Beat on slow motion mode though I had to check a walkthrough multiple times when I could not figure out what to do. The 1st was when the 1st stage stopped scrolling yet I had only rescued a couple hostages and found no base. Oh I was supposed to shoot those suspicious symbols on top of the buildings. I learned how to press start to turn around and back track through the stage. This game was very similar to Choplifter except with more advanced stage design and a menu to swap between different weapons and engine speeds. The slowest speed was important for the underground parts because it was very easy to crash. Even when going that slow each press of the D pad moved the chopper too much in my opinion. Most of my deaths were from trying to make tiny adjustments underground. The combat was good but I did not like the predictable pattern of a tank coming out after each 3 hostages rescued from the bases. Ground enemies did not respawn until moving well out of sight and there was a near constant stream of jets and helos. You fired down diagonal while moving forward and up diagonal while moving back, so it was usually best to hover and only change altitude for straight shots. Hitting ground targets early on often required landing. The basic 3 shot machinegun upgraded into a much better double shot and much later a 3 way spread that hit up and down diagonal, though that was not found until the end and thus did not see much use. I missed the anti tank gun which killed vehicles in 1 shot but I do not know if it fired 1 at a time or 3 at a time like the default gun. There was also a rapid fire but that seemed pointless. The other face button shot missiles. The starter dropped slightly below the chopper before shooting straight. It was not very useful for combat but I found it useful at the end against those stationary wall bosses, including the final boss since the homing missiles did not always work on them. The 1st homing should have been called guided because all it did was allow you to keep the button pressed as the missile fell to shoot upon releasing the button. Not releasing the button at all had it crash straight down like a bomb, which was a very useful angle against ground targets, even though it took several seconds to drop that far. Trying to time the release to hit targets while simultaneously aiming the guns and dodging around was a little too much to manage. The firebomb and mines improved this by shooting in a gravity arc, and were the fastest way to defeat ground targets. The mines were a bit better because they were faster and could have 2 on screen, but they also did not explode upon hitting water. That made them more of a liability during the water stage; could not shoot more if the 2 limit were both floating. By this point in the game the enemies were much more dangerous; naval ships with homing missiles and jets that did little loops to come back around. Often times it was difficult not to crash into those jets. The late game introduced proper homing missiles though they were not perfect.

I got stuck again in that water stage because I had no clue to shoot the front of the massive ships. I figured there was a way inside but I shot everything EXCEPT the waterline bow. It was weird how the ship enemies were no larger than tanks while the environmental ships were scaled more properly. The final level was also weird with the enemies replaced by fire ball traps, Mario style spinning fire arms, and even grey chain things that acted like those ball and chain chomps. The worst part of the game was the screen scrolling, and I can't understand how they messed it up this badly. Upon reaching the mid point of the screen the chopper became unable to move any further until the screen slowly panned over enough. This unfortunately did not stop enemies and made it far more difficult than necessary to get past traps. The trick in the walkthrough was to fly backwards through hazards to avoid the scroll freeze, but then you were too close to the screen edge and would be at high risk of crashing into enemies. Who would think to fly backwards to avoid shoddy game mechanics? If not for this scrolling problem I would rate the game much higher. Still better than Choplifter and a fun game that advanced that style with fun tactical weapons. It even did that part better than most shoot em ups.

7.5/10