Heli Heroes

A lot of technology went into equipping helicopters for war zones, especially since they are very versatile and they can easily take down ground targets from a relatively low altitude. They can also be used to rescue pinned down units behind enemy lines, because they are quick, efficient and rather difficult to destroy while on the move.

Heli Heroes aims to bring back the glorious era of the arcades, as well as the addictive games featured on them, by re-using some of the same mechanics. Thus, the title plays out as a top-down action game with heavy arcade elements, which means that everything revolves around your ability to shoot everything that gets in your way, as well as pick up various power-ups to gain a slight advantage.

As it might be obvious from the title itself, you get to control two helicopter models, namely the AH-64 Apache Longbow and the Russian Hokum. Both of them have certain strengths and weaknesses, but you can get around them by making use of the various power-ups spread around the levels. They also look differently from an aesthetic point of view, beside the technical aspect.

Throughout the main campaign, you get to visit a wide variety of interesting locations, which are nicely modeled and quite unique, in the sense that the game does not get repetitive. Each stage is packed with enemies and various other obstacles, which have you constantly shooting at something and always in danger of being destroyed by tricky foes.

Naturally, no arcade title would be complete without the traditional boss fights, which make the entire gameplay more fun and worthwhile. Even if the game does not employ a state-of-the-art graphics engine to render the action, that does not mean the atmosphere is not captivating and the fight are not intense. Contrarily, you barely have time to notice the pixelated environments, since you always have to be on the lookout for traps or enemies.

Finally, Heli Hero can also be played in multiplayer, where two players can tackle the campaign at the same time. Thus, in case you miss the old times and you want to forget about motion blur and FXAA for a few hours, the game at hand is definitely a decent choice.