I rented this back in the 90s, along with the other 2 Strike games, and loved it. I played through it several years ago, and now I played through it again to refresh how the SNES games compare to the playstation ones. I do remember that Urban was pretty much the same as Desert, mechanically. It had straightforward missions with …
I rented this back in the 90s, along with the other 2 Strike games, and loved it. I played through it several years ago, and now I played through it again to refresh how the SNES games compare to the playstation ones. I do remember that Urban was pretty much the same as Desert, mechanically. It had straightforward missions with a minimum of arbitrary nonsense, like time limits and escorts. It was still possible to fail by accidentally killing too many friendlies or important objects, but there was plenty of warning to deal with those. The game focused on the strategic aspect of where to go on the map, what supplies to use, angles of approach, etc, and the tactical aspect of piloting the chopper in combat. I liked to conserve ammo by relying more on the gun and fancy flying. Every enemy could be defeated with only the gun, with the trick being that the player could turn faster than enemies. Shots could veer off in a limited arc, so I could fly circles around an enemy while shooting. It was also useful to back right over the enemy to keep out of their line of fire, or back away at a diagonal to evade their shots. Other times when there was more danger I used rockets and missiles to burn down the enemies. The most fun was flying full speed right at multiple enemies while holding down the gun, firing 1 missile each, then tapping rockets to destroy them right as I flew over. The missions were mostly linear but it was possible to tackle them out of order. Often the later missions had a danger zone until the prior missions were completed, usually framed as radar or command that alerted enemies to your presence. The enemies in danger zones were not to be trifled with because they could turn and shoot much faster. I did a little hit and run attacks into danger zones when I was supposed to be rescuing people, just so I could make more use of the repair from dropping people off. I would say the biggest flaw of this game was how long it took to unload passengers, and the sheer number of people that had to be rescued; especially with that blackhawk filled to the max with 20 people. The on foot missions were another sore point. Not that they were bad, just that they were lackluster compared to flying around in a chopper. The aiming and controls were a little awkward, and there was very little strategy involved other than rocket to the face, trying to snipe from off screen, and the little bit diagonal auto aim.
The city levels stood out the most, and were a refreshing change from the more rural themed locations in the previous games. Even though it made little sense that the chopper could still bang into stuff when it can clearly go above skyscrapers and clouds, but that was a limitation of the 2D. The Hawaii and oil rig levels were classic Strike. Then San Francisco had giant bridges to not bang into, and clouds that could conceal enemies. New York was a spectacle with skyscrapers everywhere, but it could be difficult to tell which ones could be banged into. Vegas had a lot of cool structures but was mostly parking lots. It felt a little unrealistic, like too much open space and not enough buildings. The darkness made it more difficult to tell which way enemy turrets were facing, so I took more damage than in other levels. All of the foot levels were forgettable, such that I should use passwords to skip them if I play again. The final level had some cool tech aspects but made zero sense. How was there enough space underground to fly a chopper? How was it as bright as daytime? Does the laser super weapon shoot up at a satellite to be reflected down at a target? If he already has a satellite what was the point of stealing mirrors in the first level? The final foot and chopper levels felt a bit rushed. It would have made more sense for the laser to be at a remote base in the desert, or on top of the casino with the final battle being on the roof, which would have been a cool way to include verticality. I liked the more challenging combat and more levels over Desert Strike, but fewer control options and lack of strafe hurt this game a bit.
9.0/10
