Chopper Attack (or Wild Choppers) is a game that’s clearly inspired by the [Terrain] Strike series of games. It’s a helicopter shoot-’em-up across eight missions. Each mission will give you certain enemies to destroy, although some you have to wipe out everything.

The controls make use of the N64 controller well – the C-buttons move while the analogue stick aims (although there’s no option to disable inverted aiming). There is, however, one important feature of a helicopter missing: controlling altitude. You’ll automatically move up based on terrain. Enemies don’t have the same limitations, so you have to awkwardly try to aim at them – a big problem because the crosshair isn’t pointing at where you’ll fire.

Enemies range from other aircraft to tanks, with soldiers also trying to take potshots at you. One really frustrating enemy is a giant Rambo-like man that grabs of your helicopter, messing your controls and missiles up. On top of your shield, you also need to keep an eye on your fuel – take too long to finish a mission and you’ll fail.

You also have an assortment of weapons to choose from. Your performance in one level will affect how much money you can spend on weapons on the next. Those range to ground or air missiles, to other non-homing bombs and cluster missiles.

The missions rarely set themselves apart and the graphics are just ugly, coming across very poor for an N64 game. It’s all really muddy, blurry textures and levels are brown or grey. The story barely exists, even though the game treats the briefings in a very serious manner. You shoot one group of enemies and then a second group of enemies. The last mission is only available if you play on hard.

Like Aero Fighters Assault, aliens are suddenly involved, so your helicopter is sent to the moon on its own to save humanity. The moon doesn’t play or look any differently, and the alien ships are just random geometry.

Chopper Attack is a game where you can have a bit of fun with the gameplay, but only in short blasts as he game has no variety.

Fine

Chopper Attack isn’t great to look at. Its basic design if formulaic and predictable, and it’s hardly the most challenging game on the N64. And yet, somehow, its constituent ingredients mix and conspire to make it greater than the sum of its parts.

James Price, N64 Magazine #20. Review Score: 81%

Remake or remaster?

Just a standard emulated re-release is fine.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Chopper Attack