Life Force (NES)

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Revision as of 23:45, 28 March 2011 by Doommaster1994 (talk | contribs) (Credits)
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Life Force
Life Force - NES - USA.jpg
Platform: NES
Year: 1987
Developer: Konami Industry Co., Ltd.
Buy: Amazon

Life Force AKA 沙羅曼蛇 (Salamander) is a well-known scrolling shooter that borrowed heavily from Gradius (NES). It has plenty of the staple scrolling shooter elements: different weapons, option powers, missiles, and memorable bosses. The level design lends itself to being inside of a human body and fighting off various invaders. Life Force isn't a direct port from the arcade, but a mash-up of Life Force (ARC) and Life Force Deluxe (ARC). Most of the game comes from Salamander, but the powerup system is taken from the deluxe version. Also, some of the levels have been completely redesigned like the Temple Stage and Cell Stage 2.


Screenshots


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Music

Life Force has an above-average soundtrack composed by Miki Higashino with an science fiction theme. Though not ground breaking, the music is professional and refined for the time. The NES audio has a warmer sound than the arcade soundtrack, but the fidelity is slightly lower.


Recording

#

Title

Composer

Arranger

Length

Size

Listen

01 Power of Anger Miki Higashino Shinya Sakamoto, S. Terashima, Hidenori Maezawa, Atsushi Fujio 1:10 1.1 MB
02 Starfield Miki Higashino Shinya Sakamoto, S. Terashima, Hidenori Maezawa, Atsushi Fujio 1:07 951 KB
03 Planet Ratis Miki Higashino Shinya Sakamoto, S. Terashima, Hidenori Maezawa, Atsushi Fujio 1:11 1.0 MB
04 Burn the Wind Miki Higashino Shinya Sakamoto, S. Terashima, Hidenori Maezawa, Atsushi Fujio 1:10 1.0 MB
05 Thunderbolt Miki Higashino, Suzuki Kyouta, Akira Yamaoka Shinya Sakamoto, S. Terashima, Hidenori Maezawa, Atsushi Fujio 1:26 1.3 MB
06 Aircraft Carrier Miki Higashino Shinya Sakamoto, S. Terashima, Hidenori Maezawa, Atsushi Fujio 0:24 364 KB
07 Destroy Them All Miki Higashino Shinya Sakamoto, S. Terashima, Hidenori Maezawa, Atsushi Fujio 1:23 1.2 MB
08 Poison of Snake Miki Higashino Shinya Sakamoto, S. Terashima, Hidenori Maezawa, Atsushi Fujio 1:20 1.2 MB
09 Crystal Forever Miki Higashino Shinya Sakamoto, S. Terashima, Hidenori Maezawa, Atsushi Fujio 0:24 342 KB
10 Peace Again Miki Higashino Shinya Sakamoto, S. Terashima, Hidenori Maezawa, Atsushi Fujio 0:56 709 KB


Credits

(Salamander (FC) Credits, Salamander (ARC) Credits)

The credits of Life Force are pretty complicated. When you beat the USA release, you get a short ending with the Konami logo, but no credits. However, when you beat the Japanese release, you're treated to some extra animation and a staff roll, entirely in English (makes you wonder why it was left out of the USA release). In the Japanese release music is credited to: Shinya Sakamoto, S. Terashima, Hidenori Maezawa, and Atsushi Fujio. Atsushi Fujio was probably the audio programmer, since he is usually credited as such in later games. The other three were arrangers of the arcade music since all of the music in Life Force is ported from the arcade games.

However, another complication arises because the arcade versions of Salamander and Life Force [USA] and Life Force Japan all have different credits! Using the process of elimination, we find that all of Salamander's music was composed by Miki Higashino, and Life Force's additional music was composed by Suzuki Kyouta and Akira Yamaoko. Only one track (Thunderbolt) is taken from Life Force, and that's why it credits the additional composers.

Albums

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Game Rip

Formats

Download

Size

NSF.png NSFE.png

Download 19 KB

Ripping NES music is a very arduous process that is beyond the scope of this site.


Releases

  Japan.svg   Japan
Life Force - NES - Japan.jpg
Title: 沙羅曼蛇 (Salamander)
Platform: Famicom
Released: 1987/09/25
Publisher: Konami Industry Co., Ltd.
  USA.svg   USA
Life Force - NES - USA.jpg
Title: Life Force
Platform: NES
Released: 1988/08/??
Publisher: Konami of America, Inc.
  France.svg   France
Life Force - NES - France.jpg
Title: Life Force Salamander
Platform: NES
Released: 1989/11/22
Publisher: Konami
  South Korea.svg   South Korea
Life Force - NES - South Korea.jpg
Title: 라이프 포스 사라만다 (Life Force Salamander)
Platform: NES
Released: 1990/??/??
Publisher: Konami


Links