The 1994 Super Nintendo version of Choplifter III is an updated/enhanced version of the classic 8-bit scrolling shooter, Choplifter, in which you fly a helicopter over enemy territory, rescuing hostages. The game was developed by Beam Software and was published by Extreme Entertainment in North America, Ocean Software in Europe, and Victor Entertainment (JVC) in Japan.

By pressing the gamepad shoulder buttons, you can turn the chopper left and right, as well as centre it so that its fire shoots directly downwards. The aim is to clear away enemies so that you’re able to land near prisoners; to pick them up, then return them to base, without being destroyed in the process.

You have a default front-mounted gun as a primary weapon, and can also collect and use secondary weapons, like bombs; destructive flares; some sort of heat weapon, and different types of missiles. Also considered as ‘secondary weapons’ are: the rope, which you lower to winch up hostages, and a short-lived invincibility shield.

A health bar in the top left-hand corner of the screen shows your damage levels. If this drops to zero, your chopper will explode. Next to that are the secondary weapons; the number of hostages remaining to be rescued, and the number of hostages you’re currently carrying (the blue flag).

Each stage has a number of hazards, from individual solders firing guns at you; ground cannons of varying sizes; tanks, boats, hovercraft, and homing missile launchers. As the game progresses these become more numerous and more deadly, eventually pitting you against enemy attack helicopters, paratroopers, and even VTOL harriers. Occasionally, you’ll also encounter larger bosses and sub-bosses, that you must destroy to continue.

You can locate and use repair bases (flying a red and white striped flag), to re-fill your health meter. Boxes also drop into levels on parachutes, and these contain various power-ups and extra weapons. You must first shoot these to reveal their contents, then fly into them to collect them.

Rescuing every hostage on a level requires that you optimise your carrying capacity, meaning that you basically need to fill up your chopper with hostages on every run, if you can. Otherwise, you’ll often complete a level by reaching the rescue quota, and end up leaving some hostages behind. For every hostage you rescue over the quota, you get a bonus at the end of the mission. However, if you’re shot down with a hold full of hostages, they’ll all die, which can lead to the stage failing if you can no longer reach your quota.

Graphically, Choplifter III is decent enough, with colourful, atmospheric backdrops and detailed, smooth-scrolling landscapes. Enemy vehicles, soldiers and bosses are well animated. Cut scenes are perfunctory.

The music in Choplifter III is okay, and the sound effects are good. The all-important gameplay is good, though. Controlling the helicopter is simple, and it has just the right amount of inertia.

There are fifteen different missions that can be played at three difficulty levels (Practise and Normal – Hard is unlockable), and passwords are used for continuing.

Choplifter III is a playable and challenging game. It’s not perfect, and could’ve done with a bit more detail to take it up a level, but it is arguably still the best version of Choplifter available.

More: Choplifter III on Wikipedia