INTRO:
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, games often resorted to having difficulty that is so sheer as to have the player trying over and over again upon each failure. The challenges were mostly cheap, and unfortunately Life Force (called "Salamander" in other parts of the world) would not be an exception.
As a shoot-'em-up, one would expect Life Force to resort to filling the screen with many projectiles and hostiles, not unlike the bullet-hell variant of the genre. Yet, perhaps in a dubious manner that sets Life Force apart from the rest as well as making it particularly infamous, it does not do this; instead, it uses the environment of the levels against the player, often in ways that a newcomer would not see coming.
PREMISE:
The premise of the game is typically a throw-away one, not unlike the premises that have been used for many other shoot-'em-ups that are set in space during the game's time. However, there are a few story elements that would be notable to players who follow the shoot-'em-up genre.
The player takes on the role of some valiant pilot of a (very frail) vessel that has to oppose inhuman enemies of overwhelming numbers. This would be nothing terrifically new, except that the enemy is a planet. Of course, people who are versed in Star Trek lore would not find this surprising.
Perhaps a story element that is more noteworthy is that the protagonist's ship is officially the Vic Viper of the Gradius franchise. Of course, one can argue that this is just a ploy to market the game; that the other ship, if the player can find a buddy to play the game with, is called "Lord British" (after a certain character of Ultima fame) would strengthen this suspicion.
GAMEPLAY – POWER-UPS & POWER METER:
Some enemies, which are generally tinged orange, release power-ups upon their death. The power-ups resemble capsules that contain blinking, glowing orbs. Conveniently, the power-ups have huge sprites, which theoretically make them easier to retrieve.
In practice though, the power-ups may end up in impassable parts of the level; in fact, an observant player would notice that the game often spawns enemies that release power-ups such that when they do release their goods, they would often be located in precarious locations on-screen.
Attempting to retrieve them when they are located in such places puts the player character at risk of crashing into said places; the power-ups' huge sprites work against the player in this case, as they may obscure hazardous angles in the geometry of the level.
If the player can get to these power-ups, he/she gains extra lives, in the case of the purple ones (which also destroys all regular enemies on-screen), or unlocks more functions for the ship's weaponry, in the case of the orange ones. The visual indications for this are depicted via power meters that appear at the bottom of the screen.
The power meter is a hold-over from the games in the wider Gradius franchise, so it was not anything that was remarkably new at the time.
Anyway, it is a bar with segments with rectangles that indicate which power-ups are available for activation. By default, none of the segments are highlighted. The first power-up that the player collects will highlight the first segment, which is the power-up for increased movement speed, whereas each subsequent power-up highlights the next one. There are up to five other, different power-ups.
'Spending' on a power-up reverts the power meter to its default state, that is, no segment is highlighted at all. Therefore, the player has to keep in mind which level of power-up accumulation that he/she wants to get to before expending it on a preferred power-up.
To help the player know which power-up is available for activation, a text box that is next to the power meter depicts which power-up is currently available for possible activation.
(The pre-recorded videos that play when the player leaves the game idling in the main menu may provide some hints on which segment unlocks which power-up.)
If the player can get the hang of the power-up system, he/she can kit out his/her ship with gear that may seem to be the typical sorts of improvements for player-controlled vessels in shoot-'em-up games at the time. The player's ship can be made faster, kitted out with missiles that come out of its sides, satellites or buffs to the ship's default weaponry. If the player has accumulated power-ups to the point that the last segment is highlighted and then collect another, the power meter resets, thus wasting the power-ups that have been collected earlier.
However, there are some power-ups that are more notable for reasons better or worse.
The aforementioned missiles are not exactly dumb-firing missiles; instead, they travel along the terrain features of the level, namely around its inner edges. Such a design makes them very convenient for getting rid of enemies that cling to and move along these edges, especially pesky turrets. This makes them more refreshing than the typical missiles seen in other shoot-'em-up titles.
The satellites (called "options" in Gradius nomenclature) fire additional shots in tandem with their parent ship, as to be expected of typical satellites. However, they drift in space instead of disappearing immediately after their parent ship has been destroyed. If the player can have his/her newly respawned ship – or another player's ship - flying over to them, they can be retrieved; however, if the player fails to do so, they fade away after a while. This is a convenient game design.
It is also worth noting here that the satellites are not suspended at fixed distances from the player's ship; instead, they trace its path, which gives the player some modicum of control over their positioning.
The last power-up is a shield that renders the player's ship impervious to damage, albeit for a short while. Considering how challenging it is to collect the power-ups that are needed to reach the last segment in the power meter, the short duration of this power-up may be too little a reward.
Dying, of course, removes all buffs from the player's ships and resets its state to default, which is a typical design for shoot-'em-up titles at the time.
GAMEPLAY – REGULAR ENEMIES:
As a shoot-'em-up, Life Force has the usual gamut of regular enemies with different behaviours.
There are turret-like enemies that track the player's ship and fire projectiles of varying sizes, in addition to enemies that cling to and move along walls and ceilings. As the game progresses, they and their projectiles become bigger and more voluminous.
The flying ones include enemies that fly into the screen in rigidly certain formations and from the same spots in the edges of the screens, regardless of how many times the level is replayed. Then, there are those that just fly straight in a certain direction, depending on the position of the player's ship at the time when they spawn in (usually at the player's ship). To complete the featuring of the usual archetypes, there are those that fly in to fire off some projectiles, before flying away.
Most of them would have been of a fair challenge, if not for their seeming immunity to the hazards of the levels that they appear in. Flying enemies can fly through level features and other objects that would have been obstacles and thus pose collision hazards to the player's ship. Most projectiles also pass through obstacles, possibly dooming a player that has hemmed his/her ship into a tight spot.
GAMEPLAY – HAZARDS:
To force the player to progress, the levels scroll by the player's ship, thus putting it in the path of hazards that the player has to dodge or eliminate. Unfortunately, the hazards that are posed by the environments in the levels are the greatest source of frustration in the game.
In the first level alone, there are walls of what appear to be flesh (or red pus) that grows out from the edge of the screen, thus becoming collision hazards. There are also walls of flesh that can be shot apart, but these regenerate, which can be an unpleasant surprise the first time around.
Next, there are levels that force the player's ship into narrow paths, and then have some impervious rocks drifting down said paths; the only way to dodge them is to gauge the times when there are gaps in between the edges of the path and the rocks. Some other rocks can be destroyed, but they break into smaller but more numerous rocks.
Other cheap hazards include cyclical hazards that can afflict large portions of the screen, sudden accelerations in the scrolling speed and types of objects that were previously static in the early portions of a level but which start to move in the later portions.
All of these hazards are more than likely to catch an unassuming newcomer the first time, leading to many retries if the player has the stubbornness to persist.
Considering the designs of the hazards and the predictable nature of regular enemies (which may as well be more mobile hazards), an observant player would notice that the only way to get through a level is to memorize the appearance of hazards and enemies in said level, and then moving the player's ship so as to have the space needed to dodge them, even before they appear on-screen.
GAMEPLAY – BOSSES:
When compared to the bosses in other shoot-'em-ups, some of the bosses in Life Force may seem a lot easier to handle, such as the first and second bosses. However, an observant player will notice that they are just an extension of the hazards in the levels that lead up to encounters with them.
The others typically fill the screen with projectiles, or are dim-wits who alternate their positions to shoot where the player's ship was. Neither are bosses that have not been seen in many other shoot-'em-ups at the time.
GAMEPLAY – CO-OP:
Most games would be more fun if played in co-op, but Life Force does not exactly offer the same promise.
In co-op mode, there are typically two sprites of the same ship, albeit with different colors, orange and ultramarine. Unfortunately, a lot of objects and enemies in the game are also coloured in hues of red and blue, thus requiring the players to rely on shape recognition to determine where their ships are – yet they happen to be of the same shape.
When either player's ship gets destroyed, it will be respawned as a sprite that flickers between orange and ultramarine, further adding to the chromatic confusion, especially if both players' ships were destroyed and respawned at the same time.
Furthermore, due to the game's predilection for plenty of collision hazards, the player's ship may enter the screen within obstacles. The player only has a brief period of time to move the ship out of these obstacles, or be tele-fragged (to borrow a term from the sci-fi FPS genre) outright.
If either player runs out of lives, he/she can leech one from the other, which can either be a convenience or a source of aggravation. Either way, this can be a very amusing design.
Oddly enough, the two-player co-op mode provides 'continue' chances for the players, whereas the single-player mode did not.
MISCELLANEOUS MENTIONS:
It has to be mentioned here that Life Force of the NES is a reduced version of the original NES version of the game, named 'Salamander'. There are slightly less power-ups, a lower limit for satellites and no multiple endings. Players who are not aware of this would not perceive any reduced value, though for those who do, they would wonder about the reasons for this reduction, of which few are obvious.
The game does feature the amusing "Konami Code", which may be of use to the player that wants to persevere through this game and its focus on memorization.
GRAPHICS – LEVEL ART:
Perhaps the most appealing bit about Life Force is that the levels are mostly set in the bowels of the aforementioned celestial body.
If one would give the visuals some thought, he/she would realize that the game has some disturbing visuals, such as the very first level having gigantic but decaying fangs jutting in and out of what appears to be pimply flesh.
However, whatever disgust and awe that the player would have is watered down by disbelief when he/she notices that the game resorts to a lot of sprite overlapping that is not well done. For example, the sprites of the aforementioned fangs are placed under the porous textures for said flesh, very much showing where the fangs start and end.
Furthermore, the transitions in the background art can be abrupt, with little to no attempt to disguise the transition or make it seem more natural. This happens at moments such as when the ship moves from what seems to be space into cave-like sections, and when the player transits into some boss fights (many of which take place against a completely blank background).
GRAPHICS – SPRITE DESIGNS:
Most of the regular enemies in the game are of alien nature, though the game designers' attempts to implement such a visual theme may fall short. For example, there are commonly encountered enemies that appear to be spheres between pairs of discs, though their colour schemes give the first impression of them being space-bound burgers or cheese tarts.
It would be understandable that regular enemies are visually bland, but the bosses also happen to be quite as bland, or otherwise unoriginal. For example, the first boss is a huge brain with poorly animated arms, which also happen to have hideous color contrast. Other examples are bosses that resemble disembodied skulls and floating busts of pharaohs, either of which are rather over-used visual designs by the time of this game.
The most disappointing sprites are those for the players' ships. As mentioned earlier, the player's ship is the Vic Viper, which means that some of its visual designs have been recycled from the other Gradius games. There is also the frustration from the implementation of the colours of their sprites, as mentioned earlier.
SOUNDTRACKS & SOUND EFFECTS:
The soundtracks in the game were designed by Konami's own in-house Konami Kukeiha Club, which was perhaps too easily confused with the more independent Kukeiha Club.
Each level has its own thematic track, which is generally of an exciting beat, but these tracks are replaced with more ominous tracks whenever bosses or particularly challenging parts of the levels come up.
Overall, the music fits the game quite well and is not too much of a distraction or a pain to the ears. However, it is not very remarkable either, likely because the gameplay itself is not outstanding enough to the benefaction of the music.
Being an NES game, the sound effects in Life Force for the NES are not much to listen to, even during its time. Teeny dinking accompanies the shots of the player's ships, which changes slightly as the player's ship takes on weapon upgrades. There are few other sound effects in the game, such as those for explosions, which may be a blessing as considering how unimpressive they are, they would have been unbearable if there had been more.
CONCLUSION:
Life Force was perhaps an attempt to introduce level designs and collision hazards as an alternative source of challenge to the usual trope of filling the screen with many projectiles and hostiles in shoot-'em-up games, but the result is a game that requires the player to rely a lot on memorization. Its bland sprite designs and features that are recycled from other games in the Gradius franchise do not help to compensate for the frustration.
Summarily, Life Force for the NES was at best, a test and measurement of a player's stubbornness, but offers little other contribution to the shoot-'em-up genre.