Life Force (Salamander)

Salamander, released as Life Force in North America and in the Japanese arcade re-release, is a 1986 scrolling shooter video game developed and published by Konami for arcades. A spin-off of the Gradius series, Salamander introduced a simplified power-up system, two-player cooperative gameplay and both horizontally and vertically scrolling stages. Some of these later became normal for future Gradius games. In Japanese, the title is written using ateji, which are kanji used for spelling foreign words that has been supplanted in everyday use by katakana. Contra, another game by Konami was also given this treatment, with its title written in Japanese as 魂斗羅 (kontora).

Salamander was followed with a sequel in 1996 titled Salamander 2, with M2 developing another sequel, Salamander III, for Konami's Gradius Origins collection on August 7, 2025.

On April 23, 2026, Konami Arcade Games held the Salamander Lottery, a lottery sale to commemorate the series' 40th anniversary. The lottery sale offered a chance to win Salamander items featuring numerous original illustrations, as well as special postcards as bonus gifts.