A HUGE one for one of the basic mechanics of the entire series—why both the many Bacterian fighters, and thus by extension the Vic Viper, are One-Hit Point Wonders. According to the intro to the PC-Engine port of Gradius II, the caliber of the Double and Tail Gun weapons is 50mm, and since they both fire a second copy of the basic shot it can be inferred that the basic shot is also 50mm...meaning that the basic shot is a BFG, as for comparison the GAU-8, the poster boy for More Dakka, is of the 30mm caliber. It's also likely that many Bacterian fighters also have similarly powerful armament, given the size of those diamond-shaped bullets they shoot, along with the high frequency of Frickin' Laser Beams and Wave-Motion Guns.
Why is it called the Vic Viper/Warp Rattler? Because the Options trail behind it in a serpent-like fashion, and the iconic front fins are designed to invoke the image of a snake's fangs.
The obscure (even for this series) Nemesis II (also known as Gradius: The Interstellar Assault) for the original Game Boy begins with the series' protagonist spacecraft Vic Viper escorting a pair of friendly freighters, before they get shot down by a huge core, which chases the still quite helpless player (starting off with no powerups) into an asteroid. Said game ends with you speeding after the fleeing big bad, through a graveyard of large ships. This troper thought that something about the music here ("Pursuit") was unusually epic for the context, until he realized where he'd seen ships like this before: Your friends from the intro! They aren't the same ships, but he realized that the game was telling him "Hey remember how this game started? With you running for your life from a huge boss? Who's got the big guns now?"
In Gradius Gaiden, on successive loops in Stage 8, Heaven's Gate is the seventh boss you fight.
In Stage 7, why is your ship capable of flying through an area being sucked up by a black hole, the only signs of struggle being its shaking animation? Because, according to the manual, the player ships have a maximum speed of five times the speed of light.
In real life, many commanders-in-chief of their countries' respective militaries are experienced with commanding but not necessarily fighting, i.e. Weak Boss, Strong Underlings. It's quite likely the Bacterian military is not so different in that regard.
Prior to reaching the Bacterian leader who's serving as the Big Bad of the week, you often have to fight through a fortress full of the strongest enemies in the game, both of the Mook and Mini-Boss varities. They are the game's final challenge, and blasting away at their now-helpless leader is the reward.
The background music for stage 3 of Salamander/Lifeforce is called "Planet Latis". Considering that Planet Latis appears to be the home planet of Lord British, it would seem to suggest that stage 3 is Planet Latis itself. You know, that stage that appears to be made of fire. If this isn't the system's star, then what exactly happened to Latis??
The NES version of Lifeforce implies that Zelos is so incomprehensibly big, space and stars can be seen inside of its stomach. This makes sense, as the manual outright states that Zelos consumes galaxies whole. Therefore, it is entirely possible that one would only even know they were inside of Zelos if they were being attacked by its forces. With this in mind, What if the entire Metallion star system is still inside it!?
