RC Helicopter

"A Cheap Thrill"

Estimated Gameplay Time: 1 hour
What to drink while playing this game: A can of generic cola

Nobody never cleans up!
The problem with bargain bins is that making a good purchase from one is like stepping through a landmine field to get a piece of candy. There have been plenty of bargain bin games that turn out to be very good for their price (The Italian Job for PS1, for example), but for every gem in the wallet-friendly section, there are at least 5 mediocre sports games. And even when a “$10 and less” game happens to be good, very few happen to be great enough to stick around on you. Most bargain games that aren’t sports games are usually games that would normally be a minigame in some $50 console title, except expanded a little. RC Helicopter is a good example of a formula like that done correctly. RC Helicopter is basically a fetch-and-grab helicopter minigame with a few additions. Along with the obvious “crane” missions, there’s also picture-taking missions, flying-to-targets missions, and (my favorite) watergun missions. This all seems like it would be boring to have an entire game based on it, it actually works very well and makes this game an addictive, albeit short, game.

Take this for your reward!
There’s a practice mode for learning how to control the helicopter, and believe me; you will want to play that a couple of times. The controls in this game are rather simple, but it’s a little hard to get used to. Flying the helicopter around is a little difficult at first, but it isn’t a big problem with when you get good at it. The camera is a little iffy. Most levels have two different camera modes, a long-distance camera that I found incredibly awkward, and a comfortable behind-the-helicopter cam. It would’ve been nicer to have more camera control, but it’s still playable.

As for the RC itself, it has a battery and a life count. Flying around or doing certain activities drains the battery. Hitting walls or objects will take away one life point. Batteries and bodies can be upgraded in a shop, where they fall under three different levels: Normal, Super, and Hyper. You get money from completing missions. There are three RCs to have, you start out with one of them, and you can purchase two others that are a little different. Personally, I found the last RC completely unusable, but the first two weren’t bad at all.

Not surprisingly, the game is rather short. The game takes about an hour to beat all 11 missions, to unlock and beat 2 extra missions, and to get and fully upgrade all three RCs. If you do all of this, you get the completely useless ability to lock the camera in one spot (until you fly out of sight). There is some replayability in this game, specifically in all of the missions but the fetching missions. The fetching missions get boring after a second playing, but the other missions are still fun after some time.

Stage clear Great!!
The game also carries a certain Japanese quirkiness about it. There are a few cases of Engrish every now and then (Instead of an Options menu, there’s an Optionals menu; “I can vacuum of now”; “Your challenge is failing.”) but only if you really look. The music and sound aren’t bad at all. The graphics happen to be a little choppy and pixilated, but it doesn’t hurt in any way.

This is the type of game that makes you go through bargain bins searching for good games. This is exactly what a bargain bin game should be, fun and addicting, without trying to win any awards or invent anything new. It’s a cheap thrill for a gamer, something they can kill some time with and then maybe go back to it again some time later. It would’ve be cooler if they had made this game longer, added in some more diverse missions, and done a better job on the graphics, but this is a nice diversion for any person. Well worth the $7 or less.

Gameplay: 7/10
Control: 6/10
Graphics: 6/10
Sound: 7/10
Replayability: 7/10

Overall: 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/08/03