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Saturday, July 28, 2007 » gaming thought

I picked up Salamander Portable during Play Asia's summer sale and just got around to trying it tonight. Out of the included Salamander, Life Force, Salamander 2, Xexex and Gradius 2 (most of which I've never played), so far I've only tried the original Salamander. But so far it's been great, mostly because it's like bizarro-Gradius. It's got all the same weapons and equipment, but instead of a powerup meter you just pick them up directly, like most other arcade shooters. And speaking of that, after the first level, Vic Viper rotates around and the game goes into vertical mode. WHAT.

Also really interesting is realizing how much Gradius V borrowed from this game. There are a ton of elements from Gradius V's cell stage that come directly from Salamander's first stage. (On a lesser note, the options are called multiples here as well.) I'm looking forward to getting through more of the game to see if anything else is familiar. It may take a while because the difficulty is pretty high up there (although nowhere near as brutal as the early Gradius games), but I'll be enjoying it.

Hooray, shooters!