nine before beginning each level, including submachine gun, shotgun, bazooka, flamethrower, a laser gun similar to the ones in the Genesis version of Rolling Thunder 2, three types of hand grenades (regular, flash and cracker) or a "cannon" that lobs incendiary grenades. When the player's starting special weapon is expended in one stage, it cannot be chosen again in later stages. The player may refuse to choose any, in which case Jay's special weapon would be a dagger.

The game's plot is set around the same time period as its predecessor Rolling Thunder 2. With WCPO agents Albatross and Leila assigned to tracking down Gimdo criminal organization, a new Rolling Thunder agent codenamed Jay is assigned to track down Geldra's second-in-command, Dread (a green skinned humanoid resembling Maboo from the first game). Jay is assisted via radio by a contact named Ellen, who provides him with mission objectives. The story is presented in a more cinematic fashion than the previous games, featuring animated cutscenes between stages and on-screen text dialogue between the characters. There are only a couple of spoken dialogs in the game, all of which are synthesized voices.