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By inkhands Zelos is a very hungry alien monster. He's wandered around the universe and he's managed to swallow stars, planets, and galaxies whole. One of them happened to be the planet of Gradius. To save this planet, along with the other civilizations floating around in an alien stomach, you must in fact go within this alien. You take the Vic Viper spaceship and make your way through some really ugly stages, but it's all for the good of the universe. Life Force was released in the late 1980's. It is for one or two players. The two ships, Vic Viper and the RoadBritish Space Destroyer, will be on screen at the same time if you select the two player option. There are a total of six stages in this game. They alternate between horizontal scrolling stages and vertical scrolling stages. The first stage is the standard left to right stage and the next one would be an overhead stage. Then it would go back to horizontal and so on. The enemies get much faster in the later stages and the amount of on screen obstacles multiply. The first stage is a cell stage. Cells will suddenly form right in front of you. If you choose the wrong path, your ship will mostly likely get caught by one of these cells that have suddenly generated. You also have to shoot your way through cells to clear a path to move your ship through at times, but these cells have the ability to regenerate, so you have to speed your way through them. The second stage appears to be inside the walls of a volcano. It's possibly the easiest stage, because you can move through different paths. The third stage is a really difficult stage, because you are flying over lava. Flames shoot out of the lava unexpectedly. However, they don't shoot straight out. Instead, they shoot at an arch. The other stages include another cell stage and a trek through a temple. You begin with a rather small weapon. However, you can upgrade your ship to be a very powerful force. Certain enemies you kill will give you upgrades. Collect these items and watch the upgrade bar. There are six things you can power up on your ship. One of the six things is the speed of the ship. The next allows you to add a missile to your ship. You can change the weapon to be a ripple weapon or a laser. There is also the upgrade that is called option. This one allows you to add an extra part to your ship and it will shoot when you do. It's like a tiny ship that follows the big one around and that type of thing is in a lot of shooters. Finally, you have the ability to add a defensive force field around your ship. This allows you to take more than one hit before your ship explodes. If you collect one it won't automatically upgrade. You have to press the A button to choose the one you want. If you get one power up, you can select speed. Two would allow you to have a missile, three for ripple, four for laser, five for the option, and six for the shield. If you lose your ship, you lose everything you added to it. Graphically, the game is also impressive. The bosses are well designed. The backgrounds during the final bosses are always completely black and most of the time during the stages as well. You mostly only get color around the edges of the screen in this game. The opening stage is filled with pink cells, the next one is brown, the third one is just a pit of fire, and temple stage looks very much like being inside a pyramid of some sort. The enemies are mostly just other spaceships or flying birds. The music in this game is also fairly well done. Each stage has it's own theme, but they are all pretty much a variation of the one on the first stage. The boss music is also well done, because it adds to the feeling of the intensity of the game. As for sound effects, you have a very weak noise every time you fire the weapon. You can hear explosions when your ship or an enemy is destroyed. There is a noise when you pick up a power up, and a separate clanging noise when you actually see it. This is a very good game to play through once, but it has lasting appeal because it takes a few plays to actually master it. It ranks as one of my all time favorite shooters and probably my favorite shooter on the NES. It looks, sounds, and plays very well. I usually hate games that are really challenging, but this one only makes me more determined to beat it, instead of making me frustrated to the point that I never want to play it again. This is a classic game and I do highly recommend it. My Score: 9/10 |
© 2001-2003 Stephen Maiorana (RoyalRanger)
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