Written by: Mark

 

 

 

I will not try and hide the fact that I am a big fan of retro gaming and the Xbox Live Arcade is the perfect platform to revisit some of my all time favourite games either in their original form or through remakes. Mostly the platform has got releases right, yet on several occasions I have found that remakes to be a very mixed bag with many of the titles never living up to the excellence of the originals.

 

With this in mind I approached the remake of the cult favourite Choplifter which was first released way back in 1982 somewhat tentatively as the game held so many good memories for me and wondered if the remake would do the franchise justice or prove another of those which left a sour taste.

 

 

"Choplifter HD" sees the player take on the role of an up and coming rescue pilot who is asked to join the ranks of the elite international team who’s job it is to rescue fallen soldiers across thirty missions and in a variety of differing helicopters.

 

If truth be known that is the story. I know that it does not sound much but the game is not one that is story driven and in this respect sticks to the roots of the original as games from that era were never about storyline, more about gameplay.

 

 

The Choplifter series must be doing something right because during it’s lifetime the game has been released on countless platforms, either through re-releases of the original or in the form of sequels and remakes. Taking this into consideration, despite being slightly disappointed at the lack of story I was willing to overlook this providing the gameplay made up for these shortcomings.

 

 

The objective of Choplifter HD is to guide your armed rescue helicopter through a variety of settings to rescue fallen soldiers whilst blasting enemy soldiers and vehicles using both machine gun fire and rockets whilst keeping an eye on fuel usage to avoid crash landings.

 

Gameplay wise it is a very simple game but has always proved effective with missions involving the helicopter taking off from one side of the screen, flying to the other making occasional landings to pick up soldiers and returning them to base whilst avoiding enemy fire or becoming involved in gun battles.

 

 

It is a very simple process which is not without its faults, namely the shooting aspects which can prove awkward as the LB and RB buttons are used to turn the helicopter ninety degrees to destroy enemies at the forefront or rear of the battle zones. Whilst it sounds like it should be easy I found that I led to an incredible amount of frustration to get exactly right as the 2d going on 3d perspective made it difficult to judge enemy positions accurately. Add to this the need of using the right stick as a targeting tool and the battle system just seemed flawed and in combination with the simple gameplay I found the whole game to be a little tedious if I am honest and it rarely offered any levels of excitement.