Fireblade, Nintendo GameCube

Released for the Playstation 2 way back in June 2002, Fireblade finally makes its way to Nintendo's little magic box and, in the same way as the previous version, delivers a tribute to the multitude of helicopter-based shoot-'em-ups of the 16 bit era. Mimicking titles such as Desert Strike and Nuclear Strike, the game follows pretty much the same simple premise: get in the cockpit - if it moves, blast it. If it doesn't move, blast it anyway. With a total of 18 missions, played across four large campaigns, Fireblade sets the player the directives of keeping the peace, fighting an evil army and generally saving the free world from all things unsavoury. And blasting stuff. The environments within have an emphasis on realism, with day and night objectives, changing weather conditions and real-world locations, such as the Arizona desert and the Amazon jungle. In much the same way as the battle scene of any given Airwolf episode, the action follows the chopper in third person as its blasts its way across the landscape. Featuring swarm missiles, auto guns, sniper cannons and EMP dampening weapons as just a sample of the available weaponry, it's clear to see that there's a fair amount of explosive action on offer. Fireblade is a true-to-its-roots action title. Offering no amount of pretentiousness, it faithfully recreates the arcade action of the Megadrive/SNES era for the latest generation of gaming hardware. Some may argue that the consumer demands more these days but if a simple, helicopter-based blast-a-thon is what you're after, Fireblade is ideal.

Buy Fireblade for 2.99 GBP

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