Ikari III: The Rescue aka Ikari Warriors III: The Rescue is an Arcade beat 'em up. It was ported to the NES, DOS, and C64. It is the second sequel to the original Ikari Warriors, following Victory Road.
Arcade Version
Unlike the previous two games, this game features hand-to-hand combat in addition to weapons, as well as more "life-like" character designs (as opposed to the "super deformed" versions of the characters in the first two games).
Gameplay
While the game still uses the rotary joystick, a version exists that forgoes the rotary feature altogether.
The weapon selection is greatly reduced from prequels, and there are no player usable vehicles. Weapons are much rarer, which makes the game more focused on hand to hand combat.
Stages
For the first time in the series, there are discrete stages.
Nintendo Entertainment System
This port maintains the characters design and basic game play over the arcade version, however the story and enemies are slightly altered.
Source: Wikipedia, "Ikari III: The Rescue", available under the CC-BY-SA License.