Life Force & World Class Track Meet retrospective: Vic boss | NES Works #084
1,415We have a follow-up to a 1986 classic here, in deed if not in name: Life Force, the sequel to Konami's Gradius. Well, sort of. It's complicated. But since we never saw the actual Gradius II on NES, this will have to do.
Life Force makes use of the same excellent power-up system as Gradius, with some refinements, including a new weapon option, new handling of Options, a revamped shield, and perhaps most importantly a far more forgiving respawn system upon the player's inevitable demise. Along with these improvements, Life Force also incorporates two-player simultaneous action and introduces a unique dual-format scrolling system seen nowhere else in the Gradius series. It's quality fare, and a real technical and gameplay highlight for the NES... a feat that becomes all the more impressive when you consider how it had to be scaled back from the Famicom release to work within the constraints of U.S. cartridges.
Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! Plus, exclusive podcasts, eBooks, and more!
Production notes:
- NES and Famicom footage in this episode was captured from @analogueinc Nt / Nt Mini / Nt Mini Noir via RGB out.
- Standard definition video upscaled to 720 with xRGB Mini Framemeister and @retrotink339 5X. There is a small amount of visual distortion in certain vertically scrolling sequences that the latest Retro Tink firmware update appears to address.
Other Videos By Jeremy Parish | Video Works
Other Statistics
Salamander Statistics For Jeremy Parish | Video Works
At this time, Jeremy Parish | Video Works has 96,378 views for Salamander spread across 3 videos. His channel published less than an hour of Salamander content, less than 0.25% of the total video content that Jeremy Parish | Video Works has uploaded to YouTube.