I played some 'chopper' games recently. The original Arcade Choplifter, C64 and Atari 800 'Fort Apocalypse', and of course Choplifter on the C64, Atari 800 XL, and even VIC-20 (a great version, considering the limitations).

 I remembered this game as something that was too difficult back in the day, but was interesting to me.

 So I revisited it. Not bad, it has a nice, fluid movement and scrolling, a big, well-animated helicopter, and the very chopliftery 'rescue these men and destroy the enemy' gameplay.

 However, I had just played Super Famicom version of Choplifter III prior to visiting this Amiga game, and I couldn't help notice a few drawbacks here.

 First of all, why does the helicopter tilt so much? That's way too much, it looks ridiculous.

 Second problem is lack of color. The colors are very muted or toned down - heck, even explosions don't use white or yellow! Only some relatively dim brown. There are no vivid colors in this game whatsoever - I had my TV color setting to 'max', and yet this game seemed so grey. Of course to colorblind eyes, it looks even greyer.

 Third problem is difficulty. I suck at games anyway, but this game I couldn't really play for too long due to its extreme difficulty (mind you, I had technical problems; screen went black on low altitudes, I dont know why).

 Fourth problem is that the helicopter is too big, and the play area is confusing. It gives you a real claustrophobic feeling, you want to see a bit further, a bit more of what's happening, before you die. Or at least what killed you.

It's a neat, fun game with otherwise excellent graphics and good sound. If I was able to properly play it, I would probably recommend it.

But after playing all these 'chopper games', there's no question about it; Super Famicom's "Choplifter III" is absolutely the best "Choplifter game".

It has a great playability, nice extra weapons, fast action, beautiful, vivid colors, and great sound. It's more engaging and makes you complete levle after level.

Also, its graphics are a bit better than Apocalypse's, but that might be an unfair thing to say.

I think we could use more 'Choplifter' games, though - it's fun to rescue those cute, little guys that wave at you.