Life Force review - Nintendo Entertainment System
The scourge of the spaceways, the giant lizard Zelos, has devoured the twin worlds of Gradius and Latis. The only chance of escaping Zelo's stomach lies in the shape of two super starfighters, the Gradius Industries Vic Viper, and Latis's RoadBritish Space Destroyer - armed to the teeth with the very latest in military technology. Who're the dumb schmucks who get to fly 'em? Guess who...
So sets the scene for Life Force, or Salamander as it's better known in the UK. This one or two-player intergalactic blaster sprung into our arcades in mid-1986, as the sequel to the smash coin-op Nemesis (or Gradius on the NES).
Life Force is both a horizontally and vertically scrolling shoot 'em up, featuring bundles of bolt on weapons, alien bad guys, big end-of-level beasts and lots of huge explosions. The object? Just get out there and blow 'em to oblivion!
What the Mean Machines staff thought
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Retrospective comments
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I remember being enchanted by this game on a Nintendo Kiosk one day at Boots the chemist (whilst bunking off school) - even though I was a hardened master system fan due to the quality of this game I knew one day soon the NES must be mine! |
Justin - 28 Jun 2008, 06:02 GMT
Good to see that Life Force gets some positive reviews. The game kicks all kinds of ass - good music, good graphics, excellent gameplay, endless replayability and challenge.
Laurie - 09 Jul 2008, 16:10 GMT
Reading these reviews I am left wondering if I have not been playing the same game. Life Force (Salamander) should be well and truly consigned to that early NES catalogue marked dreary, underwhelming but phenomenally expensive. To think that Japanese and US kids were playing Gunhed and R-Type on the PC Engine (still two of the most impressive shoot-em-ups available on any home system) while Nintendo Corporation served up this tripe to European audiences classifies as a crying shame. Moreover, there were several Thalamus C64 shoot-em-ups light years ahead of this. Life Force? Life Farce more like.