Artificial Sun

Artificial Sun
Boss	Phoenix
Environment	Fire solar area
Music	"Burning Heat" "Take Care!" "Last Enemy" (NES)
Game	Gradius II
◄ Previous stage	N/A
◄ Previous stage	N/A
Next stage ►	Alien Gradius II NES Stage 2
Next stage ►	Alien Gradius II NES Stage 2

Artificial Sun is the first stage in Gradius II.

Overview

Arcade

After the initial flight through space, where players are encouraged to power-up, the player will then enter a cluster of burning planetoids. Here, Fire Dragons will emerge from their fiery pits and try to destroy the player, either through limiting the player to a small space, thus maximizing the chance of destruction through bullets, or by the fireballs they spew. Meanwhile, Bacterian fighters will attempt to ambush the player, using the the suns as a chokepoints.

Afterward, the player will fly through empty space, destroying a handful of Bacterian spacecrafts, before being attacking by the area boss, the Phoenix.

Enemies

• Zalk
• Fire Dragon

Boss

• Phoenix

Music

Description	Audio
Theme of Air Battle #1 - Air 1 Tabidachi.
Theme of Artificial Sun - Burning Heat.
Theme of Boss and Final fight - Take Care.
Theme of Air Battle #1 - Air 1 Tabidachi.
Theme of Artificial Sun - Burning Heat (NES version).
Theme of Boss Fight and Enemy Base 2 - The Final Enemy.

Trivia

• This is the first fire-themed stage to appear in a mainstream Gradius game (Salamander being first).
• A souped-up version of "Burning Heat" appears in Stage 5 of the PlayStation 2 version of Thunder Force VI, called "Full-Speed". Its composer was Motoaki Furukawa, the same person who composed the soundtrack for Gradius II. Additionally, "Burning Heat" also appears in the Konami game Beatmania IIDX 10th Style.
• The Artificial Sun is featured as a stage in the crossover fighting game DreamMix TV World Fighters.