Tiger-Heli (Video Game Review)

Video Game Review
Tiger-Heli
Nintendo Entertainment System
1986
Developer: Toaplan
Publisher: Taito

This is going to be a simple review for a simple game. Taito’s Tiger-Heli for the NES is quite a remarkable game because it is quite unremarkable. The presentation and gameplay is simple (even for a NES game). However, Tiger Heli is probably one of the best vertical shooters on the system and still holds up well today as mindless fun.

The idea of the game is simple: fire your weapon at everything. Everything is displayed from a top-down perspective. The screen scrolls up vertically and is fixed so you cannot backtrack. Enemies either appear as the screen scrolls or they can enter the playing field independently. Enemies can appear as something simple like a gun turret which can be taken out with one shot or complex like a super tank which requires multiple hits. The d-pad moves your heli around the screen. The B button fires your guns while the A button fires your limited supply of bombs. There are a few power-ups like extra bombs or sidekick helis which can fire parallel or perpendicular to you. There are also squares that if you shoot enough of them throughout the course of the game, you will earn an extra life.

Graphically, it’s above average for the NES. Everything looks like it is supposed to. There is slowdown when there is too much action going on which hurts the gameplay. The soundtrack is memorable but the background music repeats itself after a short while. It’s not annoying because the music is good, just a little disappointing. It’s neat that the music changes pitch slightly when you pick up an extra heli. The sound effects are a little lame and sound more like bleeps and bloops than anything close to what they are supposed to represent.

The gameplay is a lot of fun. The game can provide for some frantic moments; reaction time is everything. The game rewards an itchy trigger finger so you’re encouraged to fire at everything. Even objects that don’t pose a threat like buildings and railway crossing bars are just sitting there waiting for you to shoot and blow up. The object of the game is to get the highest score since the game plays on a continous loop. It is mayhem at its best.

It’s not perfect though. The slowdown can be a pain and problematic. The variety in enemy types is limited. Also, you will fall victim to an unfair kill every so often because of the way some enemies pop onto the playing field. It’s a shame that the screen doesn’t scroll with your ship a little bit to take into account the viewing area from inside the helicopter; meaning there’s no real reason why you shouldn’t be able to see an enemy off-screen if you’re at the edge of the screen. These are minor hiccups though as the game plays well enough to see past these problems.

As fun as this game is, it is the type of game that will not suck your life away. However, it’s addicting enough that you’ll be thinking about the game when you’re not playing it. A good player may be able to survive for 5-10 minutes without hitting the game over screen. It’s not short enough to make someone a compulsive gamer but it’s not long enough to become boring. It serves its job nicely as a game intended to take in the quarters (the NES version is a port of an arcade game). It’s loads of fun in short spurts and perfect for anyone’s arcade game rotation.

Taito’s Tiger-Heli is a fantastic shooter on the NES. It holds up well compared to other games in the genre on higher powered consoles. This game is easy to recommend.

☆☆☆☆