Jungle Strike

Review by Twilkitri

"A very unoriginal game, but it's good."

In Jungle Strike, the player is in command of a Comanche Helicopter and has to accomplish various missions. It is the second game in the long-running 'Strike' series.

Gameplay:
Jungle Strike is quite fun to play, some of the campaigns are especially entertaining to play. Unfortunately these also happen to be the easiest campaigns. The difficult campaigns are generally too difficult to be as fun to play. There is a good mixture of difficulty, with some fairly easy campaigns, some difficult campaigns, and some in between. However, you do not play them in order of difficulty. The first campaign is one of the most difficult campaigns in the game. This may, however, be to provide a learning curve to prepare you for the later campaigns. But it doesn't explain why the second campaign should be one of the easiest ones in the game. The Helicopter is quite easy to control, and there is an option to remove its momentum if you find yourself running into buildings too much. The ability to strafe, which was in the MegaDrive version of the game, is sadly not in this version, and mobility suffers from it. However, it isn't such a major loss that you can't beat the game without it. Of the other vehicles you control, the Stealth Fighter is pretty simple once you have it worked out, although its automatic forward motion can often result in crashes and instant death. Its unlimited fuel and ammo is a nice bonus, though. The Bike is the worst of the vehicles. It can only turn around while moving forward, and is difficult to manoeuvre into a position to attack because of this. Fortunately, you only need it for one mission. The Hovercraft is quite easy to control, handling exactly the same as the helicopter. Missions range from destroying buildings, to rescuing people, to securing landing zones.
GAMEPLAY SCORE: 8/10
This game is quite entertaining and fun to play.

Story:
The storyline of the game is the same as one would expect from this type of game. A nuclear blast was detected off the coast of South America. Using satellite photography, the FBI/CIA/whoever have examined the area and found the perpetrators. They are Carlos Ortega, a South American Drug Smuggler, and Ibn Kilbaba, the son of the main enemy in the first game, Desert Strike. These two then stage an attack on Washington D.C. and you are sent in to protect the city. You then go after them, through various environments, including jungle, snow, and mountains. Why they send in only 1 helicopter, when these guys have an entire army, is never explained.
STORY SCORE: 3/10
Stock standard story = low score. Something more original would have been better.

Graphics:
Since this is a Game Boy Original game, the graphics aren't exactly what one would call sophisticated. However they are easy to see, and you won't find yourself searching vainly for something because it blends in with the background. The way the area lights up when you hit something in the night level is a nice touch, and the animations people make when they die are pretty good. Explosions are just the usual, though.
GRAPHICS SCORE: 5/10
GBO graphics, but they're still nowhere near some of the later games on the system.

Sound:
Game Boy Original = not exactly the best sound producing machine. However the sounds that are there are adequate. The fact that there is a different sound for when your vehicle is being hit than when something else is being hit is a good feature, as you may not know you were being hit if you were, for example, firing at a building at the same time. There is no music during the levels, however this does not detract from the game. Most of the sounds are just generic.
SOUND SCORE: 5/10
GBO sounds. No further explanation needed.

Replay Value:
Once you've beaten the game, you can play it quite a few more times before you'll be finished with it. One reason for this is you may want to try and get a better score. However, the passwords don't keep your score and therefore if you want to get a high score, you have to complete the entire game in one sitting. Another reason is to see if you missed anything. There are quite a few buildings which contain extra ammo/fuel/armour in the game. Blast a building which doesn't contain anything, and you lose points, however...
REPLAY SCORE: 7/10
You can replay this quite a few more times without it being boring.

Buy or rent?:
If you can find it at a reasonable price, and you like games of this type, get it. It's pretty good and will provide a while of entertainment. As for renting, if you don't want to buy it and can actually find a place which rents it out, since it came out in 1994, then rent it.

:Summary:

Good:
- fun
- good mixture of missions/campaigns
- good mixture of vehicles and enemies
- easy to control

Bad:
- loss of some features (ie: strafing, etc)
- difficult campaigns are too difficult
- very old game
- enemies can be too easy to avoid

OVERALL SCORE (Not an average): 7/10