Vic Viper

Vic Viper (ビックバイパー) is the name of the protagonist spaceship in the Gradius series of shoot 'em up games by Konami. The spacecraft has been at the player's control in almost ten different titles. The ship has been renowned for both its remarkable adaptability and unique twin-pronged fuselage.

Weapons and technology
In the North American release of Gradius for the NES, the Vic Viper was referred to as the "Warp Rattler" in the game's instruction manual and at the after the credits of the Nemesis Game Boy game. The weapons of the NES version of Gradius differed from its original arcade counterpart, namely a shorter, rapid-fire Laser and only two OPTION phantoms instead of the usual four. Additionally, Konami of America referred to the Vic Viper in Gradius III as "M.A.X." This is probably an example of KOA "americanizing" the game.

Another "more than one Vic Viper" example would be Anime Salamander, a late 1980s anime miniseries following the events of Gradius, Salamander and Gradius II. The three main characters all pilot their own individual Vic Viper craft.

A more obvious tipoff would be the wide variation of weapon arrays available in each game starting with Gradius II. The original weapons array from the first game is always present; the only games the Vic Viper was forced to keep its original arcade weapons was Gradius Gaiden for the PlayStation—the reason being that it featured three other ships including Salamander 's Lord British Space Destroyer and two entirely new ships -- and, arguably, Gradius Galaxies for the Game Boy Advance -- the other three weapon arrays featured in that game were differentiated in-game by a palette swap of the ship's color, making it look like the ships from Gradius Gaiden (although the Jade Knight and Falchion Beta's color and weapons were swapped backwards, leading to the speculation that Galaxies's ships really are the Vic Viper itself). Gradius V also retained the classic weapons for all four arrays, though instead of the original Shield it sported the Force Field introduced in Gradius II, along with varying ways to control the ship's OPTION phantoms. When not featured in the game, the weapons made famous by the Lord British (particularly the Ripple Laser) were also present, most often the second weapon array choice out of four.

In Gradius III, the player was allowed to customize the Vic Viper's armaments to their own specifications with a Weapon Edit mode, which was retained in Gradius V and expanded in the PS2 release of Gradius III and IV by a feature known as "Extra Edit," available after completing the game. Gradius III for the Super NES also had a Weapon Edit mode, though the Spread Gun Double was removed and two OPTION formations added. Gradius III was also where the Cyclone Laser received its official name, though it had been present in the series since Salamander.

In Gradius V it is revealed that the OPTION units resemble small, dark gray tubes in inactive state. After being deployed from the Vic Viper, the tubes unfurl side fairings and begin to rotate rapidly with orange energy, appearing as the familiar elliptical objects.