Beebug


Skyhawk

Categories: Review: Software
Author: Geoff Bains
Publisher: Pace Ltd
Machine: BBC Model B

 
Published in Beebug Volume 4 Number 2

Skyhawk (Pace)

Skyhawk is a version of the old arcade game, 'Airlift'. You control a rescue helicopter that has to pick up the luckless survivors of a nearby tank battle (apparently only the enemy have tanks. Your side is equipped with rescue helicopters). These must then be flown back to the safety of your Red Cross base where your chopper is refuelled too.

Unfortunately, the enemy has little regard for the niceties of the Geneva Convention and will do his best to destroy your craft and passengers with his tanks, aircraft and barrage balloons (yes, barrage balloons! Nobody said that this was realistic.)

The barrage balloons can be avoided without too much effort and the tanks are easily dispatched with the usual arsenal of a Red Cross helicopter - bombs and a forward facing missile launcher - the fighter planes, however, are a different story and have an uncanny knack at being very successful. Fortunately they are not scrambled until you have at least rescued a few of the wounded.

The graphics in Skyhawk are excellent. There are three planes of movement in this game which gives the overall picture a very realistic effect - as your chopper moves you can see through the windows of the bombed out houses, the distant hills move in parallax. The characters are well designed to the point of being cute.

The action is smooth and fast as well and this game should provide a good challenge to any budding chopper pilot.

Geoff Bains

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