Helicopter Emergency Rescue Operation duder flies again!
On a Game Room Quick Look of Game Pack 006, Atari 2600 finest game H.E.R.O caught my eye. I never played this game on the original platform but remember this game being one of my first Commodore 64 games from mid 80's. And a game which I used to play over and over again. So what better way of getting a retro fix than this.
You are Roderick Hero and your job is to rescue trapped miners in Mount Leono. This is done with Roderick descending down to the mines with help of his prop-pack(propeller pack) while dodging snakes, birds, spiders, lava pits and magma walls. Luckily monsieur Hero is equipped with a Microlaser beam, a half dozen Dynamites and a raft which will help him to get around/through the obstacles.
The depth this old game has it is not hard to see why this is so highly rated game. On today's terms this game would be categorized as a platform game. First level consist of two caves and with each new level more caves are added with each increasing difficulty. Each life is limited with a power-gauge that runs down with the time. This keeps each run through relatively short and addicting.
One of the finer incentives from Atari 2600 times was a Order of the H.E.R.O badge that was give to the players who managed to score 75 000 points. Unfortunately they don't give out this anymore. End game is met when 1 000 000 points is acquired. This is done across 17 unique levels which get randomly played after beating the first 17.
The juice of a review to game originally released in 1984 in today's online game service is naturally how well the game has been ported. Graphics naturally are crude but with the screen set to the cabinet-mode the whole retro experience is natural and legitimate. Controls as with too many of these games unfortunately don't do full justice for the game. Movement is not as pixel accurate as the original game (and its ports). This doesn't cause too many problems if it weren't for the prop-pack's throttle controlling. In the mid 80's versions this was done by pushing up on the joystick but for some reason year 2010 version of H.E.R.O doesn't follow the same schema, fully at least. You need to push up twice to go upwards. Take this with the already loose controls and you are asking for trouble. I wouldn't go as far as calling this game killer but certainly the controls could have been tailored better for gamepad's control.
There is no doubt that H.E.R.O with Shaolin's Road is one of the better games of Game Room. Game has enough difficulty for sure and it is addicting to come back for a hunt of a better score. Wouldn't necessarily recommend this to everyone, but if retro games are your thing, then sure.