Salamander is a scrolling shooter arcade game released by Konami as a spin-off to Gradius. It introduced a simplified power-up system, two-player cooperative gameplay and both horizontally and vertically scrolling stages. Some of these would later become the norm for future Gradius games.
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Minus half a star for that bullshit Stage 4 boss
It's frankly amazing how much of a step up in quality Salamander is compared to Gradius I, the game is fast, dynamic, lively and legitimately fun to control all around. It's weird how much more dynamic the gameplay becomes when you have immediate access to your power ups instead of having to save up for them like in Gradius's power up system.
I'm also glad that the game ditched the 1cc-or-bust structure from Gradius 1 in favour of giving you lives in accordance to the number of quarters you put in.
I really enjoy this game... up to stage 4, that is. From stage 4's boss onwards the game becomes extremely unfair and really unfun as a result. Stages 1 through 3 had their fair share of bullshit, but they were usually isolated sections that only required memorization to beat unscathed and definitely not to the extend Stages 5 and 6 have as a whole.
Sadly I cannot recommend it, but I had my fun while it lasted.
I'm also glad that the game ditched the 1cc-or-bust structure from Gradius 1 in favour of giving you lives in accordance to the number of quarters you put in.
I really enjoy this game... up to stage 4, that is. From stage 4's boss onwards the game becomes extremely unfair and really unfun as a result. Stages 1 through 3 had their fair share of bullshit, but they were usually isolated sections that only required memorization to beat unscathed and definitely not to the extend Stages 5 and 6 have as a whole.
Sadly I cannot recommend it, but I had my fun while it lasted.
Just as good as Gradius for all the same reasons: a cohesive package with a variety of levels, a great soundtrack, and good controls.
best shmup ever
A really good game when first seeing everything, but going for a 1cc and having to do stage 3 over and over with 0% chance of failure once you memorize it gets incredibly boring, also very hard - sometimes impossible to recover after death, still overall good (mostly stages 1, 4 and 6).
My favourite side scroller shoot em up game ever, I have 95,% of all Japanese side scrollers ever made, played this in the arcades and had a crowd around me as I looped the game 3 times on a single 10p, got this on most consoles even ones I don't own, even on my phone I have the SNES and PS1 versions, also known as lifeforce this is my favourite game ever,