Cleared on June 18th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 14/160)
Looking at the reviews, I'm surprised the game has such a negative opinion. As far as arcade ports go, it's not... that bad. Obviously it can't top the original Thunder Blade visually and the frame rate, but compared to Galaxy Force II, it seems at least beatable without having to resort to save states and rewinds (maybe except for the 4th level), and compared to Viewpoint, the frame rate is manageable which is impressive given its 3D perspective. For an arcade game that went to console in the 80s with new software, I'd say it's about what I would've expected.
Of course, the game itself does suffer the faults of an arcade port such as the distorted obstacles which stutters as you move, making it very tricky to avoid as you need to brake in order to have a better chance at avoiding. This doesn't become a problem until the game's 2nd level where it throws disjointed obstacles at you, and on top of that, you need to deal with enemies positioned to barrage you with projectiles. It's also a problem in the game's 4th level too and may even seem almost unavoidable. It's quite a lot.
Perhaps this sort of unfairness is contributed to the fact that this game only has 4 levels... yeah, if you play perfectly without getting hit, you could beat this game in 20 minutes.
There are ways to help improve the experience. If you don't plan on using the rewind or save state feature, you can set the live count to 7 from the default 3 as well as set the difficulty to Easy which will lower the speed of the projectiles, giving you more time to evade them.
From there, just blast through. The game I would say is the most fun at Level 1 and 3 where you don't really have any obstacles to worry about. It's just good helicopter shooting fun. Level 2, however, is quite the difficulty spike and the fourth and final level isn't much better. Would've been much better if Level 2 and 3 switched places.
I will say I didn't really care for the overhead sequences. I get why it's there since you are playing a helicopter, but this is where the depth perception can kinda screw with you as the projectiles are firing up, and it's just slow compared to the third person sequences. I did, however, realize while fighting the final boss that pressing the brake button puts you in reverse which I can imagine would give you a better time during these segments.
A fine game for it's time, and there's no harm in giving it a try. If you bought any Sega Genesis collection, it's very likely the game is on there.
Looking at the reviews, I'm surprised the game has such a negative opinion. As far as arcade ports go, it's not... that bad. Obviously it can't top the original Thunder Blade visually and the frame rate, but compared to Galaxy Force II, it seems at least beatable without having to resort to save states and rewinds (maybe except for the 4th level), and compared to Viewpoint, the frame rate is manageable which is impressive given its 3D perspective. For an arcade game that went to console in the 80s with new software, I'd say it's about what I would've expected.
Of course, the game itself does suffer the faults of an arcade port such as the distorted obstacles which stutters as you move, making it very tricky to avoid as you need to brake in order to have a better chance at avoiding. This doesn't become a problem until the game's 2nd level where it throws disjointed obstacles at you, and on top of that, you need to deal with enemies positioned to barrage you with projectiles. It's also a problem in the game's 4th level too and may even seem almost unavoidable. It's quite a lot.
Perhaps this sort of unfairness is contributed to the fact that this game only has 4 levels... yeah, if you play perfectly without getting hit, you could beat this game in 20 minutes.
There are ways to help improve the experience. If you don't plan on using the rewind or save state feature, you can set the live count to 7 from the default 3 as well as set the difficulty to Easy which will lower the speed of the projectiles, giving you more time to evade them.
From there, just blast through. The game I would say is the most fun at Level 1 and 3 where you don't really have any obstacles to worry about. It's just good helicopter shooting fun. Level 2, however, is quite the difficulty spike and the fourth and final level isn't much better. Would've been much better if Level 2 and 3 switched places.
I will say I didn't really care for the overhead sequences. I get why it's there since you are playing a helicopter, but this is where the depth perception can kinda screw with you as the projectiles are firing up, and it's just slow compared to the third person sequences. I did, however, realize while fighting the final boss that pressing the brake button puts you in reverse which I can imagine would give you a better time during these segments.
A fine game for it's time, and there's no harm in giving it a try. If you bought any Sega Genesis collection, it's very likely the game is on there.