Raiden III uses the Taito Type X arcade hardware, giving full 3D graphics to the series for the first time.
An enhanced version, Raiden III x Mikado Maniax, was released in 2023 by NIS America.
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.
VCD deploys a new model of the Fighting Thunder, the ME-02, to stop the Crystals and save the Earth.