The second Choplifter sequel, Choplifter III, was first released for the Sega Game Gear, in 1993, before coming out on the Super Nintendo, in 1994. The Game Gear version was created by Teeny Weeny Games, for Beam Software, and published by Extreme Entertainment in North America only.

Just like in Choplifter II, there are birds flying around (that you should avoid colliding with); letters representing power-ups (‘B’ for bomb; ‘M’ for missile, and so on), and clouds that can damage your chopper.

The gameplay involves rescuing hostages using a helicopter that you control, and you must fly out, destroying enemy units, and avoiding their fire as you go. A small ‘health’ bar on the left-hand side of the screen shows your damage levels, and an indicator above it shows what weapon you currently have selected.

You can carry up to ten hostages at any one time, so to rescue everyone you have to make multiple trips out, and return to base, to fulfil your rescue quota.

In total there are fifteen different missions to play (five sectors, each with three stages), and passwords are used to start from specific levels.

Choplifter III is a reasonably good game that gradually becomes more challenging as you progress. Graphically, the game is decent enough. A tune plays constantly during missions, but you can turn this off from the main menu and just have sound effects, if you so wish.

More: Choplifter III on Wikipedia