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This is a hack of NES LifeForce that attempts not only to retrofit some of the enhancements afforded to the technically superior Famicom version, but also to bring the game closer overall to its original arcade release. The hack succeeds on both accounts, for better or worse.

While the graphics and palette changes are mostly visually appealing, the hack sometimes feels a little too accurate in its scope. For instance, some of the more detailed elements exclusive to the NES port are discarded in favor of restoring graphics and backgrounds to their much less detailed arcade counterparts, such as the occasional use of solid black backgrounds without any transitional borders. But this is only a minor complaint, as the vast majority of the hack is an improvement in every regard.

The author went above and beyond to provide the player with a wealth of configuration options, covering everything from regional differences to difficulty loops to preferences in soundtrack ordering. To top it all off, these preferences are saved in newly added SRAM, along with the player's high score. Noticeably absent is any kind of leader board, but at least the high score display no longer reverts to its default value after the game is powered off.

Structural changes within the levels themselves seem to balance between the original arcade layout and the game's home ports. One thing that bugged me was the absence of big core fights in the aircraft carrier section of the final stage, which has landing pads clearly designated for said enemies. But their lack of inclusion is by no meals a deal-breaker.

The game's base scrolling speed is increased, making levels (and the overall game) faster in pace. I find this to be perhaps the most welcome change of all, as the NES port imposed a considerably slow pacing. Consequently, the slower pace of the NES version actually made the game more difficult in some regards, as the player was forced to be exposed to environmental hazards (stage three) and enemy respawns for a greater duration of time. As mentioned earlier, the configuration menu allows the player to tweak the game's difficulty, so selecting a higher difficulty loop will more or less offset the base decrease in difficulty resulting from the increased scroll speed.

In summary: Salamander AC Delta is the best of both worlds, and then some. Highly recommended for any veteran of the Gradius series.

A very well done conversion that closely mimics the arcade game. Faster action and more challenging than the original NES version. Options menu a welcome addition.

Only thing I'd change are the color pallets on the final stage, they are a bit hard on the eyes.

Excellent job on this!

Long time Life Force / Salamander player (mostly on the NES though...not so much in the arcade).

I just recently discovered the joys of playing the full blown arcade versions of this fine game, but since the NES is my childhood video game system, I always look to play games on that whenever possible.

This conversion of the arcade crammed into an NES game, is simply put, awesome!

I've always found the difficulty of Life Force / Salamander on the NES to be a bit on the easy side once you got all the power ups (relatively mind you...game can still kick your head in...especially if you LOSE said powerups late in the game), so the ability to make the game harder via the new options menu was very welcome.

Now, for my "Except For":

The status/power up/ score bar at the bottom of the screen shakes A LOT! I tried playing through it, but maybe it's just me, but I found it hard to ignore, very distracting, and after a bit of prolonged play, even started to hurt my eyes a bit.

Any fix for this?

I am recommending this patch...but only if people can somehow ignore the shaking of the status bar below. I am torn on this.

I really, REALLY like this patch....I just wish that problem didn't exist as I can't see myself playing this for long periods of time on a regular basis like I would the standard NES Salamander.

EDIT: After spending some time with the patched game and my emulator (FCUEX v2.2.2), I have discovered that the setting "New PPU" alleviates the 'shaking problem'.

By default, the emulator runs the 'old ppu' graphics engine, and I have not had a problem on the setting till I found this game and patch.

Nevertheless, it appears the author DID do a good job with this patch and I can fully recommend this to others, with my apologies to Hiroki.

I don't know if this is a problem with other emus or with real hardware, but the patch is fully functional.

Kudos to the author!