User Summary
Vic Viper (ビックバイパー Bikku Baipā?) 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 is renowned for its remarkable adaptability, as well as its unique twin-pronged fuselage.
In Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner, The Vic Viper can transform into a robotic mecha form in similar fashion to VF-1 Valkyries from Macross or the titular "mobile suit" of Zeta Gundam. Its performance is impressive considering its status as a LEV, which is heavily implied by the game series' storyline to be the radically inferior mecha type used prior to the advent of the much more advanced Orbital Frames. Shinkawa states however, that the Vic Viper is a new hybrid of Earth technology and Orbital Frame technology.