It’s Life Force! Is this one of the best NES games of all time? Does it inspire repeated replays? And most important of all, does it get the Malstrom Award, the MOST PRESTIGOUS AWARD in ALLLLL of gaming? Let’s find out!
Life Force, on the NES, is a very unusual game. It isn’t an original game, and it isn’t an arcade port. It is something else entirely.
After the hit Gradius, Konami made another shmup called ‘Salamander’. Salamander could be two player co-op, it alternates between horizontal and vertical stages, and it uses a different power-up system. Some people imagined Salamander to be about ships entering a giant living organism-planet and blowing it up from the inside. The developers loved the idea and later incorporated further versions into that concept.
The versions of this game is complicated. Salamander has a famicom port, but the American version became this Life Force. But then Life Force was re-released in Japan under the name of ‘Life Force’ with more changes!
I have vivid memories of this game during hot summer nights in 1988 (renting it, of course). I didn’t own it until recently. Going through it again, here is what I wrote down in my notes:
-Konami Code before demo reel. Got to be fast! Gives you 30 ships. I recommend this for new players.
-Game doesn’t put you back at setpoint when you die! Your new ship flies right back in! Keeps pacing going!
-When you die, you can ‘catch’ your options as they float away. Very cool!
-Game sounds phenomenal with sound and music.
-Game is very colorful. Very bright. Unusual for this time period. Unusual for today. Makes this game more pleasant to play due to its vivid colors.
-Game is tough if you haven’t practiced. But this is a relatively easy shmup. 30 life code plus continues should have people easily beat the game.
-Horizontal shmup every odd stage, vertical for every even stage. Why don’t more shmups do this!?
-Enemies are extremely imaginative. WTF is with the stage 4 level with lasers coming from rib cage? And the giant head whose eyeballs come out of their sockets and fly at you!?
-Co-op multiplayer possible. Makes game more enjoyable and also easier. Like Contra, other player can ‘steal your lives’ after they have game over.
-This is a souped-up port of Salamander that was differentiated enough to become its own game. Levels were changed from Salamander. NES Life Force is unique and cannot be found anywhere else.
-I love how the game cinematically removes the score and lives HUD display when you fight bosses. Bosses range from easy (stage 1, 3, 6) to annoying (stage 2, 4, 5).
-I’m always in awe of this game’s final gameplay. The scrolling slowly moves to a complete stop, music dies, and the game gets eerie as hell. The boss is Konami anti-climax easy. Then, eerily, the scrolling slowly gets faster, then faster, then faster, then out of control! The walls are closing in! Oh noes! The intensity goes from final boss to the end in a straight line up. Only Metroid is the other NES game I know that does this intensity overload AFTER the final boss!
-This is a showcase NES game.
I have come back to Life Force again and again over the decades. Why is this? I think there is so much concentrated into so little of space. Konami were god tier during NES era, and this is one of the best Konami games out there. All the sound effects are spot on. I love the music. I love the enemy design. I love the co-op. And I love going through it again and again and again. Unlike other shmups, the difficulty is tame enough to ENJOY the game.
Life Force is to shmups what Contra is to run-and-gun.
Learning Curve
The learning curve for Life Force is MUCH easier for most shmups on the NES or anywhere else especially with the Konami code. Try it out. This game will make you a lover of shmups!
Music
The music of Life Force is unique among the NES and is god-tier quality. Such intensity!
Even the game over theme is very interesting! Does it sound… happy? Hahahaha.
Underrated
I’m shocked that people know about the quality of Contra but not Life Force, yet those same people herald the NES version of Gradius as a ‘quality game’. On the surface, Life Force looks like a Gradius plus, but it’s so much more. If Gradius was the Super Mario Brothers of shmups, then Life Force would be its Super Mario Brothers 3.
This game is SO GOOD that Konami ports the NES version. It is ‘Life Force: NES Version’. How often does that happen? NEVER. The NES version is so unique that it becomes its own entity. Sure, there is the arcade version of Salamander, but that might as well be a different game.
Aside from good ingredients from quality sound, music, gameplay, and pacing, the ‘lore’ or monsters of the game are sooo well done. In addition, the combination of horizontal and overhead shmuping has been practically unheard of since this game. Gradius and R-Type don’t do that. Axelay and Ikaruga don’t do that. But Life Force does!
Add in co-op multiplayer, and you have a perfect game.
Score: 10
Yes, Life Force is worthy of the ‘Malstrom Award’. While not as well known as some other great NES games, Life Force is a tour de force and keeps me replaying the game for decades. The game is up there with Contra. Why this wasn’t in the NES Classic Mini but the mediocre Gradius port was astounds me.
$12.98
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