By: Michael Dao
Choplifter was the very first game I ever purchased for my first game console, the Sega Master System. I had a lot of fond memories playing Choplifter, both good and bad. Good memories of mastering the early levels of the game, and less than good memories at the frustration I experienced later on. Back then, much like now, I wasn’t exactly what one would call a highly skilled gamer. When I heard that an HD remake was coming, excitement quickly ramped up. If you are reading this review, you surely must have questions. Does this game harken back to the good old days? Have they improved upon the formula at all? Is it worth the fifteen dollars? About that… 
The premise to Choplifter HD is simple. You are a helicopter pilot, and it is your job to mostly rescue people at various locations and ferry them to your base. The helicopter is controlled with the left analog stick, aiming is done so with the right analog stick, and guns and your limited supply of rockets are fired with the left and right triggers respectively. The hook of the game is that action takes place on two planes, the background and foreground. The helicopter flies in the background, while certain enemies appear in the foreground. To attack enemies on the foreground, the pilot must face the helicopter towards the player, and this is done so using the left and right bumper buttons, a wrinkle also present in the first iteration of this game. Major changes between this and the original Choplifter include a damage bar, the original game was one hit and you were dead, the inclusion of rockets, and the addition of fuel. Fuel slowly decreases as you fly around, and decreases at an alarming rate should the pilot decide to use boost, increasing the speed of the helicopter dramatically. Run out of fuel, and the helicopter is forced to land.
The game plays simply enough, and throws in various other things for the player to do in order to keep this game being simply an airborne variant of Crazy Taxi. Each level has a hidden reporter to rescue for additional points, and some people to be rescued are wounded, and have a time limit. Some portions require the player to defend a specific location. Sometimes against zombies. Yes, zombies. It is after the first few missions that the excitement of playing a remade version of Choplifter starts to wane. The player starts to realize that the controls really just suck, the gameplay appears repetitive. Then comes the realization that this title feels and plays much more like an iOS game than a full fledged XBLA game, something that should have received the price point of 99 cents as opposed to fifteen dollars. At the end of each level, the player earns a number of stars which can then be used to unlock other helicopters with varying statistics.
The game is not, however, without its good points. The dialog of the chopper crew can elicit the occasional chuckle, and the graphics, while not mind-blowing, are competent. But the facets of the game that are done well, make the shortcomings of the game all the more obvious. The title is frustrating, and cameos from Super Meat Boy and Duke Nukem cannot save it. The mechanic of collecting stars to unlock things is straight out of iOS games such as Cut the Rope, and Run Roo Run, both games where I had more fun and a better experience playing than Choplifter HD.
I wanted to enjoy Choplifter HD. I wanted to love it, and take it to bed. I wanted to cuddle with it, and love it forever. But a quarter of a century has passed, and in that time it changed. It did not age gracefully like Demi Moore or Diane Lane. Imagine Lindsay Lohan in ten years.
This review is based on a retail copy of the XBLA version of Choplifter HD provided by Konami. It is also available on the PSN and PC.
Tags: Choplifter HD, PS3, PSN, Review, Sega, XBLA, Xbox, Xbox 360