[沙羅曼蛇/Salamander] JP Vic Viper Stage 2-1 (Score: 625,400) [CC Commentary]

Salamander is the faster, more pew pew-ey sibling of Gradius. Equipped with similar movesets to how Vic Viper was in Gradius 1, Salamander differentiates itself with its stage design and structure: NO EXTENDS, normal power pick ups instead of the upgrade meter, and stage design that requires less precision. I love it.

Just like in Gradius you can shoot, drop missiles at 2 (or 3 on vertical stages), but the upgrade is a simple item pickup. It is what it is, but after Gradius I it does feel like a downgrade in terms of game design.

What gets upgraded though is how the Rank handled! In Gradius 1 the rank maxes out quickly, making the rank effects negligible when you're going No-Miss. Salamander, though, aside of merely progressing the Stage, the power ups you have DO directly affect the rank! This is especially notable when you have the Shield. Your rank also drops when the Shield is gone. Interesting, huh! Some attacks basically only appear when you have any Shield, so there is incentive in not picking up the Shield. It's not like the Shields are durable anyway; the Shield HP is only 16 and it drops by 1 each time you pick up some items! Is this by design or a bug!?

And as you can expect, Gradius Syndrome is here too. It is nerfed since you can recover your Multiples back when you can grab them. At specific spots the game provides you new pickups too, especially Multiples. That being said, when you die at a place where the power ups are non-existent, you are SCREWED. The fact that YOU DON'T GET ANY EXTENDS doesn't help too! In essence, this is a no-miss game! You die once and get ready for chain deaths towards your game over!

The game is aware of this, though, so at some points when you're at max power you really can just keep holding the rapid fire button and not look at the screen. I'm serious. The game is easier than Gradius 1 stage design-wise. When said blatantly like this it'll make you think Salamander is not that good of a game, but to its credit, these braindead moments have to be gained and you must know when and how. Such moments give you great empowering feel, like you're bullying the game! Even though it's by design.

What's harder is the bosses. I'm not a fan of these memo it or you die boss designs. Stage 4 boss is the WORST in this aspect! But these are consistent bosses and the solutions are fun to do. There is that. Good thing the game doesn't penalize wrong weapons heavily. But if you run out of Multiples, you're good as Game Over.

Salamander is not as precise as Gradius, but to make up for it its charm is its exhilaratingly fast gameplay. It's a game where, relatively speaking, lets you go all out and let loose! Assuming you don't get hit. I don't think it's a must play, but it is a very fun title to play! With this M2 port not much can go wrong with this title!

This is the Gradius Origins Collection port by M2 on Nintendo Switch 2. As expected, it has the premium features such as replay and widgets. Weird that the port doesn't let you practice the bosses directly, but I guess that's because the game is that easy.

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch2