There are games that stay with you forever and Life Force was very well titled. It will stay on Planet Virtua for life. It is also, apparently, also named Salamander. That is not so symbolic a name. It's more just a description of the final boss of the game, I think. Either way, this game is amazing. It was astounding when it was released and it still holds a strong place in gaming history.
While it is not the first of its kind, it most certainly holds a distinction among them as one of the early greats. The soundtrack is something you could listen to for hours and you'd just better. This game will have you flying through the void of space along with stars, planets and ribcages of galactically large celestial creatures.
This game is also very strange. Much like Contra, it will have you going through some very strange settings while taking down some ridiculously strange creatures. You're in a jet and you pick up a vast array of powerups while shooting anything and everything in your path. That is, unless you have two things grow out into your path and stop you, then you will be destroyed and lose a life, oops!
Yes, with this being on my Top 10 NES Games, I sang its praise to the top of Olympus, but I may have left out the fact that it is DEVIOUSLY DIFFICULT! You need to be aware of some of the things that are coming earlier than the game makes it comfortable. You need to stay in the front of the screen rather early, or arms of rock with a single weakpoint or mounds of indestructible rock grow out in front of you. Then patterns of small spacecraft, huge hulking creatures and just about anything else imaginable come out of nowhere.
You'll find out very quickly that this is one of the earlier examples of Bullet Hell. This is basically when the game replaces oxygen with BULLETS! You have very small, if ANY avenues to come out of them unscathed when the game decides it's tired of allowing you to breathe. Everything is coming to get you and you'd better be ready to fire those special attacks in a hurry.
The powerups are basically what is going to save you and you need to keep them. This is very difficult because you lose this special ability once you get hit by an enemy and die. This happens a severely great amount. Did I say great? Yeah, I guess I did.
This game is still beautiful. The ambience of its gameplay and its wonderful soundtrack just scream the best elements of its time. This is a title that needs to be part of your NES collection. If you have a jet, let's see if it can go into the galaxies to fight alien dreadnaughts! Virtua Star Battle!
