Good job @MiniConsoleMan, i totally agree with you about the autofire. It's very helpful to have autofire for both shot and missiles on one button.
Unfortunately i wasn't able to beat my score by the end of the month even though i played almost daily. That's exactly what frustrates me: i played nearly every day of the month (not always much but at least one or two runs) but i couldn't feel real progress happen and every small success just felt like a lucky shot.
Maybe i shouldn't expect too much progress playing only short sessions, but as i said in discord before, most of my sessions ended with frustration after one or two runs with game over in stage 1 or 2. I had fun playing the game until i got hit, then it turned into struggle, trying to power up, which resulted in game over quickly.
Luckily Salamander (Arcade) has no checkpoints and also gives you the possibilty to at least pick up your options after respawning (if youre fast enough and died in a good position). Also the „regular“ power up system makes recovering a bit less stressfull. Anyway that wasn't enough to keep me motivated for more than 15 min per day.
So i guess Gradius games (still) are just not my cup of tea.
Regarding the original Gradius, i appreciate, that Konami tried some changes in design with Salamander. I prefer the regular power up system over the power up bar and the mix of vertical and horizontal stages works great (i'd really like to see that more often in STGs). Also the soundtrack is awesome, as in most of the classic Konami games.
And one last thing: the escape section right after the final boss is pure evil. If i would make it this far in the game and die in that section i would most likely self-ignite in anger.
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