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

[OldSkoolShmuper]

It was just in the Nintendo Direct. Will post more info as it becomes available

Gradius Origins will include Gradius, Salamander/Life Force, Gradius II, Gradius III and Salamander 2 on the Nintendo eShop.

And all new Salamander III.



Release date: August 7th.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDijdPUKFfI

Coming to Switch, PS5, Xbox Series and Steam.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqQkKIPYQ8g

[Hyperspace]

That’s awesome. I’ll have to get this one.

[Light1000]

Has there been confirmation on who's developing it yet?
I'd like to think M2 (like they made Haunted Castle Revisited and the Rebirth titles) just from the graphical style, but it seems sort of unsure....
It's also kind of confusing if they're including SNES Gradius 3 or just the arcade version, which would be a kind of rookie mistake that I wouldn't expect M2 to make, alongside the fact that Gaiden + 4 aren't included.

[Hyperspace]

Has there been confirmation on who's developing it yet?
I'd like to think M2 (like they made Haunted Castle Revisited and the Rebirth titles) just from the graphical style, but it seems sort of unsure....
It's also kind of confusing if they're including SNES Gradius 3 or just the arcade version, which would be a kind of rookie mistake that I wouldn't expect M2 to make, alongside the fact that Gaiden + 4 aren't included.

I could go for a M2 switch collection. And I think they should include Gradius Rebirth because it’s only playable on a modded Nintendo Wii.

[OldSkoolShmuper]

Developer is M2.

[mirkvid]

Awesome news! So many great titles and Salamander 3? Looks amazing.

[EmperorIng]

A port of Salamander 2, and a (hopefully good) new Salamander game? Great news indeed.

[Sanguis]

I guess that's where my hesitation on whether I buy a Switch or not is finally going to stop .

EDIT : Nevermind, it will be released on most platforms...

[OldSkoolShmuper]

I guess that's where my hesitation on whether I buy a Switch or not is finally going to stop .

EDIT : Nevermind, it will be released on most platforms...

Including Steam.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2897 ... S_ORIGINS/

[Hyperspace]

I guess that's where my hesitation on whether I buy a Switch or not is finally going to stop .

EDIT : Nevermind, it will be released on most platforms...

Including Steam.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2897 ... S_ORIGINS/

I don’t know, that switch 2 looks like it might be really good for shmups if they unlock the hardware for these games.

[copy-paster]

2025 Looking good so far with this and Night Striker GEAR will come out at the same year!

No Gaiden on the list is unfortunate but that game is so great that I'm sure the other collection will be left untouched, kinda makes sense in the hindsight.

[EmperorIng]

I don’t know, that switch 2 looks like it might be really good for shmups if they unlock the hardware for these games.

[Hyperspace]

[quote=Hyperspace post_id=<a href="tel:1575389">1575389</a> time=<a href="tel:1743089962">1743089962</a> user_id=36537]
I don’t know, that switch 2 looks like it might be really good for shmups if they unlock the hardware for these games.

[/quote]

[quote=Hyperspace post_id=<a href="tel:1575389">1575389</a> time=<a href="tel:1743089962">1743089962</a> user_id=36537]
I don’t know, that switch 2 looks like it might be really good for shmups if they unlock the hardware for these games.

[/quote]

I guess that's where my hesitation on whether I buy a Switch or not is finally going to stop .

EDIT : Nevermind, it will be released on most platforms...

Yeah




Including Steam.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2897 ... S_ORIGINS/

I was just going to say that M2 generally puts their games on steam. It’s their M2 shottriggers games that seem to be on the consoles.

Yeah I know the PC version is the definitive version. I guess I can understand your laugh emoji. lol

[Steven]

So this is basically M2 ShotTriggers arcade Gradius. Cool. I have a feeling that Powered by M2 ShotTriggers is going to show up in the credits EDIT: it's in the trailer, so yeah, it's literally M2 ShotTriggers Gradius

and that this is another reason that we didn't get ShotTriggers last year. I don't feel too bad about buying most of these on ACA not too long ago, but I doubt I will ever play them again once this is out. ACA Gradius I and II are older ACA releases and very lacking in features and stuff compared to the newer ACA releases and even Gradius III, which itself was a very cool ShotTriggers-like release.

Obviously, since this is specifically an arcade collection, I would feel very selfish to complain about the lack of Nemesis '90 Kai, Gaiden, V, and ReBirth, but that's how it is.

[hamfighterx]

2025 Looking good so far with this and Night Striker GEAR will come out at the same year!

Operation Night Strikers releases on the SAME DAY, by the way. And presumably that may also be the first availability date for Night Striker Gear, since it has been revealed that the deluxe physical Switch release includes a code to download Gear ahead of its unspecified official release.

So this is basically M2 ShotTriggers arcade Gradius. Cool. I have a feeling that Powered by M2 ShotTriggers is going to show up in the credits, and that this is another reason that we didn't get ShotTriggers last year.

Yeah, the M2 and Powered by M2 ShotTriggers logos both show up in the official trailer linked above. See 0:32 into the trailer.

[Marc]

27 games including Gradius III AM version, whatever that is.....

https://theotakuauthority.com/gradius-o ... DOXSeRFz8g

[Steven]

lol it has speedups. Just the other day I asked about the most recent game to have those. I guess I have my answer now.

IKD really really really fucking loves Salamander. I'm sure he's happy as shit to hear about this.

[FunktionJCB]

Already pre-ordered the Steam version.

M2 will have quite the busy summer. This, Operation Night Strikers and Night Striker Gear.
Keep them coming.

[hamfighterx]

Interesting to see how much work M2 has been doing lately on NEW games in classic arcade series. And a very good explanation for why we've had a bit of a lull with no 2024 ShotTriggers releases.

Salamander 3, Night Striker Gear, Aleste Branch, Zaleste on the way. Haunted Castle remake not long ago, Senjin Aleste and GG Aleste 3 before that. Pretty good lineup.

[NeoStrayCat]

Well, for one, cool, although, yeah, its just all arcade versions, when some of the previous Konami arcade collections included the console versions of said games too. (Although yeah, I know, the PSP collection also only had arcade versions.)

But otherwise, here's hoping that down the road, later Gradius games and their spin-offs get modern platform ports down the line too. (Especially Otomedius, both games, and they're still stuck on X360.)

[StrzxgvNuvWvfld]

Very excited about this one!

I'd love a follow-up Gradius Gaiden/Gradius V collection, in the same way as we got G-Darius/Burst

[Ms. Tea]

27 games including Gradius III AM version, whatever that is.....

According to Gosokkyu, that's a prerelease version of Gradius III that hasn't been seen since publicly since. https://mastodon.social/@gosokkyu/114235029652198604

I wonder who's going to be doing the Salamander 3 soundtrack, and what it'll sound like... Salamander 2 has one of Konami's truly iconic shooter soundtracks IMO, hopefully this lives up to it. M2 do have some really talented in-house sound people.

[DJ Incompetent]

Excited to play a new videogame!

[Lord British]

I want Gradius IV goddammit

[pablumatic]

I want Gradius IV goddammit

I guess they're saving it (and other Gradius games like Gaiden and V) for an Origins 2 collection.

[ryu]

Holy shit is this even real life?

Awesome. I hope this will be on par with M2's Gradius Rebirth

[Augemitbutter]

so the physical will be just with LRG again? They basically get every classic Konami game.

[Lord British]

I want Gradius IV goddammit

I guess they're saving it (and other Gradius games like Gaiden and V) for an Origins 2 collection.

Well if so they better make a Salamander 4

[Klatrymadon]

Salamander III is such a great pick. I still remember being devastated that Salamander Rebirth (of the Wii Rebirth series) was discussed but never materialised, and this looks exactly how I imagined that would - a lean "greatest hits" kind of thing, focused and compact enough to have you gunning for several loops per run.

Sala 2 is huge, too, as that hasn't had a port to a full-size console since the Sat/PS1 version nearly 30 years ago...

[hamfighterx]

I wonder who's going to be doing the Salamander 3 soundtrack, and what it'll sound like... Salamander 2 has one of Konami's truly iconic shooter soundtracks IMO, hopefully this lives up to it. M2 do have some really talented in-house sound people.

Friend said that chibi-tech was teasing a new M2 project last week (i.e., this) - so looks like she is involved at least in some capacity. I think that's fantastic news, she's great.

so the physical will be just with LRG again? They basically get every classic Konami game.

Yep, already announced from LRG. Preorders open tomorrow, March 28. https://limitedrungames.com/collections/coming-soon

I could go for a M2 switch collection. And I think they should include Gradius Rebirth because it’s only playable on a modded Nintendo Wii.

To be unnecessarily pedantic, it's also playable on an un-modded Wii... as long as you bought the game years ago before the Wii shop shut down

But yes, really need that to get rescued from WiiWare jail. I'd like to just see a Rebirth collection with all three of M2's Rebirth games: Gradius, Castlevania, Contra. Heck, let M2 make a new Rebirth entry while we're at it (TwinBee? Parodius?)