Jungle Strike Longplay (Mega Drive/Genesis) [60 FPS]
94Developed and published by Electronic Arts in 1993.
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Jungle Strike is the much anticipated sequel to Desert Strike, an isometric combat action game that sees the player take on the role as a hot-shot air-force pilot who is tasked with saving the USA from a terrorist plot to detonate nuclear armaments on U.S. soil.
The terrorists in question are Ibn Kilbaba, son of the dictator that you brought to justice in Desert Strike, and Carlos Ortega, an incredibly wealthy drugs baron with his own private army and serious military hardware. This unlikely couple have formed an alliance based on their shared hatred of America and plan to launch nuclear strikes against key targets in the US. When US intelligence detects the test firing of a of a nuke in the Pacific Ocean, you are quickly brought in to help neutralise the threat.
The game consists of nine separate missions, each consisting of eight or so separate objectives , including seek and destroy, escort and rescue tasks. If nothing else, the number of missions on offer means that the game will take a very long time to complete, offering excellent value for money in pure content terms.
Unlike it's predecessor, Jungle Strike provides considerably more variety in the climates and environments than the name first suggests. In fact, of the nine missions on offer, only three of these are set in actual jungle, with the rest being a combination of snow, desert and urban theatres.
The Apache AH-64 gunship that you piloted in Desert Strike makes way for the RAH-66 Comanche, although the change is little more than cosmetic. It's interesting to note that in reality, the Comanche project was cancelled after only two units were built and several billion dollars in defence funds had been spent on the project...
As before, your chopper is equipped with three different armaments, including cannon, Hydra and Hellfire missiles, each of which does different levels of damage to enemy targets and structures. Ammunition levels can be restocked by collecting ammo crates located throughout each level.
Although the cannon is the weakest weapon on paper, it quickly becomes a devastating weapon in the hands of the right co-pilot. Throughout the game, you will rescue members of your squadron who will then become your active co-pilot. Better co-pilots improve both cannon range and rate of fire, as well as the speed and precision with which they operate the Comanche's winch.
Also making a return is the limited fuel mechanic, requiring the player to constantly keep one eye on the remaining fuel and seeking out barrels to top up before running out. If your chopper runs out of gas then it crashes out of the sky and you lose a life. It's this mechanic that causes the most frustration throughout the game; whilst limited fuel is completely understandable and adds to the challenge of the game, it runs out far too quickly in my opinion. You'll find yourself using more fuel in the later levels simply locating caches of extra fuel than completing missions, which is my one chief annoyance with the game.
At this point, you might be thinking that this doesn't sound very different to Desert Strike. True enough, the core game sticks very firmly to the formula laid out in the original game, but there are some notable additions.
The most obvious of which is the inclusion of alternative vehicles that you get to pilot whilst on missions. These include a hovercraft, attack bike and an F117 stealth fighter, each of which introduces it's own control scheme and weapons. Although you will spend most of the game piloting the Comanche, these additional vehicles do add some variety to the game and keep things fresh throughout the lengthy campaign.
The game features some impressively detailed graphics for the time. Most of the vehicles are actually pre-rendered 3D models converted to a series of sprites and then imported into the game engine. These models never look out of place when placed on top of what I suppose are more traditionally drawn tile-sets for the environment.
The game's audio, too, is excellent. Effects are crisp, with your rockets firing with a great "whooshing" effect, whilst explosions are suitably violent and rumbling. What music there is in the game is of decent quality, but this is most definitely a game that focuses on sound effects, rather than tunes.
Of course, the real star of the show remains the fantastic flight control scheme programmed by Mike Posehn. There is a real sense of weight and inertia when piloting the Comanche and it just feels right; the flight controls really do feel spot on and make the game a joy to play.
With top production values, a brilliant control scheme and plenty of explosive action, Jungle Strike remains one of my favourite Mega Drive games of all time.
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