#Gradius 2 vs lifeforce upgrade
It features the mix of organic backgrounds and star fields of the original Japanese arcade game while using the Gradius-inspired upgrade system of the later re-release. The NES release of Life Force is a sort of hybrid of these versions. I've never personally made it beyond the third stage in the arcade. You can pump quarters in to add more lives to your current run (if this option is enabled on the machine I've played on at FunSpot, it doesn't seem to be), but even this only allows for a limited number. This would seemingly make the arcade version a lot easier, but it makes up for its more generous upgrade system in other ways the arcade game is much faster than the home port, has far more enemies per screen, and does not allow you to continue from a game over.
On top of that, the arcade version allows you to equip four Options, while the NES one limits you to two. Because of this, it's possible to get a pair of Options from the very first enemies encountered, rather than having to collect several items before you can even deploy one in the NES port. Instead of collecting items to proceed along the power-up meter, enemies drop items which immediately grant certain abilities. Along with visual changes, the Japanese Life Force ditches the original's power-up system and just directly takes the one from Gradius.īoth the Japanese Salamander and American Life Force arcade games used a totally different power-up system from the one in the more well known NES version. Konami would later re-release the game in Japanese arcades under the American name and further edit its graphics, making things even more organic. A little bit of voice work was added to each area, with a narrator yelling things like "Entering stomach muscle" and "cut through the liver," narration which is sadly, but understandably, lost in the NES version. The game was released in America shortly after and renamed Life Force, at which point some stage graphics were modified to more fully embrace the organic world theme. Life Force was originally released in 1986 in Japanese arcades under the name of Salamander, with a mixture of organic levels and space levels. This game is a Gradius spinoff, and it shows, down to sharing some of the same enemies, but of the two, Life Force is the stronger game. Along the way, you collect items that fill a power-up meter which can be activated when you please, giving you increased speed, missiles, a ring-shaped beam, a laser beam, a force field, or everyone's favorite, Options little sub-ships that follow you around and double your armament.
Another unique element is that the game alternates viewpoint between each stage, switching between side-scrolling and overhead views. The ships the player controls are essentially antibodies destroying infections (as well as seemingly normal Space Organs) inside of the giant, planet-eating Space Snake seen on the game's box. The game features standard genre gameplay, but with a unique theme you fight giant brains with arms, avoid pointy space-teeth, and dodge fiery indigestion. Life Force is a scrolling shooter released on the NES by Konami in 1987.
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