Notice that the FC version's status bar has three lines of text squeezed into a space where the NES version fits only two-i.e. The change in design of the status bar IS hardware-related, though. I imagine Nintendo would have had some kind of guideline as to how much slowdown was acceptable in a game, and Salamander crossed the line. With a fully powered-up ship (three options, missiles and laser) your firepower on its own is enough to make the game slow down, even without any enemies onscreen. The reduction from three to two options probably had more to do with Nintendo of America's quality control policies. I suspect these are due to Nintendo of America's issue with custom memory mapper chips (Castlevania III being another well-known victim of this.) The most major one is that you can have up to three options in the FC version, but there are also occasional minor graphic differences (the FC version's power bar taking up the whole bottom of the screen is probably the most noticable.) The FC version also has a credit scroll instead of the bland 'presented by Konami' you get at the end of the NES version. The first stage in the MSX Salamander actually has a vertically scrolling part ala Thunder Force III.ДЄnother Salamander fun fact: there are actually a few differences between Salamander FC and Life Force NES.

The MSX version of Salamander is even more arranged than the FC Salamander/NES Lifeforce. Yeah, I like how Konami does that rearranging thing with the home ports. The FC stage 2 is the arcade stage 4 with the stage 2 boss tacked onto the end, and the FC stage 4 and 5 are original stages.ДЄlso, most of the music in FC Salamander is from the arcade Salamander, but one tune from Life Force snuck in. FC Salamander doesn't have the arcade version's stage 2 or stage 5. _Дon't forget that, as with the FC Gradius II and the SFC Gradius III, the stages were rearranged and modified somewhat. Salamander (MSX) - The MSX game is a whole other ball of wax entirely, but at least it was never released anywhere as 'Life Force' to my knowledge. For maximum confusion, yes, it was renamed 'Life Force' for its North American release. Salamander (FC/NES) - The Famicom title by this name is a sort of hybrid of the two Japanese arcade games (mix of organic and mechanical levels like Salamander, Gradius power bar like Life Force) though it more closely resembles Salamander. Life Force (Arcade) - For some reason Konami redid Salamander with the Gradius power up system and replaced mechanical enemies with more organic ones, and called this new mess 'Life Force' even though the name had already been taken (by non-Japanese arcade versions of Salamander, see above.) This game was only released in Japan and it's the 'Life Force' you'll find on the Salamander Deluxe Pack. When released in arcades outside of Japan it was called Life Force, setting the stage for major confusion later.

Salamander (Arcade) - the original arcade game with ports everywhere, including the deluxe pack. There are three different games called Life Force.

Gradius 2 vs lifeforce