Review Tiger-Heli (Atari 7800) - There Are Better Ways To Play, But That's Hardly The Point

Toaplan's Tiger-Heli is rightly regarded as one of the most influential shmups of all time, so it's somewhat surprising that it hasn't been ported to more home consoles. For many years, Micronics' much-maligned NES port was the only way to experience it outside of the arcade, and while it has made its way onto several compilations in subsequent years, the lack of '80s ports is curiously at odds with Tiger-Heli's sizeable impact on the genre.

One console which really could have done with a port of the game back in the day was the Atari 7800, which struggled to replicate the commercial performance of its forerunner, the 2600. Thankfully, Atari and Plaion – with assistance from the super-talented programmer Bruno Steux – have corrected this oversight a few decades down the line.

Published with Toaplan's blessing (well, it's technically Tatsujin's blessing, the company founded by former staffer Masahiro Yuge, which owns the IP), the Atari 7800 version of Tiger-Heli is a towering technical achievement, even if it pales in comparison to the original arcade version. In terms of gameplay and challenge, it's as close a match as you could possibly hope for on a console designed in 1984 – the year before Tiger-Heli arrived in arcades.

Outside of the visual downgrade, the fact that the playing area fills the screen horizontally rather than vertically is the most significant difference, but it never feels like it impacts the action too much. Your craft is capable of firing bullets and launching bombs; these can also be detonated by enemy shots, depending on where they hit your chopper (oo-er).

Mini-helicopters can be collected, which fire either vertically or horizontally, and these are massively helpful when it comes to tackling the waves of ground-based enemies which flood the screen. If you collect enough bonus items, you'll earn an extra life.

As a 7800 game, Tiger-Heli is undeniably impressive; you can certainly see the original coin-op's visual design shining through, despite running on humbler hardware. It even includes a POKEY chip for music, which is pretty incredible for a 7800 soundtrack. The elephant in the room is the fact that it's not 1985 anymore, and there are other, superior ways to experience Toaplan's shmup debut.

It's on the PS1 as part of Toaplan Shooting Battle 1, and, more recently, came to modern platforms in M2's Kyukyoku Tiger-Heli. You can also play it on the Evercade family of systems via Toaplan Arcade 1. All of these ports are arcade perfect, which renders the 7800 version somewhat redundant, unless you're in the (very unlikely) position of only having a 7800 in your home.

Still, that's rather missing the point; there are plenty of Atari fans out there who love to see the company's vintage hardware pushed to new limits – and it's fun to see the 7800 stretch its legs with such a robust, enjoyable and downright difficult shooter.