Life Force (NES) Review
System NES
Developer Konami Publisher Konami Genre Side Scrolling Shooter # of Players 1-2 Release Date August 1988 |
Pros
Good level designs Upgrade system 2 player support Cons Short Game Limited replay ability |
Review
3/27/2015
While many people played Gradius, I was playing Life Force. I was never able to figure out the story behind the game, if it was in the manual I lost that long ago. Best I was able to figure out is that you are in a space craft fighting an alien force. The story is not a driving force for this game. Its game play and two player mode are what make this game worth checking out.
Life Force is broken into 3 horizontal stages and 3 vertical stages. Each level has its own unique design and theme with an end boss to tie it all together. The main goal of each level is to fly through the stage dodging the terrain and enemy bullets while defeating waves of enemies coming at you until the end. Graphically the game looks good for a NES game. While the sounds and music works for the game, being that it was one of my first NES games I always found it memorable. While this is not the most memorable game on the NES system, what it does it does well.
One aspect of the game that I liked was the upgrade system. Beating certain groups of enemies drops tokens that allow you upgrade your ship. The type of upgrade you can purchase varies depending on how many of the tokens you get. Some upgrades give you more firepower while others increase your speed. When you lose a life, you also loose your upgrades. This gives you an incentive to stay alive since the more upgrades that you have the easier the game gets.
There were two things I do enjoy about this game. This game supports the konami cheat code that gives the player 30 lives. If you are really good at this game this probably won't matter, however if you are not this will help you beat the game. Also this game supports 2 players which does make the game easier. I remember my brother and I playing this game growing up and enjoying it.
This is a short game, only clocking around 30 minutes from start to finish. Also, a lot of the game revolves around memorizing enemy patterns and stage layouts. Once you figure out the level patterns, this does trivalize the game. While doing the playthough of the game for this review, I was able to finish the first level of the game without losing a life after a little trial and error. Once the game is beaten, there really isn't much reason to come back to it.
If you enjoy games like Gradius or looking for a quick two player game, you will probably enjoy this game.
3/27/2015
While many people played Gradius, I was playing Life Force. I was never able to figure out the story behind the game, if it was in the manual I lost that long ago. Best I was able to figure out is that you are in a space craft fighting an alien force. The story is not a driving force for this game. Its game play and two player mode are what make this game worth checking out.
Life Force is broken into 3 horizontal stages and 3 vertical stages. Each level has its own unique design and theme with an end boss to tie it all together. The main goal of each level is to fly through the stage dodging the terrain and enemy bullets while defeating waves of enemies coming at you until the end. Graphically the game looks good for a NES game. While the sounds and music works for the game, being that it was one of my first NES games I always found it memorable. While this is not the most memorable game on the NES system, what it does it does well.
One aspect of the game that I liked was the upgrade system. Beating certain groups of enemies drops tokens that allow you upgrade your ship. The type of upgrade you can purchase varies depending on how many of the tokens you get. Some upgrades give you more firepower while others increase your speed. When you lose a life, you also loose your upgrades. This gives you an incentive to stay alive since the more upgrades that you have the easier the game gets.
There were two things I do enjoy about this game. This game supports the konami cheat code that gives the player 30 lives. If you are really good at this game this probably won't matter, however if you are not this will help you beat the game. Also this game supports 2 players which does make the game easier. I remember my brother and I playing this game growing up and enjoying it.
This is a short game, only clocking around 30 minutes from start to finish. Also, a lot of the game revolves around memorizing enemy patterns and stage layouts. Once you figure out the level patterns, this does trivalize the game. While doing the playthough of the game for this review, I was able to finish the first level of the game without losing a life after a little trial and error. Once the game is beaten, there really isn't much reason to come back to it.
If you enjoy games like Gradius or looking for a quick two player game, you will probably enjoy this game.