Air Cobra

Copyright : Unicornio Soft | Reviewed by : Malc Jennings

There was once a time when helicopter games involving the rescue of innocent people ruled the gaming world, now we just like to blow the bajebus out of everything that stands in our way and that includes the innocent people.

In this very simple action game you must rescue the people and avoid all the nasty things, like birds. How birds can take down a helicopter is beyond me, but anyway, on with the review.

Graphics

This game was written in 1987 and compared to other games of the time it really does look tired and basic to say the least. Everything appears to be done in MODE 0, which is incredibly low resolution for those that don?t know the terminology and it results in some seriously ugly and chunky graphics.

If the game is aimed at the less mature audience then my hat off to the developer, but if this was intended to be an all round game for everyone then the child like graphics have seriously missed the mark.

Sound

My god! the mixture of sounds that welcome you to this game is enough alone to make you want to switch off your beloved CPC, take out the tape it was recorded on and throw it against the nearest wall. Its like your alarm clock going off in the middle of a good dream. Once you get past this though the sound does get better, the sound of the helicopter blades and bleeps when you rescue people are good. Nothing special but good.

Gameplay

The idea of the game is very simple, fly your helicopter around the various screens and pick up the gigantic people (they?re not supposed to be gigantic obviously) while avoiding things such as the walls and birds. It works, the idea is simple, the game is simple and it works.

However, its not the most fun you?re ever likely to have on your CPC and certainly wouldn?t have been worth the £2.99 pocket money you may have spent back in 1987, I have an image of this game being returned to several branches of WHSmiths if it was ever released to the public.

The controls are pretty simple but the response time is waaay too low, the chopper will go flying in any direction you tap your keys and without you even having chance to push back...wack! you?re a dead pilot. As a result its just not a very playable game at all.