EDIT Screw it. I'm playing more. I'll put a better score here.

i am really frustrated with this game, im so obsessed with doing level 1 and 2 perfect that i keep messing up. i made it pretty far on level 3 and i dont think im going to do better than this.

17,790

Wow, this game is insanity! The highest I got was around 15,000. I managed to beat the first level once. But, level 2 is way easier than level 1, especially when you get to start it out fully equipped.

Anyone know if there is a score cap like in Contra?

Well, here's my first attempt.
Actual score is 229,050.  I died on the last stage right at the end and when it restarted I killed a few ships without even thinking!

Here's the best I've been able to do so far.

AAArrrrgghhh! I died at tehe very last boss of the game, and I FORGOT TO TAKE A SCREENSHOT!!!!
rjfdjfsppdsiuru9w3r9i0q390as9)#(@#u(*@(()@u*OjiDAHSAOASDHASUASHDOIHHDSHUDHUIHIU

Yay, I randomly got a copy of this in the mail today! I don't really remember buying it.

Arg! I started out doing fine, but I keep getting worse instead of better

There should be an award for most number of times killed by that regenerating crap at the end of level 1

I know what you're talking about man.
The game is particularly frustrating because you can make a dumb move anywhere. And most of the time, dumb move = death.

I tried to play through this game tonight (with 30 man code) and still couldn't manage it. Died on the level 6 boss. This game is hard as all hell!!! I'll give it another go tomorrow and hopefully will do a little better.

cremorecs, you seriously got 229k with only one life?! That's impressive!

Yea, the trick with a shmup like this is memorization. I took me quite a few tries but once you know where everything is coming at you from it gets a hell of a lot easier. The reason I died on the last stage is cos I had never done it before. Staying at the bottom of the screen with the closing walls at the end did me in cos one closes all the way.

The hard part was the fire stage. I'd just stay near the top or bottom of the screen and watch for the fire arch's preemptive warning flame. You can dodge them easily by going over or under. You should have a shield by that time which would help with the random fireball things that pop up.

Also, keep the shield box highlighted always. I just dodge the items once I have done so. That way as soon as you lose it you can re-equip it immediately.

I'm going to try for a higher score before the end of the night.. Dr. Robbie's got me nervous with the game repeating comment.

Finally passed level 3!

Guess I had one more in me

Too bad I haven't been in the mood for playing NES, I can whoop this game pretty good. Though I've never gotten all the way through it without dying (2 deaths at best), no way, even if I did, that last bit, escaping Zelos, it would do me in for sure, at least as far as the one man only deal. Awesome score cremorecs, I think you'd have me bested for sure.

Did I mention this is one of the first NES game I had when I was young

Beat the game two times, and died in the 3rd run between the pillars in Stage 5. The game is getting harder each time you make it through. More enemies are shooting bullets, and many obstacles are faster, longer, like these annoying pillars.

Ironically, I finished up with 30 lives left.

shoot. I thought I had this one mastered. nice score guill

I also grew up with this game, but never beat it until this contest

I was able to make a few no death runs to the main boss in level 6, but died by the pillar things.





Then I was finally able to beat the game through without dying and got to play it again. The second time around is somewhat tougher with a few things that will get you killed. The hands in level 1 shoot stuff out at you. The boss in level 2 starts turning the WRONG WAY during the fight which almost killed me. And then in level 4, during the shrimp part, the ribs shoot out bullets at different time intervals, which ended up killing me, because you can normally just stay at the bottom and not get hit, but can't in the second time around.

Cremorecs is right, the only real secret to this game is to have it memorized (or use maps I suppose).  That, and having a good Speed boost. If you get a decent speed boost going, dodging bullets is easy as pie. Owning this game as a kid definitely helped me out. It's a pretty short game, so it's easy to memorize if you've played it a lot. I just wish I still had the cart. Playing on an emulator is a total bitch.

One gripe I've always had with this game is that the last boss is far too easy. But yeah, with the pillars at the very end of the game, as long as you know that you have to be far enough up the screen so you don't get hit by the pillars that close completely, they are really a piece of cake. I could imagine it might be hard for someone unfamilliar with the game, though. The game gets slightly harder after you've looped it, but there's really no big differences in gameplay after it's looped. I died on my third run through, in the fire level. I made one dumb move, and I was done.

This was one of my favorite childhood games for the NES. I could always pass the game with no problem, but it would usually take me a couple lives. It was really fun to come back and try to challenge myself and try to do it all in one life, especially because I tend to compulsively hit Reset when I don't shoot every last ship perfectly. It was a really different experience to have to stay alive at all costs, and I had to change my mindset when playing the game. I wasn't worried about sqeezing out every last point; I had to learn to play defensively, and do more dodging than shooting a lot of the time. Finally passing Life Force without dying was a really rewarding experience, and I'm inspired to play through more games with only one life now.

Here's my best score:

There is one thing though-

Guillavoie, why does your energy bar say "ripple"? When you die, the energy bar automatically moves back down to "speed".... You would've needed to pick up 2 of the pods after you died to get it back up to "ripple".

I wasn't going to say anything, but you mentioned that you had 30 lives when you died, so the energy br should have changed back to "speed" when your lives went back to 29.

Wouldn't you have needed to kill a couple more dudes to get those pods after you'd died?

Oh, you guys, you kick ass on this game! Glad I didn't reconnect my NES to play it, I'd been in 5th place for sure, or lower, that would've hurt.

Probably cause I immediately pressed on start when I died, the pods bar might not had the time to reset. See for yourself dude, you can see my two "options" still floating around where I died. I pressed immediately, like a man shocked to lose his one and only life.

Oh, and when I meant 30 lives, it means 29 on the board cause 0 count, which is frequent.

You got a badass score yourself, I thought Dr. Robbie would have been the main rival here.
Congrats!
With that score, you must have beat the game two times. Do you have a special strategy for the ending sequence? I found a way to do it with minimum effort, I do about 80% of the sequence without moving in a particular place.

EDIT: I tested it out of curiosity, and yes, there's a delay between the moment you die and the moment when the pods bar reset. It reset immediately once the new ship appears on the screen, and I pressed on start before the new ship appears. It also means that I did not finish 'ironically' with 30 lives, but with 29.

^ I noticed that too. In my first two pics, the options are still floating backwards and the bar is still at the place it was when I died. I was wondering about that as well though.

Congrats on both of your guy's scores. I really thought my one was gonna take it. Should have played a little bit more

We've been really quiet and silent, sometimes we just sit back on our score if nobody post something challenging meanwhile.

I wonder what's the next contest...