Tiger-Heli
Title screen
| Developer: | Toaplan |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | JP:Taito, NA: Romstar |
| Music: | Tatsuya Uemura |
| Release date: | July 1985 |
| Next game: | Slap Fight |
Tiger-Heli (タイガー・ヘリ) Is a vertically scrolling shoot-em-up developed by Toaplan and released in July of 1985. It is notable for being their very first shooting game, and was popular enough that it paved the way for the company to create even more and greater games, turning them one of the most well-known shoot-em-up developers of all time.
Despite the game's simplistic nature, it is very difficult, and often requires proper routing in order to get far into the game.
Gameplay Overview
Tiger-Heli is only four stages long, which each stage containing a large amount of tanks and turrets which the player must shoot down. Alongside them are various ground targets which can be shot for extra points (eg: rooftops, fences, jets). The player helicopter can fire up to 3 shots on screen, which have limited range up to half the screen's length. The helicopter is also equipped with two bombs on it's sides which can be used a create a large explosion, destroying all enemies and bullets in it's range. Additionally, certain ground targets can provide extra bonuses, such as extra bombs, firepower, and lives. There are no continues in Tiger-Heli.
By default, score extends are at 50000 and 120000 points.
All enemies that shoot behave exactly the same, which is to turn their barrels directly at the player and shoot immediately when the barrel lines up close enough. All enemy shots fire directly at the player. Bullet sealing is also not a thing, and you can get shot down at point-blank range. On stage 2 onward, larger boss-type enemies will start appearing, which quickly shoot groups of two bullets: one aimed and one at an offset angle.
Controls
The titular Tiger-Heli helicopter can move in 8 directions at a rather sluggish pace. The speed can be altered through a DIP switch setting.
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- A Fire a shot
- B Launch bomb
Hitbox
The player hitbox is fairly large, which covers most the of the helicopter. The bombs attached to the helicopter have their own hitbox, and when hit, will explode on their own.
Little-Helis that have been picked up can also be shot down.
Power-Ups
The player always starts with two bombs.
All power-ups are acquired through destroying flashing ground targets. Aside from the diamonds, The target will cycle between three different colors which corresponds to a specific power-up. Destroying the ground target will drop a power-up from the top of the screen that is dependent of what color the target was. Little-Helis provide extra firepower to the helicopter, with the first Little-Heli picked up being on the left, and the second on the right. Only two bombs and Little-Helis can be active.
Each stage ends with a point bonus of 5000 per Bomb and Little-Heli.
| Item | Desciption |
|---|---|
 |
Periodically appears and disappears at fixed locations. Shoot down 10 of these to earn an extend. |
  |
Summons a white Little-Heli to pick up, which shoots straight forward. |
  |
Summons a red Little-Heli to pick up, which shoots sideways. |
  |
Summons a Bomb pickup. |
Loops
Tiger-Heli loops indefinitely. After completing the first loop, all loops afterwards will start on Stage 2.
Ports
Infamously, Tiger-Heli was ported to the NES a year later, which was developed by Micronics. This version is known for it's bugs and very choppy frame rate. Despite this, it is somewhat playable.
An accurate port was brought to the original PlayStation in the Toaplan Shooting Battle 1 compilation in 1996 by Banpresto. This compilation also includes Kyuukyoku Tiger.
Today, M2's Toaplan Arcade Garage series on the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 also includes Tiger-Heli, which includes gadgets that provide extra game-information.
