Megadrive - I wouldn't say that the detail level was very good for a Megadrive game, and the backgrounds tend to look quite flat, it's not bad, you do have to take into consideration that this was quite an early release in the Megadrives lifespan, and people were still getting to grips with the hardware.

SNES - The SNES version is pretty close graphically to the Megadrive version, no major effort seems to have been made to update the graphics, there are some differing backgrounds on some of the stages, and a few enemies have been re-designed but for the most part the graphics don't stray very far from the source material.

The color is very much the same in both versions, there are some pallet swaps in the SNES version, but I feel that they're mixed between some looking better and some looking worse.

Not applicable

Neither version has any problems scrolling smoothly and fast.

Thunder Force games always have very high quality soundtracks and the third instalment is no different. Both games sound very similar to each other music wise, I wouldn't say that there's enough difference to be easily noticible.

Megadrive - Great sound effects, in fact you could go as far as to call them easily recognisable, classic sound effects.

SNES - No noticible difference from the Megadrive version.

Megadrive - brilliant gameplay, an amalgamation of every great Horizontal shooter out there, all the levels have their own tricks and styles to them meaning that gameplay never gets repetitive, and the power-up system (whereby as you gain new weapons you can cycle through all those available to use the best suited for each situation) brings a very nice tactical element to the gameplay

SNES - This version plays in an identical manner to the MD version, except for one thing, the visible screen is now smaller on the horizontal axis (check out the ground in the screenshots above for Gorgon (the water level) and Sieren (the fire level) and you'll see that there's more horizontal visible screen in the Megadrive version) this really cuts into reaction time making oncoming threats harder to deal with.

SNES - This version replaces two of the original stages with two of it's own. The Ice stage Eliss (the one with the moving stalagtytes) and Haides (the cave level where the stage moves up and down in a similar fasion to lifeforce/Salamander) are removed. Now, I'm going to admit something here, I'm a fan of those two stages, they have their own little nuances to them which, whilst maybe not particularly original to the genre, work very well in the game. The two replacement levels are a generic asteroid field which doesn't really have anything going on in it to set it apart from any other generic shooters level, and an indoors level, which is in my opinion pretty good, and well up to the standards of the rest of the games stages (though it is a bit on the difficult side) so two fantastic levels have been replaced with a throwaway level and a pretty decent level. The only other change I can think of is the spaceship boss, which has been completely re-designed and now look really, really good, However the level has now become a bit on the cheap side, with enemies rushing from behind on a semi-regular basis, surviving the level is now more a case of trial and error, with eventual memorisation of the attack waves needed. The game also slows down more often (SNES had a slower CPU than the MD)

SNES - Rapid fire has been removed from this version, which I feel has a pretty detrimental effect on gameplay, I'd rather be concentrating on dodging and changing my weapon during gameplay in Thunder Force games than worrying about constantly tapping the fire button.

SNES - You can no longer choose what stage you start on which was always a nice feature previously as it allowed you the ability to practice on stages giving you the most trouble first.

SNES - The Status bar has been moved and split into two sections with the main bar placed at the bottom and the score going across the top of the screen. This now takes up more space, the top section has a minor effect of obscuring part of the screen.

The SNES version lacks two of the great levels of the original, and replaces them with inferior ones, and whilst the spaceship now looks greatly more impressive, the actual gameplay of that stage takes a hit too. The levels are zoomed in and don't give you enough time to react.

Choosing between the two is a lot easier than I thought it would be, the Megadrive version is easily the best of the two, though there's enough different things about the SNES version to warrant a fan of the series to buy both just for the new levels alone.