So I actually played the version of this called Life Force but as far as I can tell the game is identical, just regional naming and frankly the cover for Salamander is superior so I'm logging it as this. I played it on the Konami Arcade Classics Collection anyway which lists both names regardless though Life Force is the American rename and I am from the UK in which it was released as Salamander back in 1986...
Anyway I'm rambling, this is a spin off to Konami's original Gradius and indeed it's pretty clear from the start. Pretty sure one of the music tracks is from Gradius or at least incredibly similar. It has a couple of features that stood out as a shoot 'em up for me though:
Firstly this game is a bit like playing a shoot 'em up of Inner space which came out in 1987. Must have been a theme back then of tiny ships in organics. I love at the start of each level a voice says "entering stomach lining", "entering kidney zone" etc. Just a shame the art design on a lot of levels doesn't really reflect that and you wouldn't know except for the voice.
Secondly, it actually mixes horizontal side scrolling shooting sections and vertical scrolling sections and both are handled very well and don't just feel like a gimmick but interchange very smoothly. For 1986 strikes me as very impressive tech.
The game looks pretty good generally actually though in some ways it is a step down from Gradius. The power ups a re less impressive with the satellite ships known as multiples just being blue lights was a little uninspiring. They are also absolutely handicapping in a midgame boss when I was firing blue lasers from blue orbs at small blue orb weak points while they fire blue rubber balls the same shade bouncing around in a small area. Absolutely appalling design and it almost made me quit outright as I'm not even sure it's something you could memorize, just get good or get lucky. The final sequence is also awful like that that it's impossible to do on your first play without extreme luck as it's just cheap barriers sprining up to impede your progress at angles or parts of the screen if you're in the wrong place, "well tough luck kiddo! Put another coin in the machine" type of design some arcade games had I despise.
It actually has unique bosses unlike Gradius and just feels a little better to play generally except for the insane slowdown at times when having four multiples out firing lasers. Stopping firing and going back to a good framerate can send you smashing into a wall though where you weren't ready for it. Still overall I like this more than Gradius even if it is incremental improvement and there are elements from both games I can still see in modern games just a bit rough in places.
Definitely worth a play if you have a spare hour or two.
+ Mixing vertical and horizontal elements is smooth.
+ Power ups are a little simpler than Gradius and the game is fairly smooth to play.
+ I like the idea of a small ship inside a body...
-...they didn't lean into it hard enough.
- A couple of sections have truly awful design.
- Some bad slowdown when too much going on (Konami Arcade Classics)
Anyway I'm rambling, this is a spin off to Konami's original Gradius and indeed it's pretty clear from the start. Pretty sure one of the music tracks is from Gradius or at least incredibly similar. It has a couple of features that stood out as a shoot 'em up for me though:
Firstly this game is a bit like playing a shoot 'em up of Inner space which came out in 1987. Must have been a theme back then of tiny ships in organics. I love at the start of each level a voice says "entering stomach lining", "entering kidney zone" etc. Just a shame the art design on a lot of levels doesn't really reflect that and you wouldn't know except for the voice.
Secondly, it actually mixes horizontal side scrolling shooting sections and vertical scrolling sections and both are handled very well and don't just feel like a gimmick but interchange very smoothly. For 1986 strikes me as very impressive tech.
The game looks pretty good generally actually though in some ways it is a step down from Gradius. The power ups a re less impressive with the satellite ships known as multiples just being blue lights was a little uninspiring. They are also absolutely handicapping in a midgame boss when I was firing blue lasers from blue orbs at small blue orb weak points while they fire blue rubber balls the same shade bouncing around in a small area. Absolutely appalling design and it almost made me quit outright as I'm not even sure it's something you could memorize, just get good or get lucky. The final sequence is also awful like that that it's impossible to do on your first play without extreme luck as it's just cheap barriers sprining up to impede your progress at angles or parts of the screen if you're in the wrong place, "well tough luck kiddo! Put another coin in the machine" type of design some arcade games had I despise.
It actually has unique bosses unlike Gradius and just feels a little better to play generally except for the insane slowdown at times when having four multiples out firing lasers. Stopping firing and going back to a good framerate can send you smashing into a wall though where you weren't ready for it. Still overall I like this more than Gradius even if it is incremental improvement and there are elements from both games I can still see in modern games just a bit rough in places.
Definitely worth a play if you have a spare hour or two.
+ Mixing vertical and horizontal elements is smooth.
+ Power ups are a little simpler than Gradius and the game is fairly smooth to play.
+ I like the idea of a small ship inside a body...
-...they didn't lean into it hard enough.
- A couple of sections have truly awful design.
- Some bad slowdown when too much going on (Konami Arcade Classics)
2 Comments
@McMahonishboy - Never heard of it, thanks for the recommendation I'll add that on my to play list but oh boy is that box art absolutely hideous o_0
Gare
1 year ago