Activision‘s classic underground rescue game, H.E.R.O., was released on Sega‘s SG-1000 console – in Japan only – in 1985, and it is somewhat different to all the other versions of the game out there.

The main character uses a jet pack in this, rather than a helicopter backpack, although the effect is more or less the same. Also: the graphics in this are more detailed than the original Atari 2600 version, while still managing to look at bit janky at the same time.

Starting the game, you can choose which level to start on: level one of course begins on ‘Act 1’; level two begins on ‘Act 5’; level three begins on ‘Act 9’; level four begins on ‘Act 13’, and level five begins on ‘Act 17’.

Gameplay-wise, I think the SG-1000 version of H.E.R.O. is playable and fun, but it does seem to have more of a delay when you’re applying thrust upwards, which can be a little frustrating (the delay is basically the opposite of what I found in the Atari 5200 version, which seems to respond more quickly to thrust). This delay in upward movement did result in me losing all my lives quicker than in any of the versions of H.E.R.O. I’d played previously (this was the last version of H.E.R.O. I played in a sequence of six).

Overall, the SG-1000 version of H.E.R.O. is still worth playing, mostly from a historical/curiosity standpoint, but it does lack the colour variation of most of the other ports, which makes it less appealing IMHO. I’m not quite sure why Sega didn’t give the cave walls a bit more colour because the video chip in the SG-1000 is capable of displaying 16 colours on-screen at the same time.

More: H.E.R.O. on Wikipedia