Tiger Heli (タイガーヘリ) is a vertical scrolling arcade shooting game released in 1985. It was marketed by Taito and produced by Toaplan. It was Toaplan's first shooting game. Outside of Japan, it was licensed to Romstar for US distribution.
It was ported to the Famicom in 1986 and the NES in 1987. Tiger Heli is also included in Toaplan Shooting Battle 1 compilation for the Playstation, and on the Ultimate Tiger-Heli compilation for the Switch and Playstation 4. In 2024 it was released digitally for PC on the Steam and GOG storefronts by Bitwave games.
Gameplay[]
The player controls a helicopter equipped with two types of weapons: a main shot that has a long range and a bomb that causes an explosion in a large area, which simultaneously cancels out bullets while hitting the enemy. The game has a total of four levels, one of which is cut off from the second and subsequent rounds.
Up to two bombs can be equipped as special weapons. At the beginning of the stage, both bombs are equipped. If the player is hit by a bomb on the left or right side of the ship, the bomb will automatically explode, otherwise the player loses a life.
A small helicopter is equipped as a power-up. By destroying the cross-shaped panels that sometimes appear on the ground, a small helicopter will appear on the screen, and by touching it, the helicopter will be deployed to either the left or right side of the player helicopter. A maximum of two small helicopters can be equipped, one on each side.
The panel is colored white, red, and green, in that order, and the type of helicopter that appears depends on the color of the panel when it is destroyed. The white helicopter is forward like the player's helicopter, while the red helicopter can attack right beside and to the left and right of the helicopter (at about the same range as the ship's main shot). If a green helicopter is destroyed, a bomb supply item will appear. If the small helicopter is hit, it will be shot down and disappear.
After a certain distance, the helicopter will reach the landing site and the stage will end. At this point, bonuses are awarded according to the number of bombs and small helicopters remaining. The bombs are replenished and the helicopter is carried over to the next stage.
The game has a return and resurrection system, with a resurrection point every one or two screens. In some cases, the player may be resurrected a little further than the point where the mistake was made. There are no continues in this game, so once the player loses all lives it's game over.
Basically, only tanks and gun batteries on the ground, boats on the water, and fighter planes on the runway appear, but in the middle of the second stage (one tank) and the middle of the third stage (two tanks simultaneously), large, durable, and powerful tanks that fire a large number of bullets appear. Bonus points are awarded for attacking specific buildings and destroying hidden characters.
The difficulty level in this game is rather high. This is due to the slowness of the helicopter, the large hit points, the short range of the main shot, and the lack of range limitation of enemy fire in severe enemy placements. The player's helicopter has a very slow movement speed and a large hit radius (the speed of the player's helicopter can be switched between slow and fast in the settings, but even at high speed it is not very fast, and at low speed it is very slow.) And yet, there are many situations where tanks appear in large numbers from behind, and even when they are in close proximity to a turret, they fire bullets at the player.
On the other hand, the tanks in this game have a long period of rigidity after firing their bullets, and their rotation speed is slow, so it is not difficult to attack them when they are in the open, as long as the timing is right. The game also has the aspect of a pattern game, as the difficulty level is greatly reduced if the player memorizes the placement of enemies and where they appear, and deals with them ahead of time instead of acting after seeing them. The player will not be attacked until the enemy tank's turret is facing the helicopter. The turret of a tank will freeze for a while after firing, and then it will start to rotate to aim. This element was introduced in this game and was also used in some later shooting games.
Enemies[]
- Tank
- Gun Boat
- Artillery Battery
- Airplane
- Big Tank
Gallery[]
