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ミスターヘリの大冒険
©1989 Irem Corp.
Release : 1989-12-01 (¥6700)
Hucard (4 Mbits) IC01002
Shooter / Action
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Mr Heli no Daibōken is the conversion of Irem's shooter originally released
in the arcades in 1987 and also known in the west as Battle Chopper. It features a cute little orange helicopter with tiny feet.
Thanks to these, Mr Heli can fly around the screen and also walk on the
ground. All of this plays an important role in the game's mechanics - He can
shoot straight in front of him (either left or right), or shoot missiles above him.
However, when on the ground, the same action button instead drops bombs.
The power-up system is very unusual and unique - blocks are scattered around every
stage and they hide blue crystals, and the bigger they are, the more money they're worth.
Special items (including a better gun, missiles, smart-bombs and energy tanks)
are also hidden under these blocks and can be purchased in exchange of
the precious crystals. Each level is split into three areas - first the main
zone with a smaller boss awaiting at the end of it, then the player enters a
sub-stage plunged in the dark where only his gun can get him to see
what is ahead of him. The only way to get the light back is to destroy the nearby
generator and rush all the way to the exit... to the boss' lair. Defeat him
to complete the area and fly to the next stage!
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Mr Heli no Daibōken was originally released in the arcades in 1987 (picture on the right).
Although the arcade game was released in the United States under the name Battle Chopper,
it was mainly ported to computers in Europe such as the Atari ST (1989), Amstrad CPC (1989),
ZX Spectrum (1989), Commodore 64 (1989) and Amiga (1989). The PC Engine
version tested here was released in 1989 and exclusively in Japan. Interestingly,
Mr Heli did cameo appearances in several Irem games! He is a playable hidden character in the port of
Image Fight for the PC Engine system,
he also appears in the obscure Shuyaku Sentai Irem Fighter released for the
Game Boy in 1993 and it is a one of the unlockable ships in R-Type Final
released for the Playstation 2 in 2003!
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Click on picture to enlarge |
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99 Credits!
On the title screen, when the options appear, press I, II,
II, I and Select. The credit screen should appear
and allow you to enter up to 99 credits! (picture on the right)
Sound Test Screen
In a very similar way, on the title screen when the options
appears, press II, I, I, II and
Select. The Sound Test Screen should appear
and allow you to play any music from the game.
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LK
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Add your Pov here !
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Mr Heli no Daibōken is a fun game to play. It is not an intense shooter though,
but rather an interesting mix of shooting and platforming action where you
will have to use a fair amount of strategy (understand here your wits and grey matter) to keep going.
Graphics are excellent and the game uses one of the PC Engine's high resolution
(352x224 instead of the usual 256x224). The life management is a
bit frustrating though - when you lose a life, you also lose all your
weapons and your precious (and painfully) accumulated money.
But, back in the 80s, it was Irem's way of dealing with things I guess -
all of this probably sounds familiar to anyone used to cry in
frustration and agony while playing games such as R*Type and Legend Of Hero Tonma.
Nonetheless,
Mr Heli no Daibōken is an incredibly fun shooter, full of nice surprises and great features.
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