Gradius II/Stage 3

For reasons unknown, the Famicom conversion not only combines the third and fourth stages of the arcade game game, but it reverses their presentation, sending you through the volcano section before going through the crystal section. As a result, the boss of the fourth stage, Death, is omitted from the game.
 * Unlike the volcano stages from the original game, this volcano stage features elevated plateaus that appear from time to time, balanced atop a rocky column. You must pay special attention to the layout of the terrain this time so as not to get caught in a dead-end.  Pay attention in order to identify the safest path through the terrain.
 * Throughout the stage, cannons line the terrain and rain bullets at you. Duckers appear from the left side of the screen and approach to take shots at you.  Take a position near the left side of the screen that allows you to shoot the enemies hanging from the plateau, but also allows you to bomb enemies below with Missiles.  Watch out for strategically positioned hatches which release enemies that make navigating through the openings tricky.


 * When you reach the mid-point, a volcano will appear along the bottom terrain. It will begin spewing a massive amount of boulders.  Unlike their arcade counterparts, the volcanoes in the Famicom version can be shut down by shooting the opening until it explodes.  Then the boulders will no longer appear.
 * Shortly after you fly over the bottom volcano, another will appear along the top. Gravity for the boulders that fly out of this volcano is directed up to the top of the screen.  Once again, you can shoot the mouth of the volcano to stop the boulders from appearing.  This volcano is followed by another volcano, with a hatch nestled between them.  It's difficult to remove the hatch without the ability to fire upward.
 * After you pass the twin volcanoes, you will approach a narrow opening created by two final volcanoes, one on the bottom and one on the top. To make sure that you can travel safely through it, shoot both openings until they explode so that they stop spewing boulders.


 * Once you pass the volcanoes, you will fly through empty space before you begin to encounter small chunks of purple crystalline rocks. These rocks will fill the screen, and take a good amount of firepower to clear.  Occasionally two small red enemies will fly through the debris, leaving power up capsules behind if you destroy them.
 * Eventually, you will reach some terrain. You will be greeted by a set of cannons  The enemy presence is fairly light throughout the rest of the stage.  The chunks of rocks will continue to be your biggest concern as you fly through the terrain, but other enemies and cannons will appear from time to time.  Choose a path carefully through the stationary islands that soon appear.


 * After a while, you will begin to encounter larger chunks of crystal. These larger instances shatter and break apart into smaller pieces which you must continue to shoot down.  If you fire carefully, you can reduce the amount of debris that you must fly through by not shooting the larger pieces and breaking them apart.  However, if you shoot them while there is already a lot of debris on the screen, the game will be unable to generate the usual amount of smaller chunks, so you are better off shooting them in such cases.
 * Near the end of the stage, you must fly through six blue crystal platforms which are unbreakable. They bounce up and down through the area, against each other and against any other rocks that are floating around.  Whenever they collide with something, they bounce off, moving slowly at first but picking up speed the longer they travel uninterrupted.  After you pass them, it's just a short trip to the end of the stage.  A few flying enemies will attack you, and give you an opportunity to collect a few more power ups before flying on to the boss.

Boss: Crystal Core
The boss of this stage has a surprise for you. When the screen is clear of enemies, and you're waiting for the boss to appear, get to the top or bottom of the screen. Unlike most bosses in the game, this one appears from the left side. Move out of the ship's way, and then position yourself to confront it. Although ship is covered in a crystal armor, its weak point is the same as most Gradius bosses; the core in the center which is protected by a few barriers. This boss has two thin tentacles that it waves back and forth, firing beams in whatever direction they happen to be pointing at the time. The ship itself has two guns directly above and below the barriers. This ship tries to blast you with those guns, as well as the tentacle guns. Every now and then it enters a state where it crosses the tentacles and fires all guns continuously for a short period of time. This version of the Crystal Core does not suffer from the same blind spot as its arcade brethren. You cannot park yourself in front of the barriers and the core and safely shoot away. You must stay back and time your shots through the tentacles to wear down the barriers and the core.