"A pretty good game when you need to cool off"

Jungle Strike was one of my favorite games for the Sega Genesis, probably close behind the Phantasy Star series. This game was always fun to play, because you get to go around and stop maniacal madmen from blowing up the world and all that other good crazy stuff. The missions on Jungle Strike seem to take place mostly in the Middle East, although it's kinda hard to tell. Anyhow, let's cut to the chase already:

Control: 9/10 (45pts)
The control was pretty smooth. The chopper moves around nicely, with or without momentum, and it's not difficult to pick up ammo or people and stuff. The hovercraft (another vehicle) also moves around pretty nicely, but it is hard to set mines correctly. The motorcycle wasn't a very hard vehicle to control. What really got me was that stealth fighter. It keeps moving while you turn it, and if you run into something, BOOM. Dead. I spent tons of lives trying to complete the mission, and instead crashing into something and dying, like an oil tower thing.

Graphics: 9/10 (13.5pts)
For its time, the graphics were pretty cool. Most of the vehicles look like their real life counterparts..at least in that '90s sense, when Jungle Strike was created. The gunshots look cool, the explosions and missiles and stuff like that are good as well, and you'll be hard-pressed to come upon a building that isn't well-done. The only beef I had with the graphics is that the land mines you set are bland looking. Oh, and when you bump into things. Ouch.

Sound: 9/10 (13.5pts)
There's no background music except when you are inbetween missions (and if the chopper blades spinning counts), and when you first load up the game, but let's focus on the sounds that you'll be hearing the most of. The missiles sound pretty neat, the shots sound alright for the most part, and explosions sound pretty cool also. The only bad sound effect I can remember is when you bump into things. If you're in a chopper and bump into something, isn't it usually pretty loud?

Challenge: 8/10 (8pts)
The overall challenge of Jungle Strike isn't that difficult, but there are some missions in which you will have a hard time at first. The first few missions are pretty easy, but then you'll get to the last few levels, and things get pretty bad in some areas of those levels, as could be expected.

Dynamics: 7/10 (7pts)
Other than the fact that you can technically choose to do the missions in whatever order you want, there isn't a whole lot outside of the mission lineup. You could see how many points you can get up to, but that gets old after a while.

Buy or Rent?
Probably download. I doubt it's at stores anymore, unless you find some place that devotes some time to Genesis games.

Final Rating: 87/100 (9)

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/20/01, Updated 04/15/04