The year is 1987, and Konami has released Life Force in game centers all over Japan. This version leans harder into the bio-horror themes by changing various graphics. There are more mutants, violent antibiotics, and the kidney stones are pink. Pink! A couple of the stages received different backgrounds, and... that's about the extent of it. The most interesting changes involve the gameplay. First off, the power-up system is Gradius again, which actually works well. Secondly, you can earn extra ships by reaching certain score thresholds. Finally, a number of small tweaks were made. Some of them, like the 4th boss being less absurd, are appreciated. Otherwise, it's almost a replica of Salamander, an arcade shmup we've already seen.
Look, would anyone mind if this review was hijacked by the NES version of Life Force? Otherwise, there's nothing else to talk about. Thanks much.
Life Force NES is a crisp 25-minute shmup, eschewing the relentless pacing of its arcade predecessors for something a little more methodical and occasionally just as punishing. The additional run-time allows for each of the 6 stages time to breathe. Obstacles are spaced out a little more, giving players a preview of what to expect, only to then squeeze them until ship and spirit are crushed. This is not a shmup to be underestimated. The Gradius power-up system is utilized here, and opportunities to successfully max out your ship are surprisingly difficult to come by. Power-ups are sparse, and the enemies carrying them can quite easily slip past you. To add to this, a ship at maximum power is still extremely susceptible to collisions. Enemies don't often attempt to fill the screen with bullets. It seems they've realizing that smashing into unsuspecting pilots is a more effective strategy.
This game was one of the first to feature the Konami code. Perform it at the title screen and you'll be gifted a sweet stack of 30 lives. That should be more than enough to save the day. I mean, that's over one life per minute. There's no way that the game could, yeah... it absolutely could. Losing that first ship - especially if it's maxed out - is a lot like getting pushed into a hole. Players prioritize getting out of the hole over everything else, and that leads to more ships getting obliterated. Let's be real here, the game that pushed you into the hole is going to do everything in its power to keep you there, and that's when those 30 lives evaporate.
Making actual sustainable progress requires a committed player, one willing to memorize the more nuanced details. That includes the seemingly innocuous moments like when & where fireballs spawn in stage 3. Their placement as well as their frequency places them among the deadlier enemies in Life Force. A max-power ship can handle them fairly easily, but as I mentioned earlier, reaching that point is something of a luxury. Aside from occasional dips, the level of difficulty is fairly consistent in its escalation. Whether or not the player is in a hole presents a significant variable. The only way to consistently handle anything that happens is practice. But hey, it's rewarding when you can keep a cool head and survive the worst possible situations.
I also have to show appreciation for the aesthetic direction Konami took this entry. The first three stages are familiar enough, but then the 4th rolls around and re-establishes the bio-horror theme with oddities such as killer cells. The boss being a kickass skull is pretty damn sweet. The 5th stage feels like it was pulled straight out of Gradius, but then leads to Ra's mysterious space temple. There are a lot of welcome surprises here, which lend this port an identity entirely its own.
There is a longevity to Life Force NES that I know isn't lost among the retrogaming community. 8-bit enthusiasts continue to sing its praises even today. All I have to say is that they're right. This shmup has aged like wine. Rather than attempt a straight port, Konami took some chances and ended up with a different but still great take on the Salamander formula. Well, it's not so much a formula as it is a hodgepodge of everything that didn't make it into Gradius, but you know what I mean.
I think?
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