In Choplifter III, released for the SNES in 1994 by Beam Software, you pilot a combat helicopter behind enemy lines on a series of intense rescue missions. Your objective is to blast through hostile territory, locate prison camps, and safely transport POWs back to your home base. As an action-packed shoot ’em up, you will need to carefully manage your helicopter’s momentum and facing direction while dodging anti-aircraft fire, jets, and heavily armed ground troops.
How to Play
Use the D-pad (mapped to arrow keys) to maneuver your helicopter, and the face buttons (mapped to Z, X, A, S) to fire your primary and secondary weapons. The shoulder buttons (mapped to Q and W) are crucial for turning your helicopter to strafe targets without changing your flight path. To rescue hostages, blast open their prisons, land gently on the ground nearby, and wait for them to board. Once your chopper is full, fly back to your home base and land on the helipad to drop them off safely.
Tips
- Watch your landings: Be extremely careful when touching down to pick up hostages. Landing directly on them will crush them, reducing your rescue count.
- Manage your load: You can only carry a limited number of passengers at a time. Do not risk flying deeper into enemy territory if your chopper is already full; head back to base immediately.
- Save secondary weapons: You will pick up limited-use weapons like missiles and bombs. Save these for heavily armored targets or end-of-level boss encounters rather than wasting them on basic infantry.
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