Salamander III - 2-ALL Clear (2,551,320 to 3-2, Vic Viper Type-L)

At long last, after over way more than a decade--close to two decades, even--a new entry in the Gradius/Salamander series! Included with the incredible Gradius Origins collection released just last week by M2, Salamander III aims to tackle the question of, "What if an arcade sequel to Salamander was released in 1998?" But of course, the bigger question to answer here is--does Salamander III live up to the hype from when it was first announced back in March?

...eh. I have very mixed feelings about this game. On the one hand, it's not a bad game by any means. But there isn't really anything... super noteworthy about it, at least to me. Nothing about it sticks out as amazing, in my opinion. It's a perfectly fine game, don't get me wrong, and it does a lot of cool things. I just don't think it's anything special.

Salamander III (no idea why they went with Roman numerals this time around) feels a lot closer to the original Salamander than it does to Salamander 2. The gameplay is quite fast-paced, there are only six stages, and it alternates between horizontal and vertical scrolling every other stage. You can play as either the Vic Viper Type-L or the Lord British MK III (plus the Grey Layer, apparently a prototype build of Jade Knight, as a third unlockable ship). The automatic power-up system is back, as well as instant respawns. There is a new "Multiple Change" power-up which switches the Option mode (I refuse to call them Multiples) between regular Options and the Snake Options last seen in Gradius III.

One of my main critiques of Salamander III is that it feels just a little bit... derivative. Granted, people say the same thing about Gradius IV, and I'll defend that game until my last dying breath, but with just how much potential this game had at its disposal (especially with M2 at the helm), there's just not a whole lot of originality behind it. A lot of sprites, including some boss sprites, are just straight-up ripped from the early arcade entries, and don't really mix well with the new 1998-esque graphics. Sound effects are also a mix of old and new sound effects, and almost all of the music is just arrangements of songs from the other Salamander games (mostly the first), though I will give them huge props for repurposing songs that were previously unused in Salamander 1 and 2, including Fire Tripper, one of my all time favorite Gradius songs. I will say the music is... interesting, and perhaps it'll grow on me as I play this game and listen to it more, but again, it doesn't stand out to me as an amazing OST or anything.

Stage design also feels a bit nerfed. Stages 1 and 2 are mostly buffed up versions of the first two stages from Salamander, stage 3 is a weird mix between a volcano stage and the Ancient Planet from Nemesis 2 (with a bunch of Gaus for some reason), and stage 5 also feels like a mashup of Nemesis 3's third stage, Gradius V's 1st stage, and the ending of Salamander's fifth stage. Most of the bosses also feel a bit... generic. I will say that stages 4 and 6 are quite impressive, with stage 4 in particular being a super clever take on a Moai stage, and the final boss is very creative as well. Again, nothing about the stage design is bad, per se (aside from the escape sequence at the end of stage 6), it just doesn't do anything I find amazing.

Of course, there are a few new mechanics introduced to the mix. I already mentioned the Snake Options returning, but the biggest new addition is the "Burst" mechanic, which lets you charge up a temporary, super powerful shot at the cost of not being able to use any Laser upgrades for a short period. It's hardly ever required anywhere besides the very end of the game (where it's automatically activated for you), though I haven't messed with it a whole lot, so maybe it's more useful than I made it out to be. Also, when you die, you also have the ability to reobtain Missiles, Lasers, and a Speed-Up in addition to your Options. This does make recovery a bit more manageable... if it weren't for the ridiculously small amount of i-frames you get. (Thank goodness the extend system is broken.)

Honestly, I think I might need a bit more time with this game to decipher how I feel about it. I think I was expecting it to blow my mind, and aside from a couple of things, it really didn't. Maybe I was just expecting too much? I don't know, it just feels more like a fangame than an official sequel. If this is what M2 had in mind with Salamander ReBirth (back when that was supposed to be a thing), I'd be totally on board with this game. But giving it the Salamander III title doesn't feel right here. Really, though, I should just be grateful we have a new game at all after so long. It plays fine and there's hardly anything bad about it aside from a few small things. I don't think I'd recommend Gradius Origins for Salamander III alone, but it is certainly worth trying out for longtime fans of the series.

Played using Steam.