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Gradius III, known in Japan as Gradius III: Densetsu kara Shinwa e (グラディウスIII 伝説から神話ヘ?, lit. Gradius III: From Legend to Myth ), is a side-scrolling shooting game originally released for the arcades in Japan and Asia in 1989. It is the second sequel to the original Gradius for the arcades following Gradius II, and was followed by Gradius IV. Gradius III was rereleased for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in Japan in 1990, and in North America in 1991. The arcade version was included with Gradius IV in a two-in-one compilation (Gradius III & IV) for the PlayStation 2 and in the Gradius Collection for the PlayStation Portable.

In 2000, Konami bundled Gradius III and Gradius IV Fukkatsu together for release on the PlayStation 2 video game console, as Gradius III and IV. The port is based on the arcade version and has an unlockable Extra Edit mode, which gives the player the freedom to create a weapon array from all included setups and adds the F-Option, R-Option and Reduce II power-ups found in the Super NES port. The Reduce from the SNES port returns the player one step closer to the Vic Viper's original size when hit, giving it protection from two hits.

Gradius V is a Japanese-developed shoot 'em up video game published by Konami for the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console in 2004. Gradius V was largely developed under contract by the Treasure team responsible for Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga, under supervision of Konami's internal development studio, Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo.

The graphics have changed, too. The size of your ship has shrunk so more enemies, graphics, and so on, can be put on the screen together. Two-player games do cause it to slow down, depending on how many power-ups each ship has. With two completely powered up ships on the screen simultaneously, the game slows to a crawl. Aside from that, the graphics are spectacular. Leaving the game in 2D means the series can get more detailed than it's ever been before, but the graphics aren't over the top like some 32-bit shooters. Shooters with multiple layers of colorful backgrounds sometimes make it difficult to maneuver around enemy fire. With most of the stages in Gaiden having a black (or almost black) background, shots are more easily discernible against background elements. There's no excuse for being killed in this one, there's no enemy fire you didn't see. Being on the PlayStation, the game has a CG-rendered intro, but it's not as good as the intro to Gradius Deluxe Pack.