Golem

The Golem (ゴーレム, Goremu^?) is a recurring boss in the Gradius series.

Description

Golem is one of the many creatures found in the Gradius universe. It is a giant brain with arms and one eye. He is the first boss of Salamander, and most likely serves as the brain of the entire Bionic Germ, staying encased in pink growth, only coming out if something threatens him to fight, while creating the anti-bodies and defensive organic creatures to stop anything from reaching him, seeing as soon as he's defeated, the entire Bionic Growth area dissipates, meaning the area cannot live without a mind controlling it, like every living thing. He later reappears in Gradius II's boss rush, and then again in Gradius III as a hidden boss.

Attack patterns

• Salamander, Gradius II: Golem is very easy and can be defeated by a beginner. His only real attack is ramming you, but his arms follow you. Also, in Salamander and Gradius II, he can fire small bullets out of his hands. He has very little health in Salamander and will quite literally die in seconds. In Gradius II, his health was increased, and may take multiple passes around him, unless you are using a weapon such as Spread Bomb, or manage to get one of your Options inside his sprite. Depending on the version of the game, some ports of Salamander gave Golem a speed boost, pretty much requiring you to take a speed up before facing him. Most ports increased his health over the Arcade counterpart.
• Salamander 2: Having apparently bred, he sends his children at you, backs off, and comes at the end of the stage firing triple beams out of his hands. Still not that hard, and the Mini Golems are worth quite a few points. Ironically enough, this is probably the most advanced form of Brain Golem yet. Whilst he's supposed to be eaten by Biter, it is possible to kill the Golem if you are powered up enough. If this does happen, Golem is replaced by a tiny child of his that gets eaten instead.

• Salamander - ZX Spectrum: In this port, the Golem's rather limited health got dropped significantly (That is, he has next to none, although it takes him a few moments to open his eye), but to make up for it, the beast gained a new attack pattern. Which amounts to him sitting there, firing a few odd bullets your way, some of which are invisible.

Anime

The Golem appear in the Salamander anime Vol.1. Unfortunately, it doesn't show it attacking.

Gallery

Screenshots

Golem in Salamander.

Golem in Life Force (NES).

Golem in Gradius II (NES).

Golem in Salamander (ZX Spectrum).

Golem in Salamander (MSX).

Golem in Parodius Da! (arcade).

Golem in Salamander 2.

Golem in Salamander 2.

Render from Salamander Deluxe Pack Plus

Artwork from the Japanese Salamander Famicom manual.

Golem in Salamander HD Remaster.

Artwork from Salamander.

Golem's very brief appearance in the Salamander anime.

Golem in Kuru Kuru Lab.

Brain Golem in Yu-Gi-Oh!

Brainy in Monster Maulers.

Snatcher
("Brainy" from Monster Maulers)

Brain Golem (Wai Wai World 2)



Video



Trivia

• The Golem is the icon for the People of Sin in Cosmic Wars.
• The Golem also appears in the arcade puzzle game Kuru Kuru Lab.
• Alongside Moai, the Golem also appears as a boss in the 1993 side-scrolling beat 'em up by Konami called "Monster Maulers". It is called "Brainy" here.
• The Golem makes a cameo appearance in Snatcher.
• Hans Naughty, a boss from Nemesis 3, has an appearance similar to the Golem.
• Eggerdroid, the boss of the first stage in Thunder Cross II, during its initial phase has an almost identical attack pattern as the Golem, only using a single tentacle-like appendage instead of arms.
• Living Brain Organism Searle, an enemy from the Contra franchise, heavily resembles the Golem. Both are large brain organisms bearing a big central eye that act as boss enemies.