Review: HellCopter
Score:
70%
One of the most addictive games I've ever played was on Palm OS. SF Cave was a one button game, where you had to guide a ribbon through a cave with ever increasing complexity. I loved it so much, I coded it for Symbian back in the days of the Nokia 9210 (here it is, scoring a glorious 70). It would be fair to say that HellCopter is from the same mould as SF Cave. Will it soar in my heart, or crash to the ground?
Version Reviewed: 1.00(0)
Buy Link | Download / Information Link
There are actually two games inside HellCopter, although it's not obvious when you open it. The two styles are determined by your choice of controls - you can tilt your smartphone (either on the left/right or up/down axis) to fly and hold your HellCopter at a specific height; or you can touch the screen and each tap will see the HellCopter gain height, and releasing your touch on the screen will see it descend.
This former is the classic SF Cave style control system, and the one that I immediately defaulted to. It's okay, but not brilliant. In terms of reaction time and sensitivity to touch, I have no complaint. Where this method of play falls down is that there is no grace or style to the effect of gravity. You descend far too quickly when nothing is pressed, and the acceleration is far too powerful. If this was all there was to HellCopter, I'd be skipping on to the next app.
But there is an alternative, lurking in the Settings dialog. The second control system setting, using the accelerometer to alter your HellCopter altitude, is surprisingly sensitive. Small corrections allow for a gentle climb or descend, and you can make larger inputs as needed. This is more like it!
Just as I remember from SF Cave, you're flying along an endless cavern, the reason is always unclear (but probably involves a script by Donald Bellisario), and you are under attack from flaming rockets heading towards you. Flying at a fixed horizontal speed (again, you just are, get used to it) you'll need to avoid the rockets and the walls of the cavern as it twists, turns and narrows the further you travel.
The balance of the game isn't quite there yet - neither of the three choices of starting speeds really work. 'Slow' is far too slow and takes too long to build up to a good level for gaming; 'Fast' turns this into a pure reaction game and I'm too old to full appreciate that; and 'Medium' is a bit too much of a compromise.
I know it's hard to find the right point where everything works in a game like this, and HellCopter is close. It's rough at the edges in terms of game balance and in presentation, with a reliance on strong colours and repeating tiled backgrounds to make up the cave walls and backdrop, and the strangest options screen I've seen in a long time. Yet I love this game. It's not perfect, and I'd love to be able to tweak some of the acceleration and velocity numbers, but then who else gets to fly world's greatest helicopter with perfect controls at high speed through a canyon?
I always preferred Blue Thunder anyway.
-- Ewan Spence, September 2011.
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at