As mentioned the game is in essence a 2d affair which attempts to use a 3d level of depth by adding some pretty decent backgrounds although these are more for effect as the games action all takes place within the forefront of the screen.

 

 

Despite this the game does look pretty decent although enemies are so small that often the only way that they can be noticed is when they are launching a stream of gunfire and again this makes them hard to target.

 

It seems that the game has gone all out to make backgrounds look nice and combine this with simple gameplay yet it never at any point seems to tie together all that well. In terms of sound again this is a very mixed bag with all sound effects being on the simple side and never really standing out as being anything memorable.

 

I appreciate that the game has stayed faithful to it’s retro roots but for 1200ms points I was kind of hoping for something a little better overall than what Choplifter HD delivers.

 

 

As previously mentioned the game is spread out over thirty missions all of which share the same core gameplay mechanic so there is very little difference between each except the amount of enemies on screen at any one time and soldiers to rescue with does increase the games difficulty pretty quickly.

 

Although thirty seems like a decent amount of missions you can breeze through the majority in very little time if you have the skill and patience levels which means that the game is not particularly content packed especially considering it’s high price point.

 

 

To counteract this the game does feature a nice amount of different helicopters which can be unlocked as you progress and each of these has their differences such as better speed, weapons and ability to transport more passengers and this does bring something different to proceedings yet never really offers too much variety.

 

On the main menu screen is a section for downloadable content which suggest that more content will be available in the very near future. I am presuming that this will incorporate more missions and helicopters but it remains to be seen how much each will cost. If they are priced sensibly then it may be worth a look particularly if it brings more variety yet the cynic in me thinks that the core game should have had these included from the outset particularly when considering how much the game costs.

 

 

Choplifter will always hold a special part in my gaming history and as a result I pleased when I heard that a remake, "Choplifter HD" for the XBLA service was in the works but once I got to play the game I was somewhat disappointed.

 

The game is very simplistic in every respect from gameplay to presentation and for 1200ms points there are far better games available. In my opinion this one would have been worth a look for retro fans had it been released at 800ms points but currently I would give these one a serious amount of second thoughts before you even consider whether to buy as there are far better games available on the XBLA service.

 

 

 

 

 

+ Stays faithful to it’s retro roots