GBAtemp Recommends #81 Desert Strike (Rauly is sexy btw)

Welcome to the 81st issue of the GBAtemp Recommends Revival Project! This is a weekly feature where we share some our favourite games and the occasional "something else". Some may be well known, others I feel have been ignored but all are fantastic and deserve at least a play.



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Due to what seems a lack of interest I've decided to drop the "under appreciated" NES titles and have just gone on to the next title and this time something a bit more well known but still awesome...Desert Strike, a EA title back before they were evil and then went none evil back to being "evil" again.

I first encounter Desert Strike when I saw it a UK Channel 4 TV show called Games Master which was this competition based video game show which ended up spawning the magazine of the same name that is still going today and has become more well known than it's TV counterpart. I though it looked "shit hot" and it was by EA, back then EA was cool they were making games for gamers by gamers and treated it's staff like artists (much like Activision were back then) plus they made great games for home computers...this game was for the Mega Drive which I didn't have because my Dad was into pirating the shit out of games and not spending 40-50 quid on one game so we had a home computer which by then was an Amiga 500. My mate Darren Edwards had a Mega Drive and a mother who was rich so as always I got him to get the game! Man was those EA MD carts cool! They had some yellow thing attached to them to make them stand apart from the rest...later I found out it was because it enabled them to get more royalties...but still they looked rad.



Desert Strike is an isometric helicopter action title set during the Gulf War...that shit was popular back in the early 90's and EA wanted to cash in on that along with those Hollywood types. It depicts an imaginary tale of a "insane" Middle Eastern dicator named General Kilbaba who is this dickhead who does evil stuff and the US army who are obviously good, so good that they want to help the people of the Gulf from this twatmonger out of the goodness of their hearts...AND NOTHING ELSE!

It's quite straight forward game to play. Your helicopter is taken to a certain location in the Gulf and you're given a set of missions to complete. These missions could be to destroy a milatary base, destroy some communiation titles, find some MIA soldiers etc. You do this by flying this badass Apache Helicopter which is armed by a chain gun, Hydra rockets and chuffing awesome Hellfire rockets, none of theser are infinite however so you must manage these appropriately but you can collect ammo supplies throughout the location. As well as managing your shooters, you must also make sure you have enough fuel during your missions and also make sure that you're armour isn't too "shot for shit", again like with ammo you can collect extra fuel and armour during those missions. All of this requires you to plan how you go about completing missions and using a certain level of strategy to accomplish them. The gameplay is quite "sandboxy" as in when you are at the location you can either go and do your mission (which you can do in any order, and even abandon and go back to finish later) or just fly around and shoot building and stuff. This was quite a rarity in a military themed game and us 90's kids loved that. Once you have done all of your missions in a location, you return to the ship that got your there and you go to the next location.

Graphically it's very clean and well made, some of the objects including your Apache were actually created in 3D models first and then touched up with sprite work afterwards. This suits the isometric viewpoint and creates a somewhat more authentic look. The sound creates a good atomosphere with loud gunshots, bangs and a your Apache is one of the more well known hellicopter noises in gaming. Music is kept to the none gameplay parts of the game such as menus and briefing for an added "realistic" effect.

Overall this was a fantastic game that is still a lot of fun to play now, it's aged pretty damn well. Desert Strike was ported to many many consoles after debuting on the Mega Drive/Genesis but for me that version was the best, EA just seem to make the best versions of games for Sega's 16-bit console. The other versions were pretty good, especially the SNES version, the Amiga version had improved graphics but it ran bit to slowly for me. Also the 8-bit versions for the Gameboy, Game Gear & Master Systemperformed admiraby and contain the same great gameplay. GBA verson was released in 2002 and is also pretty damn great, the best for a handheld however if you're emulating this on a DS, PSP whatever I'd still go with the MD/Genesis game as the colours of the GBA game were a bit too washed out and bright.

The game spawn four more games which included more variety in locales & more vehicles to control. Both Jungle Strike & Urban Strike followed the same isometric gameplay and were a lot of fun, in fact Jungle Strike could have been featured here as I prefer it but instead I felt that the first game should have been featured. The series made the jump to 32-bit with Soviet Strike for the Saturn & PlaySation. This moved the gameplay to 3D with a more overhead perspective and has a much better enemy AI. This game was also fantastic, though it did have mixed reviews I personally feel that it was one of better war games of the day. Nuclear Strike was on the N64, PC & PlayStation and was a worthless piece of shit that killed the series however near the end of the game it did show a trailer for Future Strike which was erm...set in the future and you controlled a mech robot, this was never released but the game did "evolve" into the PlayStation title Future Cop:LAPD and you still controlled a mech robot. That game was shitty, but still a shame that EA killed this series (along with Road Rash) as I would love a new one but then they'd probably make it linear as shit with a dubstep them so maybe it's best that it's dead'

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Platform MD/Genesis and then SNES, Amiga, GB,GBA,Master System, Game Gear, PC, PSP Atari Lynx, Mac.
Released 1992
Developer Electronic Arts
Publisher Electronic Arts
Genre Isometric free roaming shooter

 

Yeah the control wasn't great on the Amiga, joystick sucks for this game...btw somethingsexualaboutjoysticks.

 

There was SNES versions, even GB & GG versions.