Gradius or Life Force?

[cosmicpsycho]

Both of these NES games were great. I'm not sure how to make a poll on here so you'll just have to answer in the thread. So which do you think is better.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I prefer Life Force, but both are awesome, classic, genre-defining shooters.

[DigitalSpace]

Hmm, that's a tough one. Both are among the greatest games on the NES. I'm going with Life Force - I play that a little more often, and it's also the first shmup I ever played.

[Sudo]

Life Force, it's my favorite shmup ever.

[The 1 2 P]

I don't even know what a shmup is, but I would say Life Force too. It had the classic Konami code, cetchy music and was even more fun in two player mode. Also interesting to note is that the Japanese famicom version of Life Force (titled Salamander) had an additional 3 endings(for a total of 4 different ones).

[PresidentLeever]

Yeah Life Force for me too, it has 2-player and better music overall.

I prefer the TG16 version of Gradius.

[Quintracker]

Life force hands down. I can loop that game as many times as I want and it still is fun to play (sort of like the contra games). Gradius never really caught my intention for long. For me the replay value was nil.

[Wraith Storm]

I have to follow suit and say Life Force as well. When it first came out my brother borrowed it from a friend and we had it for months until he finally made us give it back. LOL I never beat the game but played it every day and loved every minute of it.

[DefaultGen]

.....

[LifeGame]

Im for Gradius, i love it, one of my favs all time

[Damaramu]

Out of these two shooters, I prefer Gradius.

[Oobgarm]

Agreed. Gradius is the best.

[Sabz5150]

Wow... hard one. Gradius is an excellent title and an excellent series, but Life Force has it beat if you are comparing the two NES titles only.

[Sotenga]

Life Force is the technically superior shmup and a fantastic game. However, for sentimental reasons and my contention that it still holds up to some of the best shmups today, I'm voting for Gradius.

[Graham Mitchell]

Another vote for Life Force.

[roushimsx]

I greatly prefer Gradius and find Lifeforce to be an annoyingly tedious game with some pretty neat graphics. At least it was better than Salamander, but Gradius is still tops.

[zektor]

I'll have to go with Life Force due to the fact that I purchased this shooter back then first, thus I have fonder memories of it. Although Gradius is an awesome game as well mind you.

[bangtango]

For starters, the ship controls a little bit smoother in Life Force. Secondly, Life Force has a better opening stage.

The most important thing to me is that Life Force is also a little more accessible. You have a 30-lives code at your disposal, which I need to get through Life Force. Unless I missed it for the past 20 years, there is no such code in Gradius.

Plus in Life Force you don't have to replay long sections of the stages (minus your power-ups) when you die, which IS the case in Gradius. I mean would Contra or Super C on NES really have been improved by sending people back 1/3 to 1/2 of the stage upon losing a life?

[DefaultGen]

.....

[GnawRadar]

I prefer Gradius. Primarily because I became a fan of Gradius later on in the series with Gradius 3 and then bought and played Gradius and Life Force and I like Gradius better and found Life Force to be a little tedious at times.

[guitargary75]

Life Force by a nose.

[diskoboy]

Gradius was the first game I ever bought without the help of my parents.

I never could get into Life Force, for some reason.

[XYXZYZ]

Life Force. To me, it just has more character to it. The scenery is more interesting, the bosses are more fun to fight against, there's just more stuff to do. Gradius is a great game but it's pretty bland in comparison.

[k8track]

R-Type.

[Push Upstairs]

Life Force. The only "lone ship against alien hordes " game I ever liked.

[Kid Fenris]

The original Gradius is a terrible, poorly designed game due to its rigid difficulty, ill-conceived power-up system, boring scenery, and awkward use of a checkpoint-based continue system. Lifefore suffers from many of the same problems, but it has a more appealing continue system and better visual style.

Lifeforce is the correct answer.

[SpaceHarrier]

Lifeforce

The flamey level was cool... erhm.

[Volcanon]

life force, if not both.

[FrakAttack]

On NES, Life Force is probably the better game, but I remember enjoying Gradius more for some reason. Maybe it's because I was already hooked on Nemesis in the arcades.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

While I never owned Life Force as a kid, I had a friend across the street who had it. I went over there and played it endlessly. I never knew about Gradius back then, so I never played it. Now because I am a very wealthy adult, I have afforded myself a copy of each. I've only played Gradius 2 or 3 times since purchase, and found it to be on par with Life Force for the most part. But, I have no fond memories of long afternoons plunking away at Gradius- so I'm gonna side with Life Force. Think I'm gonna go play a bit of both now.

[Push Upstairs]

I'd also like to add that I dream of a fully orchestrated soundtrack to "Life Force".

Especially the boss music.

[Tony Lama]

I'm going to have to go with GRADIUS. I remember going to Toys R Us and looking at the back of the box and thinking, "Gosh, this game looks a lot like the NEMESIS arcade game that I play at 7-Eleven!" After begging my dad to buy it, I rushed home, popped it into my NES and jumped for joy when I saw the familiar aliens attack me on screen! "This IS NEMESIS!!" I ran across the street to get my friends to come over and we played Gradius all day long. Yes, GRADIUS gets my vote.

I did eventually buy Life Force as well. And although it's technically superior to Gradius, it just doesn't carry the same nostalgia. The music was better in Gradius too.

[Icarus Moonsight]

Gradius! As if there were another... (wait for it!) ... OPTION! :D

[Thrillo]

I'll do a write-in vote for Gradius II. It combines the best aspects of both games and multiplies them. It pushes the Famicom/NES very hard in every way but doesn't suffer from horrible flickering or slowdown. My jaw dropped the first time I saw the level 1 boss; the game looks that good. I think of it as the definitive Gradius game.
Between Life Force and Gradius I, well Life Force is a much better game. Gradius I always felt too 1st-gen for me.
If you haven't beaten Life Force, then play the Famicom version because it has extended endings.

[NayusDante]

I'm personally a fan of the whole Gradius/Salamander series as a whole. I never really got heavily into Gradius NES, but I enjoyed Life Force a bit more. In my opinion, Gradius Galaxies is the most balanced, accessible of the series. Between Gradius and Life Force though, I'd say Life Force, as it's just more interesting. Life Force had a more "organic" setting, and the salamander that eats planets is just awesome.

[GreatBazunka]

i would have to go with gradius. I have always played that since i was little and i love it. Not only is it fun and challenging, but it brings back memories.

[kainemaxwell]

A smuch as I enjoy both, I have to side with Life Force since it adds so much to the series.

[kingpong]

The shmup is probably my favorite genre, but I've always thought this series is junk. In both games the asenine powerup system breaks what would otherwise be an average (at best) game. Had the powerups not been broken there still wouldn't be anything special here, just a run of the mill shmup with no memorable features. When the games were new I couldn't figure out why friends who typically wouldn't play shmups thought so much of these two, and I still find no redeeming qualities.

[NayusDante]

So apparenly, you either love or hate the powerup system. The shmup genre is full of clones, so Gradius having a different mechanic makes it a winner for me.

[Astrosmash]

Life Force, although I do like both quite a bit.