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

[BulletMagnet]

Back on topic please. If the beef must continue take it to PM.

[To Far Away Times]

Played a few hours of Salamander III last night. Kinda disappointed, not gonna lie.

There’s a lot of “hey remember when…” from various Gradius and Salamander games with the stage design and not a lot of new stuff going on here. The game is supposed to be a “what if” sequel to Salamander II but the music and visuals are far worse than it’s predecessor. The game isn’t building off Salamander II, in fact it feels like it’s going backwards. The ship respawn is all sorts of fucked up, with both a long delay for respawning and short invincibility period when you finally do respawn, which leads to chain dying despite this being a game where you can pick up your dropped powerups. There’s also way too many enemies that come from behind and there’s all sorts of cheap shots and surprises. The remake of Salamander’s stage 4 is especially egregious with the enemies coming from behind while you’re stuck clearing the way in front of you.

If we are going to do speed up powerups in the year of our lord 2025, can we atleast have a speed down powerup too? Even two speed ups feels like too much, so picking up a second one at any point feels like it will lead to deaths in the future.

I played a few hours and then decided to credit feed to the end. I couldn’t even tell when the final boss was attacking me and when the dragon snake things where active or not.

Come on man.

I really like Salamander I & II quite a bit. I think they’re some of Konami’s finest shmups that aren’t named Xexex or Axelay. But this game isn’t it.

[AGermanArtist]

I like it, but wouldn't say I'm crazy about it. It just doesn't feel fleshed out. I'm glad it exists, but I've had more fun playing GanaBlade recently, which cost me €4. I don't feel short changed by Salamander 3 as such, I just wish there was more of it.

[Cakestial]

I like it, but wouldn't say I'm crazy about it. It just doesn't feel fleshed out. I'm glad it exists, but I've had more fun playing GanaBlade recently, which cost me €4. I don't feel short changed by Salamander 3 as such, I just wish there was more of it.

Surprised it has no quick save/load, and no replays. The older games have it but not the new one? Only big negative of the collection, the rest is all good.