Review written by Mike "Sponge" Rubits

Buy Chopper Rescue from Clickgamer

Chopper Rescue. It's had many different names in the past, going back to Choplifter for the Apple II. However AIM Productions' recreation of this classic isn't just a hacked up remake with a desert thrown in for relevance's sake. It manages to carve it's own niche in this pretty populated category, and while it isn't one of the largest, or greatest productions of the year, it should manage to gather a few dedicated fans.

Graphics:

Chopper Rescue's graphics are surprisingly catchy. On the whole, everything is 3D rendered, and pretty well done like that. From the title screen, after the obligatory logos, it gives you an old console feeling, with a scrolling background and an animated, rendered, helicopter rising up from the bottom. A good start to things if you ask me. As can be expected with the current events, Chopper Rescue can be seen as sorely patriotic. From the buildings in game with American flags emblazoned in the side, the stages taking place in a desert, and other units from the US military, I was expecting to hear the Star Spangled Banner flare up any minute during the game. So for those who don't like their games to have the slightest hint of a political influence, especially an American political message, you might want to stay away from this one.

For the rest of us, however, everything is pretty nicely done. Fonts are easy to read on the various camouflage backgrounds, and fit in with the rest of the game. Once in the game, you'll notice a few things right off the bat. The HUD is pretty cool looking with various (non-functional) gauges, a meter for time, 2 numbers for the amount of recovered hostages/total hostages, and a helicopter that slowly changes to red to show your damage. The actual animation is quite smooth, the framerates are very high as expected, and the sprites are of the same quality. The renderings themselves are of high quality, the helicopter blades leave shadows on the copter, buildings cast shadow on the terrain which will scroll steadily and realistically into the background.

Even with the fantastic graphics in general, there is room for improvement. First and foremost, I would've loved to see smoke trails, or trails as the jets fly by. Clearly it seems to have plenty of headspace before the framerate drop is noticeable, some small effects like this would really go a long way. Right now, the jets that fly by in later levels look a bit weird, and the explosions are just dull and pixelated. Some alpha blending would've helped a lot in addition to the smoke effects. Some more animation in the tanks would be nice, it looks a bit strange when they're just gliding and convulsing across the landscape. Finally, trying to discern destroyed buildings and live ones can occasionally be a bit tough. Luckily hostages don't blow up when shot :)

Sound

Believe it or not, the music in Chopper Rescue is pretty catchy. While it's definitely reminiscent of the old .mod music scene (as many games are due to FMOD using these formats) it's decidingly modern sounding. I haven't brought myself to turn it off yet. There are a few tracks that are relatively unique in sound, giving the game a pretty good advantage in this area.

You'll notice that this section is quite a bit shorter than usual, that's because there simply isn't much to talk about. Being an arcade game in nature, what sounds there are, are limited to your generic explosions firing sounds, and a menu sound that sounds like it was from Quake. There's occasionally a garbled radio voice whipping out a smattering of catch phrases, but it's usually drowned out by the music and helicopter sounds. When you do hear them though, it's a small little feature that goes quite a bit's way for the game's atmosphere. If it weren't for the above average music and radio jabber, I probably would've completely trashed the sounds for being inadequate, but with the music, it brings it up to about par.

Gameplay

Sadly, the gameplay will be a bit dull to most people. I use the qualifier "most people" for one major reason: people who are into PocketPC gaming probably will not like this game. It's nothing we've already seen a million times before on different platforms, and while it has a couple twists to try and extend playability, it's still the same old game. While I personally did find Chopper Rescue to be fun to play, it lost its value pretty quickly for the very same reason. However, younger gamers, or non-gamers will have a lot of fun with it, as it does have a lot to offer, with some quirks.

The skill level, despite being very high, manages to do a good job of smoothing out this curve, as new obstacles and objects are introduced gradually. The very first mission is simply picking up the people, and shooting a couple of buildings with a couple of vehicles aiming at the ground, nothing too tough at all. The next mission you are introduced to the blimps, which are floating low near the surface for some reason. Then more tanks, which make landing a hassle, jets which fly across the screen in an attempt to ram and shoot you, and missiles, which do the same thing, but faster. By the end of the game, or in survival mode, things will be flying at you, making it very tough to do your job. Most people will probably get their play on in the survival mode, trying to beat their own scores in the Top 3 high scores.

There are a couple of problems that only make things harder though. The onscreen controls are a bit confusing at first, especially turning. It took me a good 15-20 minutes before I could turn around reliably. From that point, I would simply just stay facing towards the viewpoint, as it makes aiming and actually hitting your targets a lot easier. You also can only go forward or back with one degree; i.e. it's you're either forward or still. Some variable speed control would help the game greatly, although, to my knowledge, the original had no such thing either.

After all of that, if you manage to land, the hostages are incredibly stupid! They'll occasionally walk away from you completely for a while, and then decide to come back, unless you take off and land in front of them first. If this is intentional, it's quite annoying. I would also like to see customizable controls, as the left-handed setup can be a bit unfriendly since the buttons still are the same as in the right hand mode. Finally, the game simply freezes if you turn it off while playing it. This is a huge problem as this ruins what Chopper Rescue is best at: small quick games.

Pros:

• Great 3D renderings

• Catchy music

• New twist on old game

Cons:

• Fails to recover from powering down

• Annoying hostage AI

• Minor control issues

• Low replay value

Conclusion:

Despite it seeming rather grim for Chopper Rescue, at heart, it's still a Choplifter clone, and ends up being pretty average. After Trial Challenge, it's just disappointing to be honest. While this is definitely a game where you'll want to try the demo first, it's entertaining for short periods of time. At $14.95, it may be a bit expensive for what it's worth, but it's one of the better Choplifter clones out there today.

Score-by-score breakdown

Gameplay:  50%
Graphics:  80%
Sound:  60%

Overall:  50%

Please note that the overall score is more than simply an average of the individual ratings.  Many thanks to AIM Productions for providing our review copy.

You may wish to search for more reviews of games from AIM Productions. Alternatively, you can view all the reviews written by Mike "Sponge" Rubits.