Life Force
Reviewed by Paul Morelli
Life Force was released by Konami in the late 80s for the Nintendo
Entertainment System. It's a shoot-'em-up airplane-flying game,
kind of like 1942 for the same system. It's a simple game, but really
enjoyable and well made.
There's not much a story to speak of - you are a pilot flying a plane
through a series of strange stages with the goal of destroying the evil
Zelos, a huge alien who has gotten seriously out of line, and you shoot
a whole bunch of stuff.
Like its sister game Contra, the famous Konami Code works in Life
Force. And you will need it.
Graphics: 10 out of 10
Life Force's graphics are every bit as good as any Nintendo game in its
time. The stages have bright, colorful, clear foregrounds and even fairly
detailed backgrounds. Even better, the game uses the graphics for neat
effects - some of the bosses you fight, including a huge brain with an
eyeball and a skull, look truly frightening. Even the less freaky bosses
look great - you fight a dragon's head and an Egyptian mask which look
really good. And the stages are WEIRD, some of them. Your plane is small
and not very detailed, however.
Music and Sound: 7 out of 10
The tunes in this game are really not bad, if you get over the fact that
there are only seven (one for each stage and another for boss fights).
You'll be humming them, I promise. The sound effects are nothing special
for the most part, although you get neat sounds when you fire a powered
up gun or hit a boss with your shots. One complaint I have is that when
you hit a non-boss enemy you get no sound to confirm that you hit it.
Since a lot of non-boss enemies take multiple hits and some can only be
hit in a certain spot, this is a pain until you become familiar with all the baddies.
Game Challenge: 6 out of 10
If you use the Konami Code, Life Force is not too tough. A challenge can
be found if you try to finish the game using the K. C. but no continues, or
to make it to all the bosses with powered up weapons.
On the other hand, the game is insanely tough without the K. C. I have a
lot of experience at Life Force, but I've never made it through the second
level without the code.
One thing that helps with the challenge is the availability of power up
items. There are quite a few weapons you can acquire through power ups,
including a laser gun, a missile bay, a defensive force field, ghost ships
that fire when you do, and speed. You lose any of these when you get killed
(and unless you have the force field you get killed with one hit, always),
so trying to stay powered up is really a challenge. A lot of players can
beat the game, but get killed so much that they use the boring wimpy
weapon you start with the whole time.
Game Play-Fun: 10 out of 10
This is a GREAT game. The stages all have this wild, trippy, eerie
look and feel to them, the bosses are creative and challenging without
being pointlessly tough, and each stage has different enemies requiring
new strategies. The game has a two-player option, which makes for
interesting strategies since you can team up. The designers were even
thoughtful enough to alternate between horizontally scrolling stages
and vertically scrolling stages, so you have variety there too.
Frustration
Unless you're very good, you'll die often, especially in stages 3, 5, and 6.
It's really tough to hang on to power ups for any length of time in these
stages, and powering up can seem like a waste of time since just one hit
takes it all away. Even if you can get the force field, which takes a while,
you can often absorb only a few hits before the shield disintegrates. You see,
the shield can absorb a lot of bullets, but if you run into baddies with it
it doesn't last.
Replayability: 6 out of 10
There's not really anything to discover once you've been through the game
but it's a treat to play through anyway. Also, after you beat the game you
can start again and play through a tougher version, where some enemies
who couldn't shoot before start shooting stuff at you. (Now you want a force field!)
Overall: 9 out of 10
Life Force could easily have been a dull, monotonous space shooter on a
system that had quite a few. Instead, it turned out surprisingly intelligent,
challenging, and interesting. I say go for it, it'll entertain you, especially
if you liked Contra.