Choplifter!

The Good
The graphics and animation were extremely detailed for 1982. The hostages would run and wave as your helicopter passed by them, the flag at your base fluttered in the breeze, and everything was well drawn and colorful.

The gameplay was even better than the graphics. You controlled a rescue helicopter. One joystick button fired your cannons and the other switched the facing of your helicopter. Unlike other helicopter games, you could actually fly backwards or sideways if needed. Rescuing hostages was no easy feat. It was very easy to accidentally crush the hostages as you landed, shoot them while trying to kill tanks, get hit by the roving tanks before you took off, or get killed by missiles from the planes in the sky at the higher levels. Even more frustrating was filling your helicopter up and accidentally crash-landing at your base, losing the helipcopter and all hostages inside. Scoring in the game was simply done: the game kept count of the number of hostages rescued and number of hostages killed. It was nearly impossible to successfully rescue all 64 hostages. Even once you got good at the game, 48 rescued was a great score. (My best ever was 56 and I played this game to death)

The Bad
There is nothing not to like about this game.

The Bottom Line
In Choplifter, you have to pilot your helicopter across the border into hostile territory to rescue 16 hostages held in prison camps per level. Opposing you are enemy tanks, which shoot at the escaped hostages and your helicopter when it is on the ground, jet fighter patrols which shoot deadly missiles at you, and on the later levels, flying mines that home in on your position for the kill.

The Good
It combined classic side scrolling shooting with search and rescue. You could also switch your perspective to drop bombs on enemies coming at you from the bottom of the screen. You felt like a hero when you successfully rescued a group of POW's and they waved to you as they got out of the chopper.

The Bad
The 4th level is just too hard. Navigating the caves is near impossible even without the enemy fire. If you can complete the 4th level you are a master game player :)

The Bottom Line
Your mission is to rescue POW's caught behind enemy lines. You fly your chopper into enemy territory, blast open the enemy camps to release the prisoners. Then carefully land and rescue the POW's. You must be careful when you have a chopper loaded with POW's because one hit and they all go down in flames. You must return the POW's to your home base.

The Good
Dan Gorlin's game, Choplifter, was the king of search-and-rescue games, and it even sold more copies than the VisiCalc spreadsheet program. It first appeared on all computers and consoles, such as Apple ][, Commodore 64, ColecoVision, and Atari 5200/7800, but later, the game was eventually ported over to the NES and the Sega Master System. It was the latter port that appealed to me.

Choplifter was appropriately named because you control a helicopter that must use its missiles to blow up prisons and rescue hostages, and to do this, you land near the prison and stay there until all the hostages are on board. You then take off again and transport them safely back to the camp. Doing this is a difficult process as you also must also avoid being shot at by fighter jets and other enemy aircraft.

And while you are on the ground rescuing these hostages, a tank will appear and will do its best to bomb you and the hostages. To makes matters worse, the tank will not follow you but will hang around the prison until it makes sure that every hostage is killed. When you decide to bomb the tank, you have to proceed with caution, knowing when you can do it. You see, if you decide to bomb when the hostages are running around, you are likely to kill that hostage, so you need to make sure that there aren't any hostages around. (40 hostages must be transported back to camp to proceed to the next round.) I did not worry about this, since I did my best to rescue the most hostages that were inside a prison, knowing that if they die, then that's their fault.

The first versions of Choplifter were boring to play, the graphics were basically the same, as well as the gameplay. Sega managed to change all that when they decided to bring out their own version. Sega's version, by the way, is excellent. You see, this version consists of six rounds and features rich environments, such as the desert and sea. The animations are quite nice, especially the little bit of animation where your chopper is shot down and you parachute to the ground and burn up when you make contact.

The sound in the SMS version is also very good. There are three pieces of music in the game, but the last piece, that plays on rounds three and six, is worth listening to. The sound is greatly enhanced with the built-in FM chipset that comes with the second model of the SMS and is a big plus for all those who have managed to own this model.

The Bad
The game gets rather difficult as you proceed through the round.

The Bottom Line
The SMS version is excellent than its other counterparts. If you are disappointed that the original game was boring when you played it a few times, then I suggest having a go at the SMS version.

Rating: *