Salamander

Salamander

Salamander is a scrolling shooter arcade game by Konami. Released in 1986 as a spin-off to Gradius, Salamander 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. The game was later re-titled Life Force in North America and the story and levels were changed.

Salamander was followed with an official sequel in 1996 entitled Salamander 2.

Gameplay

The first player controls Vic Viper and the second player takes the reins of debuting spacecraft Lord British, which is sometimes referred as "Road British" due to the ambiguity of Japanese-to-English Romanization. The game features six stages which alter between horizontal and vertical scrolling.

Players can immediately restart back into the action instead of being pushed back to a predefined checkpoint per Gradius tradition. The buy-in feature is available in single-player mode, and the continuation feature is only available in dual-player mode; but they will both cease to be available once the final stage is reached.

The player gains power-ups by picking up capsules left behind by certain enemies, as opposed to the selection bar used in other Gradius titles.

Version differences

The arcade version of the game was released under its original title in Japan (version J) and Europe (version D) and as Life Force in North America. The Japanese and European versions are nearly identical, but the American version changes the game's plot by adding an opening text that establishes the game to be set inside a giant alien life-form which is infected by a strain of bacteria. Stages that featured star field backgrounds had them changed with the web background from Stage 1 to maintain consistency with the organic setting of the plot. The power-ups are also given different names, with the "Speed-Up" becoming "Hyper Speed", the "Missile" becoming the "Destruct Missile", the "Ripple Laser" becoming the "Pulse Laser" and "Force Field" becoming the "Shield".

Konami later released an enhanced version of Salamander in Japan bearing the American title of Life Force which further fleshes out the organic motif. All of the backgrounds and mechanical enemies are completely redrawn and given organic appearances. The power-up system was also modified, with the Japanese Life Force using the same power-up gauge as the original Gradius. Some music tracks have been completely changed for this release. The power-up gauge is arranged differently for both players as well.

Both the original Japanese version and the enhanced Life Force release are included in the compilation Salamander Deluxe Pack for the PlayStation and Saturn, as well as in Salamander Portable for the PlayStation Portable.

Plot

The Bacterian special force called Salamander attacks Latis instead of Gradius with a planet-modifying system. Veteran ship Vic Viper, along with the Lord British Space Destroyer piloted by the prince of Latis the ship was named after, goes to the planetoid base and in the end, destroys the base along with the planet-modifying system.

The plot in the NES port of Life Force takes place inside a gigantic monster named Zelos.

The plot in the stand-up arcade game Life Force takes place a giant creature named Life Force.

Ports

Famicom

Salamander was ported to the Nintendo Famicom in Japan in 1987. Instead of being a direct port of Salamander, elements were taken from both that and Life Force, and some elements, such as levels and bosses, were removed to make way for new content. Most of the level graphics and enemy sprites from Salamander, however, are used in favor of those used in Life Force In addition, this version (and most subsequent ones) made use of the Traditional Gradius power-up bar and capsules. The same year, North America received a port as well for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was practically identical to the Famicom port of Salamander, other than featuring an abbreviated version of the Gradius powerup bar(blocks would appear blank but when highlighted, a box would read what they were), not having the multiple endings and being titled Life Force. These ports make use of the Konami Code, which in this instance increases the number of lives from three to 30.

MSX

Main article: Salamander (MSX)

PC Engine

A version for the PC Engine was released on December 12, 1991. Changes include starting from a pre-defined checkpoint upon death in single-player mode, faster enemy animations, and music being somewhat improved from the arcade version.

Home computers

Ocean Software on their Imagine label, released licensed versions of Salamander for the Spectrum, Commodore and Amstrad in 1988. The Commodore 64 version was highly praised by the critics of the day, particularly Zzap!64. Despite missing two of the six stages, the simultaneous two player mode and gameplay being much easier than its arcade counterpart, the Commodore port is generally considered to be one of the best arcade conversions on this system.

The Spectrum and Amstrad versions, on the other hand, were unfairly hard, even by Gradius standards, and all for the wrong reasons. These include poor stage design, the fact you do not get a speed up power up until halfway through the first level, with a default speed that is nearly unplayable, and you can only have one, very slow moving bullets on screen at once. Finally, most of the game has been cut, with only the first stage having any layout at all, and the others simply being single screens of enemies. There are also only two boss fights in the game, one of which is a semi-original final boss, the other being a unfair incarnation of the Brain Golem, mostly because it gained the ability to shoot invisible bullets. It is notable that the playing window of the game is also tiny - the rest of what little screen space the Spectrum and Amstrad had being taken up by the game designer credits.

NES

Life Force

PlayStation and Sega Saturn

The US arcade version of Life Force was part of Salamander Deluxe Pack Plus. It also included the original Salamander, Salamander 2 and the Japanese version of Life Force (with the Gradius power-up bar) with a CGI intro.

Mobile phones

Salamander and Life Force is released for mobile phones in 2003.

PlayStation Portable

The Japanese arcade version of Life Force is part of the Salamander Portable compilation that was released on January 24, 2007 in Japan. It also includes Salamander, Salamander 2, Xexex and as a special bonus the MSX game Nemesis 2, which is different than the regular Gradius II: Ambition of Gofer/Vulcan Venture most people are used to.

Wii Virtual Console

PC Engine, NES and MSX Version of Salamander were released for Wii Virtual Console.

PlayStation 3 Network

The PC Engine version of Salamander was released in Japan for PlayStation Network.

Anime

Salamander (anime) OVA based on the game was released in Japan on February 25, 1988. Noriko Hidaka provided the voice of the protagonist Stephanie. In the anime, the Lord British Space Destroyer was named after one of the protagonists, Lord British of planet Latis. The Anime was more of an animated retelling of the first three Gradius titles than anything focusing primarily on Salamander. While part one retells the namesake game, part 2 is a prequel that retells Gradius, and 3 set later on, retelling Gradius 2.

Stages

Arcade (Standard) (Note: Stage names taken from the PC Engine version) Stage 1: Bionic Germ Stage 2: Meteorite Space Stage 3: Burning Chaos Stage 4: Volcano Area Stage 5: Asteroid Hell Stage 6: Fortress Zone

Commodore 64 / ZX Spectrum / Amstrad Stage 1: Bionic Germ Stage 2: Meteorite Space Stage 3: Burning Chaos Stage 4: Fortress Zone

Bosses

Arcade (standard) Stage 1: Brain Golem Stage 2: Tetran Stage 3: Intruder Stage 4: Center Core Stage 5: Death Stage 6: Big Core X3, Jumping Moai, Zelos Force

Commodore 64 Stage 1: Brain Golem Stage 2: Tetran Stage 3: Intruder Stage 4: Big Core X3, Jumping Moai, Zelos Force

ZX Spectrum / Amstrad Stage 1: Brain Golem Stage 4: Zelos Barrier

Trivia

• Salamander takes place in Gradius year 6709.
• The PC Engine version takes in Year 6855 after Solar Assault.