Life Force (NES)

Life Force

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

The title screen.

Shooting enemies in Cell Stage 1.

Avoid the walls in the Volcanic Stage.

The burning fires of The Prominence Stage.

Things get pretty sticky in Cell Stage 2.

The Japanese title screen.

Music

VGMPF Album Art

The music of Life Force was originally composed by Miki Higashino for the arcade version. It was arranged for the NES by several of Konami's staff. The NES audio has a warmer sound than the arcade soundtrack, but the fidelity is slightly lower.

Recording

#	Title	Composer	Arranger	Length	Download
01	Power of Anger	Miki Higashino	Shinya Sakamoto, Satoe Terashima, Hidenori Maezawa, Atsushi Fujio	1:10	Download
02	Starfield	Miki Higashino	Shinya Sakamoto, Satoe Terashima, Hidenori Maezawa, Atsushi Fujio	1:07	Download
03	Planet Ratis	Miki Higashino	Shinya Sakamoto, Satoe Terashima, Hidenori Maezawa, Atsushi Fujio	1:11	Download
04	Burn the Wind	Miki Higashino	Shinya Sakamoto, Satoe Terashima, Hidenori Maezawa, Atsushi Fujio	1:10	Download
05	Thunderbolt	Miki Higashino, Suzuki Kyouta, Akira Yamaoka	Shinya Sakamoto, Satoe Terashima, Hidenori Maezawa, Atsushi Fujio	1:26	Download
06	Aircraft Carrier	Miki Higashino	Shinya Sakamoto, Satoe Terashima, Hidenori Maezawa, Atsushi Fujio	0:24	Download
07	Destroy Them All	Miki Higashino	Shinya Sakamoto, Satoe Terashima, Hidenori Maezawa, Atsushi Fujio	1:23	Download
08	Poison of Snake	Miki Higashino	Shinya Sakamoto, Satoe Terashima, Hidenori Maezawa, Atsushi Fujio	1:20	Download
09	Crystal Forever	Miki Higashino	Shinya Sakamoto, Satoe Terashima, Hidenori Maezawa, Atsushi Fujio	0:24	Download
10	Peace Again	Miki Higashino	Shinya Sakamoto, Satoe Terashima, Hidenori Maezawa, Atsushi Fujio	0:56	Download

Credits

Ripper: TNSe^1999
Recorder: TheAlmightyGuru
Game Credits:
- Music By [Arranger]: Shinya Sakamoto credited as S. Sakamoto
- Music By [Arranger]: Satoe Terashima credited as S. Terashima
- Music By [Arranger]: Hidenori Maezawa credited as H. Maezawa
- Music By [Programmer]: Atsushi Fujio credited as A. Fujio
- Not Credited Composer: Miki Higashino
- Not Credited Composer: Suzuki Kyouta
- Not Credited Composer: Akira Yamaoka
- Not Credited Sound Effects: Yoshiaki Hatano
- Not Credited Sound Effects: Hidenao Yamane
- Not Credited Sound Effects: AKT
- Not Credited Sound Effects: Akira Yamaoka
- Not Credited Sound Effects: Midnight Zombie

(Sources: Salamander (FC) Credits, Salamander (ARC) Credits, Life Force USA (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. In the Japanese release music is credited to: Shinya Sakamoto, Satoe 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 probably 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.