reviews

Game: Jungle Strike
Platform: SNES
Year Released: 1995

You didn’t think we here at HeyKidNice00.19-ervision would let a little thing like Sarah being on a plane to Seattle stop us from reviewing a game for Throwback Thursday did you? Today I bring you one of the finest games to ever grace a 16-bit console, Jungle Strike. This was the second game in the long running Strike series, which started with Desert Strike and ended with Nuclear Strike. Some may say it should’ve ended with Urban Strike (the third game in the series), but we all know EA loves to churn out franchises as long as they’re making money. Anyway, many of my days as a teenager were spent trying to actually finish this game. The question was, did this game hold up to the memory?

Once I remembered how to hook up the SNES (it’s not my fault, there’s just so many other system cables behind the retro gaming TV I couldn’t figure out which one was running to the system), it was time to get back in the cockpit to save the world one more time. Picking up some time after the events of Desert Strike, Jungle Strike has you stopping an invasion of Washington, DC from terrorist leader, Kilbaba (the kid of the guy you finished off in the first game). You take flight in your RAH-66 Commanche, and set off to defend the great capital of our nation. Given that this is only a 16-bit game, the grand city of Washington ends up being nothing more than a lot of grassy knolls with the occasional gas station or national monument to “spice” things up a bit. The game uses the innovative-at-the-time isometric camera, so there’s an illusion of 3-D space in this rather bland 2-D world.

Once you take off, you’ll find that controlling a helicopter with a D-pad isn’t as easy as you thought it was all those years ago. Or maybe it was, but life with an analog stick has completely ruined my perspective. Flying around a less than architecturally amplified city may not sound too much like a jungle mission, but the opening is more a tutorial and set-up for the rest of the game. In this first level you’ll learn the difference between the different types of terrorist vehicles and weapons, as well as having a chance to familiarize yourself with the controls and nuances of game’s features. Not only do you have to learn to shoot while avoiding ground-to-air missiles, but you need to make ammo and fuel pick-ups with your winch. Once you complete the first level, which includes protecting the Presidential motorcade, your higher-ups decide to take the fight to Kilbaba in the jungles of South America

Once you make it to the jungles, not only do you get to fly your chopper, but you take control of a hovercraft, a motorcyle, and eventually you’ll find yourself behind the stick of an F-117 Nighthawk. I’ll admit I cheated a little to get to these levels by using a password. I’m not ashamed to admit my skills as a chopper pilot have severely diminished over the years, but that doesn’t mean the game wasn’t just as fun to play today. I don’t think I ever finished the game as a kid, and I certainly couldn’t finish it now. But that was one of my favorite things about this series. These games were tough, but thoroughly enjoyable to play. These are the types of games I think today’s gamers are really missing out on.

Hopefully one day, someone in charge of either Live Arcade or the PSN will notice how well these games sold, and just how well they would sell again if offered as a download. I know the markets are full of retro games right now, but if Galaga and Pac-Man can garner updates, what’s stopping EA from putting a spit-shine on one of the Strike games? Until then, I guess I’m stuck plugging the old cartridge into the SNES, and making those terrorists pay.

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