Choplifter III

"Fun game, short but challenging"

Story(6/10): Basically you fly from a home base and rescue people, just like the original Choplifter. This is a side scrolling helicopter combat game. Your primary weapon is the machine gun, but there are a bunch of missiles and bombs and such to collect as well. Not an incredibly well-developed storyline, but it works well enough.

Graphics(8/10): Although there are not many different areas, they are all well developed and look great. The helicopter you get to fly also looks great as do the people you get to rescue and the tanks etc that try to take you out. I think that the explosions could have looked better, though, when you die you just sort of spin around and smoke and go straight down, not really visually impressive.

Sound(7/10): Mostly forgettable. I can never recall the music that they use. The emphasis is mostly on the sound effects. The chopper sounds like a chopper. Other than that you mostly just hear the machine gun and the occasional explosion.

Challenge(9/10): Three different difficulty levels, even easy was challenging the first time. If you can solve it on hard you have definitely mastered this game. This game also has a score so you can increase the challenge by trying to score higher and also by trying to rescue all of your people in a level. Bosses have easily solved patterns, but can still be difficult.

Gameplay(7/10): Play control is very good, plus you have a wide variety of special weapons to use, fairly easy to switch. These help a lot for the bigger enemies. I'm not sure why you have to blow up buildings to release hostages and they don't die, but it works. One thing I don't like is that many enemies constantly regenerate as soon as they are off the screen. This makes it important to keep track of what you've passed, especially the enemy soldiers with the rocket launchers. If I kill something I'd just rather it stay dead.

Overall(7/10): As a helicopter shooter this is a fun game. I also prefer the side scrolling to the 3/4 view or first person view of other helicopter games, it just seems to work better. Although it is a bit short, the levels are highly varied and you can constantly challenge yourself to do better, this is a good solid gaming experience.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/18/02, Updated 04/18/02