Life Force, known in Asia as Salamander, is a scrolling shooter arcade game produced by Konami of Japan. It was released in 1986 as a spin-off of Gradius. A port was made for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1988.
In most ways, this was a lot better than Gradius. Its simplified power-up system and two-player cooperative gameplay made it great for flying spaceship shooter fans.
The Story
You have saved the inhabitants of Gradius from the evil race of Bacterions. But there is an even greater threat. Zelos, a planet-eating alien who's hungering for Gradius too.
You got assistance from a starfighter friend from the planet Latis, who will fight beside you in his cool space destroyer. You will both be gaining max power-ups, with lasers, missiles and force fields. But you better be a skilled ace pilot. For this is not your regular space scum. And to destroy it, you gotta fly through its innards and finally blast its heart. Good luck to you, Commander. The Gradians are counting on you!
The Graphics and Sound
The graphics are decent for an early NES game. Some stages really look good graphically like Zone 3. While other stages seem a bit bland and unimpressive.
The sounds in this game are well done. Too much action onscreen result in a lot of sound effects going off. The background music is good too but it is not as catchy as those in Gradius.
The Gameplay
Life Force has some of the simplest controls among any 2D shooters out there. It will probably take you several tries for your evasion skill moves to be adequate for the game. The game is hard. The cheat codes providing extra lives can soften the difficulty for the whiny gamer. But the challenge in this game is what makes it fun and destroying the enemies and things as well.
Life Force will take an average gamer not too long to beat it successfully. With the 2 player coop, the replay value is damn high because it is that good.
My Verdict
Life Force is an original 2D space shooter. No gamer should be without this game especially if one is a fan of 2D flying space shooters. Retro gamers should give it some consideration to add to their video game library.
I say play Life Force on emulators for the quick save and autofire features available on the emulator for an easier time. Or you can always use the infamous Konami cheat code while playing on the NES.
Not that wimpy? True, bad-ass gamers do it the real way.