Airwolf (Arcade)

I watched Airwolf series when i was very young. It inspires me to play Jungle Strike. But what do you know? There's straight video game adaptation of it, made by Japanese developer Kyugo in 1987.   

Quick rundown about Airwolf in case you are too young watch it thus only have vain memory about it or don't know at all. Airwolf is super helicopter that's made by one of CIA's division: the firm. Then it got stolen by its own designer who happen to be professor who has evil tendency but soon it's recovered by the chief test pilot of the helicopter, Stringfellow Hawke (played by Jan-Michael Vincent). Later he does mission assigned by the firm with Airwolf.   

Once i start the game, we got cutscene of the Airwolf takes off from secret base inside a mountain. By the way, what's the meaning of "Defence and ofensive systems"?

Well. Airwolf is horizontal shooter game. Other sensible possibility will be vertical ones. Not gonna be fighting game or point-and-click adventure game, i reckon. The control is quite common: joystick to move Airwolf, one button to shoot straight, and another button to drop bomb. One thing that i notice that differentiates Airwolf than other horizontal shooter: the chopper has momentum. It doesn't stay still if you release the joystick. There's bit of momentum on previous move. Maybe this is because chopper's dynamism is different than airplane's/spaceship's or Hachi in In the Hunt.

Like in usual shooter game, Airwolf will be destroyed by 1 hit of pretty much everything. But it can pull this sick evasion maneuver. I mean either very radical move or this move will make anyone in the helicopter sicks. Not Jan-Michael though, as he's the test pilot of it, remember? This move which activated by pressing both shoot and bomb button, can makes Airwolf invincible during the move. But there's few things that you have to mind: 1) you can't shoot any of your weapon during the first part of the loop 2) you will return to your starting point 3) There's significant delay tolerance on the buttons pressing therefore you can accidently execute this move while you just want to focus on firing all your weapons.

Then there's a plane drops paratroopers. I thought airwolf will get exploded should they touch it. Turns out, no. You can skewer their parachute thus makes them plummet to their death by touching them. They only become threat once the land on the ground safely and later become common ground soldier.    

Frontal attack didn't work. Thus enemies begin to resort to missiles that are launched from background. Though they can be either avoided or destroyed. By the way, the bomb can't be accurate weapon to deal with ground enemies. If it lands on ground instead of enemy, it will skip forward like skipping stone on water surface. It may seems not so functional, though It's funny to see.

But if you position Airwolf to lower half of the screen, pressing 2nd button will make it shoots vulcan diagonally down instead drops bouncy bomb. It's more accurate lack of range. So there's bit strategy on how to deal with ground enemies by adjusting your elevation.

There's 2 kind of pickup along the way: green parachute cargo and red ones. The former will increase your firepower of both air-to-air weapon and air-to-ground weapon by 1. You can stack up to 5 firepowers. While the latter will make Airwolf go into 'Turbo' mode which makes it goes faster and also screen scrolls faster. Hopefully bypassing enemies or simply run the stage faster. About the big helicopter that act as the sub-boss there, it's not so interesting. It will launch destructible long missiles in tracking manner and in fast rate so you can still get hit by them if you're careless.

The paratroopers fail to deal with me, thus they dispatch these rocketeers, i mean soldiers with jetpack. They're just slightly more dangerous the paratroopers. You can easily gun them down before they open fire.  

There's small red flag that you can either pick or shoot but i have no idea what's the benefit by doing so. It doesn't increase your score that's for sure.

Oh hi, Iowa! To hell with you and your quite-accurate turrets!   

After venturing further, Airwolf lands here safely. Then there's 2 person approach it. I suppose they are codename "Archangel" (The Firm's deputy director) and his assistant Gabrielle (played by Belinda Bauer). And there's the photo of the pilot says "Nice Fight!". Don't forget that! I wonder how's the similarity between his digitized picture here and his real photo.

I say 80% at most. I dislike that red-brown jacket. Black will be more sensible color like in real photo. Don't you agree?  

Next stage takes time at night. Nothing else new here. Missiles that are launched from background, small choppers, small planes, etc.

Then there's Airwolf-clone: Airfox or so i called it because of its color. It got wider bullets than mine but mine can shoot very rapidly (which depend on my finger's speed and stamina). It also shoot destructible straight rocket. Still, it's not difficult opponent.

If missiles launch from background, aren't working well to deal me, then airplanes fly from background will. Or so they hope. Nice try, anyway.

Here comes the boss stage Chinook with rapid rocket launcher. The rockets can be destroyed though, so it's not so tough to beat. But you have to mind about "sway" movement of the rockets which can make them slip away from your shoot. Or because of their elevated durability that they can reach Airwolf.

Next stage takes place grass area with power lines and sentry turret. It's peaceful place. Almost.

Then, it's another desert or should i say "It's another desert strike". But this time there's missiles launch from desert. Yeah, sure! Try launch missile at me from anywhere you like, scum!

At this point, you have seen everything that game can offer. The enemies are reused: Zeppelin that dispatch rocketeers, missiles, tanks, foot soldiers, turrets, cargo plane that drops paratroopers, cruisers, submarines that only show their foreplanes, etc. For cruiser and submarine, i don't show them for the sake of comprehensive article. I'm sorry.

The game also reuse the boss and the sub-boss. If you have fought 2 or 3 airfoxes, you will get bored pretty immediately.

After 4 stages, the game begin to loop the stage. What a surprise! [Small Sarcasm]. The enemies shoot more often and airfox becomes staple sub-boss. But there's something different. Only small thing though. There's camel walks the desert like nothing happen. So cute. =3 

Then there's also herd of elephant. Yes, you can shoot them. But WWF will frown upon your act. You animal killer!

The airwolf turns to dust then falls, if it get destroyed. I don't think that's how helicopter wrecks in real life. Hey, i show you the cruisers! Are you happy?

I can continue where i die but that's kind of pointless as the game looping. At least i beat the killer-doll wielding ninja Kankurou from Naruto in this top-score. 

To be honest, i have relative low expectation to Airwolf (1987) as a game that tie-in with the famous series, created by relatively-unknown Japanese developer. On top of that, it's made as Arcade game in 80's which i stamp it have shallow yet uninteresting gameplay . Turns out, Airwolf is fine enough for me. Although there's looping stage in which make the game has no real end and it means the devs lack of creativity if i'm being honest. Nonetheless, Airwolf is simple horizontal shooter but have quite engaging gameplay. The air-to-ground arsenals have their own strength and weakness so you have to plan when to use diagonal vulcan or the skipping bomb. The evasion maneuver isn't common in any shooter game. I found another in vertical shooter but i forget the name. I need to say that this move is useful against enemy who sneaks from behind which is the my bane on many shooters. Big plus, then! There's auto-fire feature but the fire rate is kind of sedated. There's pretty good recreation of Airwolf theme starting at the beginning of the game. But there's 1 fatal flaw about it: it's obscured by the sound of helicopter's propellers. Not from the enemies. It's from the Airwolf itself. So you can't hear the music well unless, you get destroyed. The graphic is good for its time but i still don't like the picture of Jan-Michael Vincent. So rough and ugly. The difficulty has quite smooth curve. You can play the game casually but you still have to be on your guard.      

Overall, i like Airwolf better than In The Hunt (1993) for arcade horizontal shooter games (Sorry, Hachi!). Therefore i can recommend you to play Airwolf. Especially if you have nostalgic feeling to the series. Also the game predates Desert Strike, Jungle Strike, and Urban Strike in term of places albeit in more simple form. Not the middle ones though as the closest of greenery in the game is more like forest instead of jungle. :p