Welcome to VC Weekly, N-Europe’s guide to the wonderful world of Nintendo’s download service. Written by Sam C Gittins

If you're a shmup fan then this addition will surely be a delight for you, even if you aren't then you might wish to reconsider after playing this classic title. Anyway enough from me and on with the game!
 
Available for download this week we have...     

Life Force

 
Price: GB £4.49, EU €4.99
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami
Released: 1989
System: NES

Originally known only as 'Salamander' in Japan, the title known to us as Life Force is actually a spin-off from Konami's infinitely better known Gradius series except that this title includes a few welcome enhancements which made things all the more interesting for shmup fans at the time including a two-player co-op mode plus alternating horizontal and vertical stages rather then just being limited to one orientation. The plot revolves around you fighting off the evil alien overlord known as 'Zelos' who threatens to consume every planet in its path, whole galaxies will fall if something isn't done; so it falls upon the space ship known as Vic Viper to get rid of this menace alongside Lord British if you happen to be playing co-op so that space may know peace once again for an indeterminate period of time.

As you start blasting your way through the first stage you will no doubt notice that not only must you contend with waves of enemies but also there are several parts of your surroundings which appear to 'grow' in front of your ship thanks to the organic nature of the games devious design, fortunately most of these parts can be blasted through but you'll still need to plan as you play to ensure that you don't hit a dead end early on; naturally this is where 'restore points' can come in useful. Collecting power-ups is key to your success for you can add much firepower to your ship from gaining just a few items, when you see one drop either from enemies or from within the scenery you pick it up which increases one point to a bar with five sections to it, you can opt to either press 'A' and take the first ability or wait until another pickup which will offer you something different. The abilities include anything from option pods, lasers, beams that travel along walls or just simply extra score boosters; speaking of which you seem to get an extra life every forty-thousand points but ideally you'll try and stay alive as upon death you lose all power-ups... restore points to the rescue yet again!

Controlling your ship is simple case of using the d-pad which responds just as you'd expect it to in a shmup enabling you to perform all those necessary 'twitch' movements which come in very useful especially during the later stages, aside from that 'B' is your trigger which you'll be holding onto for most of the game while 'A' just lets you choose your upgrade, it's a beautifully simple setup which will serve you well as you'll be glad that there's nothing else to worry about except purely moving/shooting especially when things get hectic or while playing two-player which is also available using download play. Aside from that it's just very refreshing to see plenty of variation between each stage which can range from your typical space station to settings including those of an Egyptian theme plus a very impressive fire stage where you must constantly watch out for the plumes of lava which arch both above and below you, all the while you are doing battle with waves of smaller enemies in addition to the odd anthropod; you'll need to be constantly at the top of your game for this title especially when it comes to the impressive boss battles including a rather creepy skull amongst other delights.

It's almost hard to believe that this is merely an 8-bit NES title because truely there is an impressive amount of detail put into every single one of the sprites in addition to the blocks which make up the stages alongside the backgrounds as well, very much a treat for anyone who enjoys the hidden depths that there are to graphics which can seem simplistic at first glance; look deeper at those fire effects on the third stage though as the devil is definitely in the detail here. On the audio front there is also a lot to like as the background music is consistently decent, always in keeping with the considerable pace of the action which remaining representative of the stage that's being played at the time, naturally the sound effects are solid enough too with just the right amount of impact so as to keep you engaged in the on-screen action.

Life Force is certainly one for the shooter fans as it contains much of that vital Gradius 'DNA' which is very much the life-blood of the shmup genre, while it is also a good entry point into the Gradius series or even the genre in general for anyone who has even a casual interest, you can rest assured that your money would be well spent here indeed. As more examples of classic shooters seem to be becoming more easily available on the 3DS eShop it's very good to see such a title as this join the ranks of the very best, especially as Europe missed out on this beauty when it came to the Wii VC, now balance has finally been restored as many players will hopefully get the chance to enjoy this classic either for the first time or just once more for old times sake.  

Verdict : Engaing, enjoyable and essential for any shmup fan.

That's it for another installment of VC Weekly which will return again soon. So until then, enjoy the rest of the week and Game On!