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

[XoPachi]

Loop 2 Hard mode clear.
Wish this game had a better ranking setup. I think it's weird that higher difficulties are ineligible for online ranking instead of just being a separate category.

[Sweatlord_STG]

Loop 2 Hard mode clear.
Wish this game had a better ranking setup. I think it's weird that higher difficulties are ineligible for online ranking instead of just being a separate category.

oh. is that true for all games?

edit: just checked, yeah thats a real shame. id like to see someone playing gradius na proto on hardest.

[Steven]

This seems to be almost completely sold out. A few stores still have it, but most of them seem not to have any copies at all. I kind of wanted to get a PS5 LE for the soundtracks and stuff, but I guess that's not happening. New best-selling M2 ShotTriggers release?

[Sweatlord_STG]

This seems to be almost completely sold out. A few stores still have it, but most of them seem not to have any copies at all. I kind of wanted to get a PS5 LE for the soundtracks and stuff, but I guess that's not happening. New best-selling M2 ShotTriggers release?

You can have mine for $6000. Sorry but it's rare.

Glad it's selling well. Hopefully we will get a sequel. Consisting of... Gradius 4 and that's it XD

Is it actually a M2 ShotTriggers release?

[Jonpachi]

This seems to be almost completely sold out. A few stores still have it, but most of them seem not to have any copies at all. I kind of wanted to get a PS5 LE for the soundtracks and stuff, but I guess that's not happening. New best-selling M2 ShotTriggers release?

Play-Asia has both regular and LE still in stock: https://www.play-asia.com/gradius-origi ... /13/70ig4z

[Austin]

Is it actually a M2 ShotTriggers release?

Nope.

[BEAMLORD]

Here's a question I'd never thought I'd have to ask, but how do you turn off the subtitles on Salamander 2 in this collection?

[AGermanArtist]

Here's a question I'd never thought I'd have to ask, but how do you turn off the subtitles on Salamander 2 in this collection?

Under gadgets disable voice and music.

[AGermanArtist]

The Life Force 2 title screen is a thing of beauty.

[BEAMLORD]

Here's a question I'd never thought I'd have to ask, but how do you turn off the subtitles on Salamander 2 in this collection?

Under gadgets disable voice and music.

Many thanks. Can't believe they defaulted that to ON

[AGermanArtist]

I celebrated Origins' release by spending €36 on it and playing mostly Gradius IV on an emulator fml

[Ms. Tea]

I picked it up last night meaning to try Salamander III, and then I ended up just playing Salamander 2 the whole time. I guess I've been sleeping on this game for years? I really like it!

[Sweatlord_STG]

I invented a clever slogan for M2.

"M2 and the clear is you!"

[Klatrymadon]

Yeah, Sala 2 is one of the best games in the series, and one of the great achievements of this collection is that it addresses the game's waning official availability with the strongest port to date.

I love its excitement about itself and the possibilities of the new hardware. It has a beautiful mix of pre-rendered 3D elements and traditional pixel art, a playful approach to old mechanics (e.g. options now have several functions and use-cases), and Maeda is having a blast using the GX's sound capabilities to reinterpret the space-romanticism of the original game's soundtrack. I also appreciate that it knows when to call it a day — a full 2-loop run only lasts around half an hour, so practicing for the clear doesn't feel like a slog.

[DJ Incompetent]

a 2-ALL clear.

Very impressive! Well done!

On Salamander 3, I hit a brick wall on loop 3-1. Got me 21st place on earth, but the Japan people seem to have found a way through it and they can get to loop four. The announcer at the start of every loop changes what he says. On loop 3 he seems to say this is an endless cycle, so I don't think there is an ALL anywhere. The game messes with you a bunch on loop 2 which is nice and you should work to go see it with that shot+start stage select trick (title screen will tell you if it's unlocked). I did not notice stage changes in loop 3.

I really like the Smack My Bitch Up Prodigy Poison of Snake mashup! The Salamander 3 boss design is very good, less waiting for long empty attacks like I would for Salamander 2.

Spoiler

The final boss fight phase being literally Atari Millipede is hilarious

On the non-salamander 3 games, I figured out I can abuse the leaderboard by

Spoiler

mapping Restart(Hold) to a trigger and mashing it during game, creating a slowdown effect. I think Mushihimesama Futari had a similar trick?

Go beat up on Japan for awhile until it's patched out?

On the Salamander Deluxe Pack PS1, they let you change the title screen to Life Force 2 with that same logo as well. The Gradius Origins option menu says the unreleased international Salamander 2 version has a difficulty spike, but I didn't notice one on PS1. Maybe the rom didn't actually change on PS1 but it does here?


Gradius 3 AM is weird. I love homing missile, but stage design is awful; the worst first draft.

If you run through the Sound menu/gallery, there are a bunch of arrangement tracks hidden inside the game albums.

Has anything unlocked for Salamander 3 for anybody in Sound or Art menus? It's weird that game is closed off from the rest of the collections.


I really hate remapping the controls on every title version individually. It doesn't look like it saves local scores either.

A new videogame with effort is rare. I'll take it. UFO 50 came out on Switch same day. This is a good day.

[LSU]

I'm on an Xbox Series X, with a Hori EX-SE 360 stick that I've been able to play all other games without any issues so far, using a Brook XB3 Wingman converter.

The Gradius Origins collection however will only let me use this setup for Player 2.

When trying to use the stick by itself, it keeps telling me I need to press A to use a controller with the game and won't accept it. The only way to get it to work is to power on another wireless Xbox controller, but then it maps the wireless one to player 1 and sets the stick up as player 2. The controls on the stick then do work, but obviously it's pretty annoying only having use of it as a player 2. Does anyone have any suggestions to work around this? Thanks in advance!

[XoPachi]

oh. is that true for all games?

edit: just checked, yeah thats a real shame. id like to see someone playing gradius na proto on hardest.

I think it's especially an odd choice for Salamander 3 since that was a ground up new title and could have been designed with that in mind. A lot of games have individual difficulty ranking, so I'm surprised that's not here.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I'm on an Xbox Series X, with a Hori EX-SE 360 stick that I've been able to play all other games without any issues so far, using a Brook XB3 Wingman converter.

The Gradius Origins collection however will only let me use this setup for Player 2.

When trying to use the stick by itself, it keeps telling me I need to press A to use a controller with the game and won't accept it. The only way to get it to work is to power on another wireless Xbox controller, but then it maps the wireless one to player 1 and sets the stick up as player 2. The controls on the stick then do work, but obviously it's pretty annoying only having use of it as a player 2. Does anyone have any suggestions to work around this? Thanks in advance!

I use a dedicated Xbox Series S/X wireless arcade stick sold by 8bitdo: https://www.amazon.com/8BitDo-Wireless- ... r=8-1&th=1

You can use it either wireless with the 2.4ghz dongle or with an extra long usb to usb-c cord. Excellent Series S/X arcade stick nevertheless and has a square gate installed from the "get-go." It registers as player 1 as intended.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[MSZ]

a 2-ALL clear.

Very impressive! Well done!

On Salamander 3, I hit a brick wall on loop 3-1. Got me 21st place on earth, but the Japan people seem to have found a way through it and they can get to loop four. The announcer at the start of every loop changes what he says. On loop 3 he seems to say this is an endless cycle, so I don't think there is an ALL anywhere. The game messes with you a bunch on loop 2 which is nice and you should work to go see it with that shot+start stage select trick (title screen will tell you if it's unlocked). I did not notice stage changes in loop 3.

I really like the Smack My Bitch Up Prodigy Poison of Snake mashup! The Salamander 3 boss design is very good, less waiting for long empty attacks like I would for Salamander 2.

Spoiler

The final boss fight phase being literally Atari Millipede is hilarious

On the non-salamander 3 games, I figured out I can abuse the leaderboard by

Spoiler

mapping Restart(Hold) to a trigger and mashing it during game, creating a slowdown effect. I think Mushihimesama Futari had a similar trick?

Go beat up on Japan for awhile until it's patched out?

On the Salamander Deluxe Pack PS1, they let you change the title screen to Life Force 2 with that same logo as well. The Gradius Origins option menu says the unreleased international Salamander 2 version has a difficulty spike, but I didn't notice one on PS1. Maybe the rom didn't actually change on PS1 but it does here?


Gradius 3 AM is weird. I love homing missile, but stage design is awful; the worst first draft.

If you run through the Sound menu/gallery, there are a bunch of arrangement tracks hidden inside the game albums.

Has anything unlocked for Salamander 3 for anybody in Sound or Art menus? It's weird that game is closed off from the rest of the collections.


I really hate remapping the controls on every title version individually. It doesn't look like it saves local scores either.

A new videogame with effort is rare. I'll take it. UFO 50 came out on Switch same day. This is a good day.

Pretty sure all of the extra arranged BGM tracks came from numerous different arrange sound tracks. I own a couple of the CDs.

Finally reached 2-1 in Sala 3, but the different layout in stage 1 crushed me immediately. Need more practices.

[Sweatlord_STG]

The Life Force 2 title screen is a thing of beauty.

true.

On the Salamander Deluxe Pack PS1, they let you change the title screen to Life Force 2 with that same logo as well.

cool i need to see that. i like both 32-bit collections a lot, gradius and sala.



so does this make origins a shottriggers release or not?



the option hunter is so mean i hate him T_T most of all, if he appears during parts of the game with infinite vertical scrolling, then he is a lot harder to deal with.

[AGermanArtist]

I see it as a halfway house affair similar to M2's recent work for Taito (G-Darius/Darius Cozmic Collection(s)/Ray'Z collection) where we see Powered By Shot Triggers.
I'm not sure if Operation Night Strikers is (it has Gadgets), but it likely is. Essentially if it's Powered By Shot Triggers then it's an M2 "port" with Gadgets that are of a lesser visual quality than their own Shot Triggers releases, and fewer in-game options/custom modes.
I feel that I have to say that I was quite disappointed with Zero Fire which seems like a Powered By Shot Triggers release but at full M2 Shot Triggers price. Although, in saying that I do appreciate the extras (flash removal in Zero Wing/ability to shoot and change direction of fire in Hellfire).

[Sweatlord_STG]

I see it as a halfway house affair similar to M2's recent work for Taito (G-Darius/Darius Cozmic Collection(s)/Ray'Z collection) where we see Powered By Shot Triggers.
I'm not sure if Operation Night Strikers is (it has Gadgets), but it likely is. Essentially if it's Powered By Shot Triggers then it's an M2 "port" with Gadgets that are of a lesser visual quality than their own Shot Triggers releases, and fewer in-game options/custom modes.
I feel that I have to say that I was quite disappointed with Zero Fire which seems like a Powered By Shot Triggers release but at full M2 Shot Triggers price. Although, in saying that I do appreciate the extras (flash removal in Zero Wing/ability to shoot and change direction of fire in Hellfire).

i just hate how toaplan arcade garage wont be completed on the ps4. like even if they complete it it will most likely not be on ps4

[Jonpachi]

I see it as a halfway house affair similar to M2's recent work for Taito (G-Darius/Darius Cozmic Collection(s)/Ray'Z collection) where we see Powered By Shot Triggers.
I'm not sure if Operation Night Strikers is (it has Gadgets), but it likely is. Essentially if it's Powered By Shot Triggers then it's an M2 "port" with Gadgets that are of a lesser visual quality than their own Shot Triggers releases, and fewer in-game options/custom modes.
I feel that I have to say that I was quite disappointed with Zero Fire which seems like a Powered By Shot Triggers release but at full M2 Shot Triggers price. Although, in saying that I do appreciate the extras (flash removal in Zero Wing/ability to shoot and change direction of fire in Hellfire).

i just hate how toaplan arcade garage wont be completed on the ps4. like even if they complete it it will most likely not be on ps4

They aren't ever coming back to it. The rights to those games got passed around more than the P2 slot on a Street Fighter II cabinet, and now there's just nothing left for them.

[Sweatlord_STG]

I see it as a halfway house affair similar to M2's recent work for Taito (G-Darius/Darius Cozmic Collection(s)/Ray'Z collection) where we see Powered By Shot Triggers.
I'm not sure if Operation Night Strikers is (it has Gadgets), but it likely is. Essentially if it's Powered By Shot Triggers then it's an M2 "port" with Gadgets that are of a lesser visual quality than their own Shot Triggers releases, and fewer in-game options/custom modes.
I feel that I have to say that I was quite disappointed with Zero Fire which seems like a Powered By Shot Triggers release but at full M2 Shot Triggers price. Although, in saying that I do appreciate the extras (flash removal in Zero Wing/ability to shoot and change direction of fire in Hellfire).

i just hate how toaplan arcade garage wont be completed on the ps4. like even if they complete it it will most likely not be on ps4

They aren't ever coming back to it. The rights to those games got passed around more than the P2 slot on a Street Fighter II cabinet, and now there's just nothing left for them.

Steven is that true? About a year ago you said you spoke to them and they were still going to do it and that we just had to wait iirc.

[Firehawke]

This really should be common sense to anyone here:

It seems pretty obvious to me that the Toaplan Shottriggers stuff is dead, even if there hasn't been any kind of announcement on it.

Remember that the current parent company of Tatsujin is the same one that owns Bitwave, and Bitwave just started dumping out the low-priced semi-bare-minimum PC ports on console too.

There's no financial viability to continuing the M2 releases of the same games. There's literally no hope of them selling enough to even make back the cost of making the most basic, most token effort, so M2 won't.

ETA: Most likely Embracer is applying pressure on Tatsujin to "just get cheap versions of the IP out because people bitch about anything more than $5 a game"

[Sweatlord_STG]

This really should be common sense to anyone here:

It seems pretty obvious to me that the Toaplan Shottriggers stuff is dead, even if there hasn't been any kind of announcement on it.

Remember that the current parent company of Tatsujin is the same one that owns Bitwave, and Bitwave just started dumping out the low-priced semi-bare-minimum PC ports on console too.

There's no financial viability to continuing the M2 releases of the same games. There's literally no hope of them selling enough to even make back the cost of making the most basic, most token effort, so M2 won't.

ETA: Most likely Embracer is applying pressure on Tatsujin to "just get cheap versions of the IP out because people bitch about anything more than $5 a game"

yeah i know but i was still hoping for a happy end. what a sad story. especially with "zero fire" being the last entry. anything would have been better than those two games

i am getting annoyed at Gradius II i know the game in and out but i still dont have the clear yet, i hate when it comes to this kind of state. pls give me a little bit of your energy everybody!

[To Far Away Times]

Once you know the game in and out then it’s just a matter of time before you have the magic run. You can do it!

[beer gas canister]

This really should be common sense to anyone here:

It seems pretty obvious to me that the Toaplan Shottriggers stuff is dead, even if there hasn't been any kind of announcement on it.

Remember that the current parent company of Tatsujin is the same one that owns Bitwave, and Bitwave just started dumping out the low-priced semi-bare-minimum PC ports on console too.

There's no financial viability to continuing the M2 releases of the same games. There's literally no hope of them selling enough to even make back the cost of making the most basic, most token effort, so M2 won't.

ETA: Most likely Embracer is applying pressure on Tatsujin to "just get cheap versions of the IP out because people bitch about anything more than $5 a game"

yeah i know but i was still hoping for a happy end. what a sad story. especially with "zero fire" being the last entry. anything would have been better than those two games

i am getting annoyed at Gradius II i know the game in and out but i still dont have the clear yet, i hate when it comes to this kind of state. pls give me a little bit of your energy everybody!

do a little bit of targeted practice before your regular runs, you can probably think of one or two ways to prevent misses

[Tatsuya79]

All the scanlines and crt shaders were doing some strange x2 lines per pixel, so I tried to use reshade and got the "best" result forcing crtgeom to 853x240.
But even with that you see strange blurring happening, probably stuff outside of 240p, on an odd 480p line.

Then if you look closely, it's even worse than that, there are some irregular smaller pixels here and there:



...and the stuttering even with gsync, honestly.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Does the Switch port of Gradius Origins have the usual frame lag (meaning on the Switch 1 setup)?

And does GO run on a Steam Deck setup without any external mods/filters necessary?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~