Salamander 2
Like the original Salamander, and as opposed to the Life Force releases, Salamander 2 abandons the selection-bar based power-up system, in favor for a simplified system that focuses on powering weapons up based on specific icons. For example, the player cannot increase his ship speed until a speed icon is picked up; additional speed icons further increase the ship velocity. Several weapons, when additionally upgraded, turn into a 'super' weapon for approximately ten seconds. If the player has the ripple laser, and then gets another icon for it, the player will receive the high-powered Buster ripple for a short period of time. Options have been slightly changed with the arrival of 'option seeds', which are small options that orbit the ship firing only the basic initial shot. Two option seeds can combine into one full option. Moreover, options can also be sacrificed to utilize a short-term homing beam weapon. Several enemy bosses typical to Gradius games return, including the Brain Golem (the first level boss) and the Tetran (the second level boss). There are a total of six levels. Since the game is similar to its prequel, Salamander 2 does not use the Revival Start feature from Gradius (which pushes the player back to a pre-determined checkpoint if a life is lost), many people consider this title to be easier than other titles in the Gradius series due to this. Once the game has been completed, it starts its second-loop at a much higher difficulty. The music is also changed to remixed versions of Salamander's music in some stages. The first player's ship is called Vic Viper while the second player's ship is Super Cobra.
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I also love how the first Salamander's boss gets rightfully eaten by some wormy dude, which is awesome.
Salamander 2 keeps many of the features that made the first Salamander such a good little game and more enjoyable to me over it's mainline contemporaries. The power up system is simple and slightly less punishing. Collecting speed up and options power ups as well as ones that change the main weapon and missile type. When you die you lose your speed bonus but can recollect many of your options orbital guns meaning you aren't instantly turned into a new born kitten if you die. It also has a slight mix of horizontal and vertical levels and both play really well similar to the first title I really liked. Visually I think it's a great looking title. The usage of colour, sprites and art just make it still have a fairly crisp modern feel to it that made games like Gradius IV that came out 3 years later look immediately outdated and to top it all off it's not impossibly hard to beat making it generally a far more accessible title.
That said, I think it's predecessor despite being 10 years older stood out more to me. I enjoyed the overall gameplay of this more, it's less frustrating than sections of the first but the organic theme isn't leaned quite as much into and feels a little bit more like a generic shoot 'em up when all is said and done. I've still got a lot of these games to play and I'm especially looking forward to Gradius Gaiden and Gradius V but at this point Salamander 1 and 2 are however the best in the series even with their minor flaws.