Apache Flight

STORY / GAMEPLAY
We are towards the end of the Cold War between the USA and the USSR. In the Eastern Europe countries communism was replaced by democracy and all the governments decided to leave nuclear holocausts behind, signing disarmament treaties and getting rid of their stockpiles of nuclear warheads. But all this seemed not enough to protect the world, since some of these weapons have ultimately fallen into the hands of a terrorist organization from an unknown country. Your mission, as an Apache AH-64 pilot, is to find the terrorists, destroy their weapon hangars and prevent potential mass destruction of the planet. During your flight you collect several bonuses by shooting down enemies and increasing your weaponry and health. The game is a classic top down, vertical scrolling shoot 'em up with plenty of enemies to shoot down (either airborne or on the ground). Your main weapons are your cannon (by pressing the fire button rapidly) and rockets (by keeping the fire button pressed). The game is tough and its difficulty would probably make you quit soon. To tell you the truth, I expected more, but again, this game is good and it will not leave you disappointed. Apache Flight looks (and plays) pretty much like the SWIV (Silkworm IV) game.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The ST version has nice and colorful graphics though the sprites' animation (and background scrolling) suffers a bit. I would expect better results as the game's visuals does not use any special techniques (like parallax scrolling etc). I really liked some details from the attack choppers, the battle tanks and the anti-air cannons but most of the landscapes are repetitive. In terms of details there are minor differences compared to the Amiga version (which runs way smoother and faster). The sound features some nice sampled sound effects without being top notch and there is a very short tune at the intro (in contrast to the Amiga version which offers a full intro theme).