Salamander
Salamander is a scrolling shooter arcade game published by Konami as a spin-off to Gradius. It introduced a simplified power-up system, two-player cooperative play and both horizontal and vertical scrolling levels. Some of these elements later became the norm for future Gradius games.
Story
The water planet Latis, a sparkling jewel in the depths of space. There, a prophecy of fire has been passed down for countless generations. A thousand light-years away, a giant dragon will be born in a sea of flames. When it awakens, it will shroud heaven and earth in darkness and destroy the light for all time. The Bacterian star cluster has continued its conquest of space with its mighty forces. Now, it has invaded the planet Latis with its Salamander army. The armies of Latis are helpless against the fierce onslaught of the Salamander forces. The Prince of Latis threw himself into the battle, piloting the superdimensional fighter Lord British, named after him. Severely wounded, he returned and called upon Gradius for help—the planet that had once defeated Bacterian’s forces. Upon receiving the distress call, a brave Gradius fighter joined Lord British and set off for the home planet of the overwhelming Salamander army. Superdimensional fighter Vic Viper, get ready for launch!