Salamander Longplay (Arcade) [QHD]
156Game Info
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Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Year of Release: 1986
Game Review & Impressions
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Developed a spin-off to Gradius, Salamander is quite the looker for 1986. In a world where R-Type was yet to be released, this would have been one of the best shoot 'em ups on the market at the time.
While it retains the visual style of its predecessor and similar gameplay, the ship weapon and power-up system is more conventional. Weapons are loaded directly on to your ship as you collect the components, rather than requiring the player to collect multiple power-up tokens and make a choice as to which power they want to equip. Personally, I always preferred this more simplistic approach to power-ups, so it gets a thumbs up from me.
The other major improvement here is the graphical fidelity. Gradius was released only a year prior to Salamander, but the former looks positively ancient compared to the latter. Salamander boasts some exceptionally beautiful graphics for the time, with colours and animation that pop right off modern LCD screens, so one can only imagine what it must have looked like with true CRT phosphor glow in a dimly-lit arcade.
According to Games Machine magazine, Salamander was the second most popular arcade machine for August 1986. It's not difficult to see why.
Chapters
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00:00 Attract mode
01:05 Stage 1
03:30 Stage 2
05:40 Stage 3
07:33 Stage 4
09:45 Stage 5
11:46 Stage 6
15:20 Ending