Salamander III announced for Gradius Origins for Switch [by M2] - Coming August 7, 2025

[Necronom]

Been playing a lot of Salamander 2 since the announcement, I made it as far as Doom on a couple of one credit attempts last night, but he scared me like I’ve never been scared before.

Yo I fucking did it. Ain’t so scared now.

Nice 1! Congrats Now try Gradius V which is as much a Salamander game as it is the pinnacle of Gradius

[To Far Away Times]

Nice 1! Congrats Now try Gradius V which is as much a Salamander game as it is the pinnacle of Gradius

Thanks. I love Gradius V but the 90 minute run time is really daunting to give the game a serious go.

[bcass]

Yeah, it's way too long and very samey. Other than the excellent graphics and great OST, I've never seen the appeal.

[copy-paster]

Glad to see more people realized the truth that Gradius V is not that great. It's missing two of the most iconic stuff (Moai and Volcanoes) and replaced with generic Ikaruga-like terrains and nothing but greys.

[Sumez]

I'm in the same boat. Was excited for Gradius 5 when it came out, but it was never able to grab my attention. Gave it another chance a couple of years ago and realised really quickly that I still didn't like it.

I think it's a really cool game. It's definitely good, it's well made, and a lot of effort was put into it. It just doesn't feel much like actual Gradius to me, and I don't have much fun playing it. :\

[Klatrymadon]

I'd love to see a truncated arcade mode for V, along the lines of Cambria Sword AC (unless that's still 4 hours long). Whenever I play it now I tend to mess around with single stages and the weapon edit mode. There's a lot of brilliance in there but I haven't got 90 mins to put aside for a chance of seeing it any more...

[Necronom]

I'd love to see a truncated arcade mode for V

Absolutely! I love V for its brilliant stage design, epic boss fights, beautiful textures and even the simple but effective "story twist"...but yeah, it's way too long.

[MJR]

I thought I was the only one who found the length of Gradius V exhausting.

But yes, lot of developers - including those I worked with - dont seem to realize that fast paced, difficult arcade game shouldn’t generally be overlong.

[Bassa-Bassa]

Konami were particularly guilty there indeed. They pretty much equated length with quality and made of that a core aspect of the Gradius/Parodius series in order to differentiate from the rest. Press articles from those years reveal that their main goal with Gradius III was making it way longer than the previous games, and seems that the final game didn't feature all the stages they had planned for it only due to deadlines. They found out the multiple route system as a way to add content a bit too late, sadly.

[bcass]

Multiple routes, as already perfected in the prior Darius, is the only thing that makes sense with the number of stages found in Gradius III.

[Sumez]

- or in Konami's own Castlevania 3 for that matter, which came out the same month as Gradius 3

[BIL]

When Gradius V called me a chimp with a small penis in the middle of Gamestop, I knew I was back home. (｀w´メ)

In hindsight, I find its titanic 1ALL runtime - marvellously imposing and exhilarating to a returning noob seeking EMCEE-SAMA's elusive favour - kinda charming, kinda quaint. It's as much a part of the game's stern aesthetic as the uncharacteristically austere OST and untold tonnages of Katoh-issue segmented chrome. I seem to have a similar relationship with Dracula IV; it's too lengthy for casual pickup, but always retains its uniquely stoical charm on dedicated revisits.

A new ~25min (inc. staff roll) arrange of those mechanics and stage concepts would be sublime. Trim it down from there for Score Attack modes. Or better yet, get Treasure and G.Rev back for a Gradius VI at similar spec.

Spoiler

Tell em they must include one (1) crazy-ass space dragon / fire manticore / Audrey Jr. MKVII Delta every other stage to balance out the gunmetal. Get the oldschool Gofer/Gaiden trash talk back in while they're at it. I'LL BASH U "You think you can beat me with that? LOSER!"

(tbh I find a few moodier parts of GV legit stunning to this day; namely the cloudy upper orbit vista of st2's boss rush, set to a thunderous Poison Of Snake. a convincing scintilla of Ace Combat arcade/sim fire, as boss after boss goes down in flames)

While we're in total daydream mode, get it on EXA with, I don't know, a multiplier for teabagging Moai heads. Every Moai teabagged builds the COCO METER, when it maxes out press A+B to hit em with vulcanic and creamy COCO BEAM goodness! Just kidding, FUCK A+B, hated it since IMAGEFIGHT, put it on C son. Ah jeez, you need shot/teabag/powerup don't you. I've ruined everything already, that's why they need the old legends back!

Only resurrection outdoes resurrection. Call up those killer instincts and reclaim who you really are.

[Herr Schatten]

I think it's a really cool game. It's definitely good, it's well made, and a lot of effort was put into it. (…) and I don't have much fun playing it. :\

Tbh, the above is how I feel about every single Treasure game I’ve ever played. I can appreciate the quality, I can see the appeal, but I still don't enjoy it much.

[Sumez]

Honestly yes. I don't talk much about Treasure games, because I know they get a lot of love in here, and I respect everything they do. But I feel the same way, they just rarely click with me even though they look so engaging.

Gradius 5 doesn't feel like much of a typical Treasure game to me though (but you can definitely feel both the Hiroshi Iuchi and G.Rev) - but that specific statement does carry over from previous Treasure titles.

[davyK]

For me, Treasure's best is Bangai O. Gradius V is a beautiful but cruel game that goes on for far too long.

[bcass]

I'd tend to agree. I particularly like how the Dreamcast and N64 versions differ, gameplay wise. I think on the whole, I preferred the N64 version as it's slightly more challenging.

[davyK]

I'd tend to agree. I particularly like how the Dreamcast and N64 versions differ, gameplay wise. I think on the whole, I preferred the N64 version as it's slightly more challenging.

I had the Dreamcast version first but I was really surprised by how well it runs on N64 but I also enjoy the gameplay differences.

[To Far Away Times]

With regard to overly long games, I think Darius Burst AC really cracked the code with that one.

There’s several hours worth of arcade quality content in that game, but it’s broken up into ~15 minute routes consisting of three stages each. At their easiest, the routes range from a freebie clear all the way to pretty damn difficult; and the routes are also arranged in increasing difficulty. It kinda feels like climbing a ladder. It’s a great progression system. It made me want to try to master all the routes (the last two still get me), which is something very few people do in prior Darius games, which usually devolve into just finding the easiest route and no one ever plays the other stages.

[Strider77]

I fart on the Gradius V hate...

[barmskii]

I fart on the Gradius V hate...

[Samuray]

Quick question: I'm trying to maintain a media blackout for Salamander III as I'm suuuuuper stoked for it, but I'm wondering where it's situated from a technical standpoint. M2 did an amazing job with GG Aleste 3, for example, so are we looking at a Salamander 2 arcade level of visuals here, or is it more 8-bit in nature?

[Klatrymadon]

It has a similar pixel art style to Gradius ReBirth on the Wii, and could well be running in the same engine. As mentioned earlier, there was a cancelled - or at least rumoured - Salamander ReBirth of which this seems to be the product. (Some background elements like sand dunes and rock formations are drawn similarly to equivalents in Haunted Castle Revisited.)

[Bassa-Bassa]

They said to be making it as if it had been released after Salamander 2 on the arcades. Looks more like Salamander Rebirth to me as well.

[utsunderthesky]

So glad to see that people share my opinion on Gradius V.

i don’t hate the game. It’s good, but has some serious flaws. It gets propped up seemingly by the same people who foam at the mouth for Ikaruga. Which also isn’t bad, but is just incredibly repetitive and has a ton of moments that slow the gameplay down, since it is all memory based.

Gradius V also has the stupid cutscene in stage 2 that you can’t skip, and it bothers me to no end.

[TerminalInternet]

I've been played my favorite game sequel Gradius 4 and 5, Salamander 2, But this year revolutions.

Salamander is now return to the action and the sequel awaited to see new gameplay look like.
Also, ParvizLink saw the new Gradius Origins, They're coming back, After Gradius the Slot released 10+ years later.

Let's see if the people first try it out.

[OldSkoolShmuper]

They said to be making it as if it had been released after Salamander 2 on the arcades. Looks more like Salamander Rebirth to me as well.

Definitely wish it was being made as if it had been released after Salamander 2 arcade in 1996.

I have to agree it looks more like Salamander Rebirth.

[Bassa-Bassa]

In all honesty, a Salamander 3 on the arcades past 1997 likely wouldn't have had a chance of not getting real-time polygon-based graphics, in which case I much prefer this approach by a mile. But like with Rockman 9, there's quite a bit of dissonance regarding the naming.

[copy-paster]

They said to be making it as if it had been released after Salamander 2 on the arcades. Looks more like Salamander Rebirth to me as well.

This screenshot looks way better than what we've seen in the trailer gameplay, pixel art direction looks stunning and it's like coming out of hardware like Taito F2 which has similar prerender artstyle. And I agree with preferring this approach as well over the "next gen 3D" graphics like the team of Sonic Wings Reunion.

[To Far Away Times]

None of M2's Rebirth games are the best in their respective series, and they're definitely made on a budget, but they're mostly pretty well done.

Castlevania Rebirth is the best of the bunch, that one is legitimately pretty great.
Gradius Rebirth is pretty well made too, I need to put more time into that one. Worthy of putting in the time for a 1CC, I think.
Contra Rebirth is not very good unfortunately. The tiling of the sprites is pretty obvious, it doesn't have enough assets made for it, it's overly long in places, and overall it feels pretty amateurish.

If Salamander III can hit the quality of Castlevania Rebirth I'll be pretty happy.

Edit: Oh, I forgot M2's GG Aleste 3, that game kicks all kinds of ass, even if it's more "8 bit" than the "16 bit" esque the Rebirth games.

[utsunderthesky]

Those Rebirth games were like, 15 years ago though. M2’s recent remakes have been amazing, like Haunted Castle. And of course, Aeleste 3 GG.