I have fond memories of Choplifter from back in the early 1980’s on my Commodore 64. So in no way was I going to turn down the chance to relive past glories when our Executive Editor texted me asking if I was interested in reviewing Choplifter HD for Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA). Just in case you are a bit younger than I, here is a little taste of the source material. This is what I played when I was 10:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr3Wf3iR_dk
Almost 30 years later (holy cow I am old), inXile Entertainment has remade Choplifter in high definition glory. Looking to relive some of those fond memories of my youth, I went in with some excitement but in the end I was left with a game that did not live up to my expectations.
In my view, a good remake pays homage to the original game while also evolving the game play. To its credit, Choplifter HD just about hits this balance bang-on. The premise of the game is simple. You pilot a helicopter, rescue people and return them to safety. While the premise is simple, certain factors add difficulty and variety to the various missions you play through. You have various choppers are at your disposal, each with its own characteristics like speed, defense and capacity (to hold the people that you are rescuing). Unfortunately, these choppers are doled out to you slowly. For a good chunk of the game, you are pretty much stuck with what the game provides at first. Even when you unlock new choppers, the next mission often locks you into using just one Chopper. It is not just about rescuing people and bringing them back to your base either. You must balance fuel consumption, damage and weaponry (the last two are replenished when you land at your base) as you race to rescue as many people as you can.
Choplifter HD plays out on a left to right plane in the same manner a platforming title does. Controls are a simple two stick set up that will be familiar to experienced gamers and simple enough for the more casual player to pick up and play. You control your chopper with the left stick and aim your weapons with the right. There is a mild 3D element in that some of the bad guys are placed in the foreground. In order to engage them, you must rotate the chopper using the bumper buttons so that the front of your chopper is facing the screen. It is fairly intuitive and you will get the hang of it in no time. This is, in fact, a nod to the original game in which you had to do the very same thing in order to attack enemy tanks on the ground. From cannon fodder foot soldiers to missile firing jets, there are plenty of bad guys looking to shoot you down.
Your performance in each mission is rated on a scale of 1-5 stars. New missions and equipment are unlocked by hitting certain accumulations of stars. So there is a little built-in replayability for completionists that either want to unlock everything possible or 100% the game. There is also multiple difficultly levels but you have to play through the standard difficulty before moving on to anything harder. Just for the record, there is no multiplayer. Choplifter HD is strictly a single player game.
Unfortunately the novelty of playing a game I really loved when I was 10 years old wore off quickly. While there is a bit of story that offers new mission scenarios as you progress, the core gameplay did not really change enough to keep my full attention. I know zombies are supposed to be cool but, frankly, I am getting a little tired of them myself. Adding them almost feels like inXile mailed it in a little bit. It is easy to say, “Zombies are cool. Let’s add them!” I’d rather see something more original or innovative.
That being said, one of the things I most enjoyed about Choplifter HD was that it does not take itself too seriously. The game has just the right amount of ‘cheese’ for my tastes, zombies included. There are a couple of brilliant cameo appearances in the game too. Gamers are paid some fun fan service here. Some people might be critical of the fact the hidden objective is the same in every single level but this is something that made me laugh. This and the nostalgia factor of inXile not messing that much with the original formula are easily my favorite elements of this game.
Visually, Choplifter HD is pretty decent looking. It is not the best looking XBLA game I have seen but it does hold up visually featuring plenty of detail on the screen. While the game moves on a side-scrolling plane, the backgrounds sport plenty of detail and add a nice depth of field to the various environments that you will play through. In terms of the negatives, Choplifter HD features lot of things on screen are really small, including the characters on the ground (both good guys, bad guys and everything in between). Thus they appear to lack any sort of detail. Likewise, the enemies in the foreground can be hard to see at times as well. Often the first indication of a threat is the enemy fire. With such a nice level of depth to the background the small characters seemed a little off and something that could have been addressed.
As I mentioned, Choplifter HD does not take itself too seriously and much of this is evident in the game dialogue. It is poorly acted and the lines are as cheesy as they get. Yet despite this, it works. I do not think inXile just happened upon this by chance. It is simply too funny to be not planned. Granted, many of you will be turned off by the dialogue but for me I found it pretty darn funny.
Choplifter HD for the XBLA does a lot of things right. It pays homage to the original game, adds some new (albeit minor) elements and it is delightfully cheesy. Unfortunately, one key factor that brings Choplifter HD back down to earth with a thud is the price. Not to mention, the game does become incredibly repetitive at times. If Choplifter HD was a $5 dollar game on my iPad, I would feel like I am getting full value for my dollar. But for $15 dollars, I am left wanting something a little more.
