Just played arcade Gradius 3 for an hour and a half...

Maybe you should try the SNES version. It's bound to be easier than the arcade version.

Yeah, I played that a few years back for images to submit to HG, and I still clearly remember it not being this hard.

I think I beat the SNES version years ago just because it frequently slows down to a crawl when the action becomes too intense.

The arcade version slows down too when a bunch of crap is on screen, but it will still beat you up if you're not careful. There were instances where I instantly died because the slowdown automatically went away while a bunch of bullets were still on screen.

Also, I've now made it to the third stage, and while it's not as bad as the second stage, it's still nuts, and annoyingly long.

I'm gonna try to get to the next stage, but if I can't by the end of today, I give up. A set of images to upload isn't worth this much suffering.

The horror, it doesn't end!

So, I managed to finish stage 3 earlier tonight. Obviously, I was excited to finally get to the next stage. A problem: That was it. After beating the stage 3 boss, I got a message in Japanese, then got sent to the initial entering screen. APPARENTLY, I made a horrible decision at the start of the game. See, I was playing the Japanese version, and when you start the game, you have to pick one of two choices, which happen to be written in Japanese. Thinking it was something harmless, I picked the right side choice that had the number 3 in it.

I now know what that 3 stood for.

I was forced to replay the first three stages again with the left side choice, and yes, I was very upset about that. So after going through that mess again, I finally arrived at the fourth stage... and I think that's a wrap for me. I seriously can't take any more of this game.

Gawd, Konami, what were you thinking when you thought not including a continue option after losing all lives was a good idea? Are you mad? Did you want money that badly?

So... is the mode that only allows you play three stages easier? It is like Double Dragon 2 for the NES where you have to pick the harder settings to play more stages?

If not, then I wonder what is the point behind that weird option. Who in their right mind would only want access to three stages if the difficulty is exactly the same?

There's a tiny difference, but not that much to consider it much easier.