Life Force is another fine example of the space shooter
genre brought to you courtesy of Konami. This game is very close to the classic
Gradius and follows exactly the same concept. You fly around blasting the crap
out of everything in sight while collecting tokens. Every token you collect
represent an upgrade. Pick up one and you have the option of increasing your
speed, two gives you missiles, three a new gun etc. Of course, once you use the
tokens you'll need to get the required number again before you can upgrade
again. So if you push all you're tokens into upgrading your speed you might not
have a strong enough weapon when you reach the boss. This brings a bit of
brainwork to the genre.
The graphics in Life Force are outstanding. Bullets fly all
over the place, yet still remain clearly visible. This is because Konami hasn't
gone overboard with the backgrounds, but instead concentrated on making
everything as clear as possible. Swarms of enemy ships swarm at you from all
directions and you have seconds in which to react, or die. Even the levels
themselves provide hazards, often shaping and reforming, causing you to fly all
over the place dodging and weaving through obstacles. The viewpoints is that of
a side scrolling shooter on the first stage which then switches to a top down
shooter on the second. This pattern continues throughout the game. At the end
of each level you face off against a boss baddie and some of these are very
cool (not to mention disgusting). What about a floating brain where you have to
shoot the eyeball to kill it or a huge skull that shoots its eyes out at you?
The music is also very good and adds to the overall hectic
atmosphere of the game. The sound effects are minimal, but do the job. The
gameplay is hardcore shooting all the way. Take your finger off the fire button
for one second and you die. You're going to need all the luck, skill and
reflexes you have to get through this one. This might put some people off, but
the hardcore shooter fans will relish the challenge. The feeling of
satisfaction you get from finishing this game is huge and the challenge factor
is high. If you think you're good enough give it a try, if not use the cheat
code printed in the manual and try anyway!
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