Choplifter HD PS3 Review
Review Score: 5.5 Out of 10
Choplifter HD comes back from the past and lands the Playstation store. Is it a worthy remake of a old classic, or is it a Black Hawk Down?
The Good:
Nostalgia Factor:
Choplifter HD is a remake, but it also jogs your memory about playing the old 80′s classic.
I remember playing the original Choplifter game back on my Apple II computer (which had a green and black screen) It really takes me back. Inserting the floppy disc into the disc drive and typing those magic letters, “BRUN CHOPLIFTER”
As kid I remember making the people run back to the air base instead of picking them up and flying them there. Ah….being a kid in the 80′s!
This remake brought back lots of nostalgia for me (for a little while…) Maybe they’ll remake other 80′s gems like Captain Goodnight, Lode Runner or Aztec!
Nothing to see here!
The game doesn’t take it self too seriously :
The chopter pilots banter back and forth with each other with some cheesy humor like, “Don’t text and fly!” or ” Who was that girl I saw you with last night?” ” You only saw one of them?”
Bombing Goats, Chickens & Zombies:
This is a fun aspect of the game. If you don’t want to rescue the people and you’re tired of shooting soldiers, you can shoot/bomb chicken and goats on the ground. There’s even trophies to achieve for killing 1000 chickens. A nice change from the standard missions. There’s even a zombie level thrown into the mix. (which, I’ll get into later…)
The Bad:
The Price:
Choplifter HD is a whopping $15 bucks in the Playstation Store. A bit overpriced for what you get.
Respawning enemies:
The enemies in the game keep respawning.
This is very annoying once you just cleared out a section of soldiers armed with RPG’s and you fly back and the exaact same enemies magically reappear again out of nowhere. It also makes the later levels much more difficult.
Unbalanced in the level difficulty:
The first few levels of Choplifter HD are simple, but then out of nowhere the game gets incrediblely hard.
There seems to be no “medium skill” difficulty in the game. It goes from easy to impossible in just a few levels. I found this game so hard and frustrating that I put chucked down my controller and quit. Some of the levels feel really one sided in the enemies favour. I kept getting nailed with rockets or running out of gas no matter how careful or quick I tried to progress through the levels.
Graphics:
The graphics for Choplifter HD are ok, but nothing that’s going to blow you away.
Needs more weapons:
You got your guns and rockets and that’s it. There needs to be more weapons it feels very bare.
Clunky flying:
The flying feels slow (even when you turbo boost) and turning around the hellicopter feels very sluggish and akward.
Happy boring landings!
Zombies:
It feels like the zombies were thrown into the game because the overall game wasn’t good enough. You can fly over the zombies, shoot them or shake them off your hellicopter. They really don’t pose much of a threat or bring any more excitement to the game.
The Bottom Line:
Choplifter HD is a slightly fun nostalgia trip, but it doesn’t offer much else. It’s not 1985 anymore…
It doesn’t stand out from any other 2D action/flying side scrollers. There are a few new things added into this remake, but it could of went a few steps futher when it came to the game’s development. As a game, it’s slightly hovers (get it?) above medicore.
I recommend it to fans of the original Choplifter to check out, but only if you’re able to get a huge discount on it in the Playstation Store.
Nostalgia or not, this game isn’t worth $15 bucks.