![]() Narration is added to the beginning of each stage, detailing the area of the alien's body which the player is currently inhabiting such as "Enter stomach muscle zone" or "Bio-mechanical brain attack". The power-ups are also given different names, with the "Speed-Up" becoming "Hyper Speed", the "Missile" becoming the "Destruct Missile", the "Ripple Laser" becoming the "Pulse Laser" and "Force Field" becoming the "Shield". Stages that feature starfield backgrounds were changed to the web background from Stage 1 to maintain consistency with the organic setting of the plot. The Japanese and European versions are nearly identical, but the American version changes the game's plot by adding an opening text that establishes the game to be set inside a giant alien life-form which is infected by a strain of bacteria. The arcade version of the game was released under its original title in Japan and Europe, and as Life Force in North America. Upon the ship's destruction, the options float in space for a brief time before disappearing the new ship can grab and retain them. The only power-up that can survive the ship's destruction is the options (called "multiples" in the English release), they followed the exact flight path of the player's ship and fired when they did, but were otherwise invulnerable. ![]() The ripple and laser, however, are mutually exclusive. For example, an option fires a second (or third) salvo of missiles or ripple/plutonic lasers if these power-ups have been attained. However, the Japanese version of Life Force keeps the selection bar. The player gains power-ups by picking up capsules left behind by certain enemies, as opposed to the selection bar used in other Gradius games. The number of continues can be changed through DIP switches. There are no continues in single player mode, and two in the two-player mode. Players are allowed to continue from where they leave upon death instead of being returned to a predefined checkpoint as per Gradius tradition. The game features six stages which alter between horizontal and vertical scrolling. The first player controls Vic Viper and the second player takes the reins of debuting spacecraft Lord British, which is sometimes referred to as "Road British" due to the ambiguity of Japanese-to-English romanization. Salamander was followed with a sequel in 1996 titled Salamander 2. ![]() Contra, another game by Konami was also given this treatment, with its title written in Japanese as 魂斗羅 ( kontora). In Japanese, the title is written using ateji, which are kanji used for spelling foreign words that has been supplanted in everyday use by katakana. Some of these later became normal for future Gradius games. ![]() Released in 1986 as a spin-off of Gradius, Salamander introduced a simplified power-up system, two-player cooperative gameplay and both horizontally and vertically scrolling stages. Salamander ( 沙羅曼蛇 ( サラマンダ ), Saramanda), retitled Life Force ( ライフフォース, Raifu Fōsu) in North America and in the Japanese arcade re-release, is a scrolling shooter arcade video game by Konami. ![]()
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