I'm enjoying the Random Game button in the Repo, let's see what it's got today!
Fuuuuuuuuuck YES.
Mr. Heli (“You will address him as SIR!”) is a 1987 Irem shooter that *isn’t* R-type, but don’t hold that against it. This was the heyday of the genre in arcades, with Gradius, Darius, and the aforementioned R-Type collecting loose change and lunch money like a schoolyard bully working double shifts to provide for his family.
The game got a port to several home computers, even the ZX Spectrum (and I’ll bet that looks like ass), but blessedly I rolled the PC Engine version from 1989. That consoles drowning in arcade shooter classics, does Mr. Heli no Daibouken stand out from the crowd? Will I fail to clear the first level and punch something defenseless to feel better about my life? WOULD YE KNOW MORE?
Look at his little feet!
The game has you choose Normal or Arcade Mode, but it’s just a difficulty selection. In Arcade, you die faster. (Near as I can tell anyways.)
From Top Gun to Gundam, the take-off sequence has international appeal.
Right out of the hangar, you can feel how responsive this little orange killer is. Fittingly for a helicopter, you can adjust height quickly, and you can land and take off as you please, his feet are actually functional. Button I fires horizontal lasers, Button II launches vertical missiles, but it’s context sensitive, if you’re walking he’ll drop bombs on the ground instead.
Blowing up blocks like seen above, as well as shooting certain enemies and obstacles, dislodges crystals, your source of income. The games power-ups are also uncovered, you reveal signboards in set locations with posted items and prices; flying over them with enough coin buys the reward in question.
Your money carries over from stage to stage, but if you die? Your ass keeps nothing, cash or power-ups. Consequently, the name of the game is to get a good start, and then maintain that advantage by hitting enough money to top up your health whenever possible. Put another way, Don’t Die, Nerd.
There's five stages, split into two, with a boss at the end and a mid-boss, predictably, in the middle. Here’s the first one.
The second half of each stage turns into an underground section, and confusingly starts in total darkness? You can illuminate the area by shooting, and you have to "feel around" till you find the right door to shoot and progress. I genuinely thought the game had crashed on me at first, and reset and tried again with a different emulator assuming this was a bug. Weird!
The games worst mistake? You can't travel through the tunnels the mole mechs make, what the hell.
The bosses are a mixed bag, this is maybe the coolest looking guy in the bunch. It looks like someone sicc'ed a facehugger on a Spiny from the Mushroom Kingdom.
(The second boss, in particular, is such a piece of shit oh my god.)
...annnd here's the final boss, a relatively uninteresting alien face with lasers. Shockingly, the big red eye above is *not* a weak point, he swaps out faces and only a small point of one upper face can be shot. Half the difficulty of the fight is just figuring out which part kindly accepts bullets.
Go forth, young brave, your song is yet sung!
Full disclosure, I had to cheat to reach that ending, save states make repeating tricky sections manageable but I don't know if I could beat the second level boss fairly.
It's solid! The music isn't too memorable, and the sound effects and visuals never really convey the "punch" you like in this sort of game (not that I'd ever play something in my shared space as loud as an arcade cabinet), but it's short and easy to jump into.
Give it a shot!
(Pun, tragically, intended.)
Fuuuuuuuuuck YES.
Mr. Heli (“You will address him as SIR!”) is a 1987 Irem shooter that *isn’t* R-type, but don’t hold that against it. This was the heyday of the genre in arcades, with Gradius, Darius, and the aforementioned R-Type collecting loose change and lunch money like a schoolyard bully working double shifts to provide for his family.
The game got a port to several home computers, even the ZX Spectrum (and I’ll bet that looks like ass), but blessedly I rolled the PC Engine version from 1989. That consoles drowning in arcade shooter classics, does Mr. Heli no Daibouken stand out from the crowd? Will I fail to clear the first level and punch something defenseless to feel better about my life? WOULD YE KNOW MORE?
Look at his little feet!
The game has you choose Normal or Arcade Mode, but it’s just a difficulty selection. In Arcade, you die faster. (Near as I can tell anyways.)
From Top Gun to Gundam, the take-off sequence has international appeal.
Right out of the hangar, you can feel how responsive this little orange killer is. Fittingly for a helicopter, you can adjust height quickly, and you can land and take off as you please, his feet are actually functional. Button I fires horizontal lasers, Button II launches vertical missiles, but it’s context sensitive, if you’re walking he’ll drop bombs on the ground instead.
Blowing up blocks like seen above, as well as shooting certain enemies and obstacles, dislodges crystals, your source of income. The games power-ups are also uncovered, you reveal signboards in set locations with posted items and prices; flying over them with enough coin buys the reward in question.
Your money carries over from stage to stage, but if you die? Your ass keeps nothing, cash or power-ups. Consequently, the name of the game is to get a good start, and then maintain that advantage by hitting enough money to top up your health whenever possible. Put another way, Don’t Die, Nerd.
There's five stages, split into two, with a boss at the end and a mid-boss, predictably, in the middle. Here’s the first one.
The second half of each stage turns into an underground section, and confusingly starts in total darkness? You can illuminate the area by shooting, and you have to "feel around" till you find the right door to shoot and progress. I genuinely thought the game had crashed on me at first, and reset and tried again with a different emulator assuming this was a bug. Weird!
The games worst mistake? You can't travel through the tunnels the mole mechs make, what the hell.
The bosses are a mixed bag, this is maybe the coolest looking guy in the bunch. It looks like someone sicc'ed a facehugger on a Spiny from the Mushroom Kingdom.
(The second boss, in particular, is such a piece of shit oh my god.)
...annnd here's the final boss, a relatively uninteresting alien face with lasers. Shockingly, the big red eye above is *not* a weak point, he swaps out faces and only a small point of one upper face can be shot. Half the difficulty of the fight is just figuring out which part kindly accepts bullets.
Go forth, young brave, your song is yet sung!
Full disclosure, I had to cheat to reach that ending, save states make repeating tricky sections manageable but I don't know if I could beat the second level boss fairly.
It's solid! The music isn't too memorable, and the sound effects and visuals never really convey the "punch" you like in this sort of game (not that I'd ever play something in my shared space as loud as an arcade cabinet), but it's short and easy to jump into.
Give it a shot!
(Pun, tragically, intended.)
