Tiger Heli

Tiger Heli

TIGER-HELI

Tiger Heli is a basic game, like real basic. It's Toaplan's very first shmup all the way back in 1985, and this game compared to the most basic of shmups today, it ages like milk. Stuff like the game being only 4 stages long (3 for loops,) slow helicopter speed, limited shot range and quantity, and the complete lack of bullet sealing, really show how aged this game is. While it can be fun at times, it's not something I'll be coming back to. But it's a major stepping stone in Toaplan's history in general, and would lead them to make some of the most influential shumps to date, which I respect.

The Port

Now how about the actual port on Steam? Honestly, not the best. But to start on the only two high-notes I have for this port, it performs really well with no hitches or slowdown, and the assist features are nice to have despite being the same for every other port. There's quite a few emulation issues however. The pallete cycling on the title logo does not work properly and the screen wipe transition after starting a game or dying go way too fast, almost instant. The big problem that plauges almost all the Bitwave ports is the poor audio emulation, and this one so happens to be one of the most noticeable ones. All sound and music are pitched up from the original game, and sounds way off than it's supposed to. And the problems even extend to outside the game too. Menu texts are straight up copy-pasted from other Bitwave ports and usually don't reflect the actual game, and the leaderboards are broken, as some stats are never get counted up at all properly.

Conclusion

As for the port on Steam, this is a game from 1985 that's very short and with poorly aged mechanics being sold for 8 dollars. I can't recommended it, but then again I bought the 3rd collection when it was on sale, $3.22 for this game alone after calculations (without tax), which I think is a much fairer price for this game.

And even though I have an extremely low play time, 12 minutes was enough for me to make a detailed review. I have plenty of prior experience with this game and even made an article for it on Shmups Wiki.

This is the best release of this game. It offers rewinds notquick saves and saving to file. You can run the game with no fake filtres. There are no baked-in envelopes and there's screen rotation, allowing you to properly play it on your 3//4 vertical screen.

But if you polish a turd you will still have a turd in the end.

The stupid chopper is impossibly slow, while the screen is entirely filled with bullets. Your gun is pathetic and has no range. You have two bombs which have a big delay and don't even wipe the screen. And the enemies will shoot them off of you. Instead of upgrades you have bad sidekicks, and they have their own hitboxes so they don't live even for a second.

You can't kill the enemies because you have to avoid bullets, and you can't avoid bullets because you didn't kill the enemies. That's on easy difficulty. But i didn't notice any difference on easiest, hard, or arcade. I've even tried enabling faster movement.

I though the popular Hishōzame was the blueprint for all the similar Toaplan games. But it turns out it started here. While the game is small and simplistic, you already can see the recognizable set-pieces and enemy designs. The sprites are pretty and detailed, the backgrounds are primitive and flat.

This one turbosucks, not even this port can salvage it.

Simple but fun SHMUP!

Tough as nails(Without any milk)

Excelent port of a import game in the history of shmups but that is very primitive but is still fun. but hey it´s from 85. the ship has a very limited shoot range and e a bomb. There are no bosses and senario is repetitive. Still it has is charm and you can have fun with it as it is very chaotic in a good sense, with enemyes sniping you by all directions.The unique mechanic compared to other toaplan games is that you will have to kill the enemyes at closer rage. It is a shmup that requires enemy memorization as the ship is slow. It is not a easy game and probably that is the reason that the gameplay works so well. Bitwave once again did a phenomenal job with the port with the usual assist option. There is a option called heli-speed ion the menu that i think it puts your ship faster. Bougth it because it was in a volume. But if you are a modern gamer you probalby be turned off as the game is raw and primitive in the purest form and gameplay is the best thing of it has presentations is dull.

First of all I'm enjoying this remake. It's just as challenging as I remember. There are some extra features but I have not used them. I like the updated graphics, but do wish for the 8-bit original.

Unlike with Slap Fight, Bitwave didn't even ensure this game was pitched correctly, let alone the usual emulation issues. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. The extra features are buggy as all getout and I honestly can't recommend this. Good ports require so much better attention to development and player feedback than I feel is being demonstrated now.