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"First Released: Mega Drive, SNES, Amiga (1993) Now Available On: PSP (as part of the EA Replay Collection)  The Strike series - created by Mike Posehn, John Patrick Manley and Tony Barnes for Electronic Arts - was the Call of Duty of its day. The franchise sold millions of copies and garnered widespread critical acclaim; not bad for a helicopter shoot &amp;#039;em up.  Jungle Strike followed Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf, and was succeeded by Urban, Soviet and Nuclear Strikes. Inspired by Matchbox toys and the vintage Choplifter game from the 1980s, the series was unashamedly arcade-focused and hugely fun to play.  Whilst Desert Strike was based on the Gulf War, Jungle Strike conjured its own original story challenging you to take down two international bad eggs; South American drugs kingpin Carlos Ortega and Ibn Kilbaba, the son of the baddie in Desert Strike, who again looked just like Saddam Hussein.   After being blown away by Desert Strike, I can remember eagerly awaiting my copy of Jungle Strike to arrive in the post via mail order (yes, I am rather old). Thankfully, I wasn&amp;#039;t disappointed. For anyone who missed the Strike games, you played from an isometric view controlling a Super Comanche attack helicopter and were tasked with taking down targets, rescuing people and completing other dangerous jobs.  The futuristic yet also really tinny electronic score was brilliant, and the 2D cutscenes had a certain hokey charm, particularly the opening one where Kilbaba uses a nuclear bomb to blow up a South American island filled with poorly animated monkeys. But whilst Jungle Strike was praised for its graphics and presentation, the game was also criticised for its political viewpoints. Players are unashamedly hammered with pro-America, right-wing views over the course of the campaign, as though the story was written by George Bush Snr himself.   All the clich\u00E9s are rocked out about terrorists and global criminals. Ortega and Kilbaba talk in thick accents about nuclear plots and dastardly deeds, which just seems horribly out of step in today&amp;#039;s world and, to be honest, probably felt pretty jingoistic back then. Oh, and they are also idiots. &amp;quot;Destroying Washington DC will teach the Yankees to stay out of my drug trade,&amp;quot; Ortega tells his new ally-in-crime.  Now, I have never met a drug lord, but I rather think they don&amp;#039;t talk like that. Plus, what is the point in wiping out a US city when America is the primary market of his &amp;quot;drug trade&amp;quot;. Come on guys, this is criminal 101 here. In Jungle Strike, the player took on the role of a Special Operations pilot fighting off attacks on home soil in Washington DC and taking the battle right to Ortega&amp;#039;s back door at his jungle fortress.  The game was a helicopter-based shoot &amp;#039;em up, but also praised for the mix of action and strategy. Over the various missions, you had to use the chopper&amp;#039;s machine guns, Hydra or Hellfire rockets to take down enemy weapons or military infrastructure. Thanks to great gameplay, this was always fun and engaging.   But the trick was that you had to choose the right weapon for the job at hand, bringing a sense of strategy and tactics to the gameplay. You also had to select a co-pilot from a range of profiles, each with different skills and weaknesses.  The Super Comanche had a limited amount of armour, which was run down by getting hit, although it could be regained by airlifting rescued hostages or captured enemy fighters to a landing zone, giving a good incentive to take on these side challenges.  The craft also had a finite amount of fuel and ammo, although these too could be resupplied by winching up ammo crates or fuel barrels dotted around the levels. Alongside the chopper, you got to control a motorbike, hovercraft and F-117 jet.  Jungle Strike really was fantastic, and a worthy addition to the Strike series. It was followed by Urban Strike, which introduced on-foot missions but unfortunately lost some of the magic of the first two titles. Although I mail ordered that game and was just as excited when it arrived, playing it only just made me want to give Jungle Strike another spin. Do you have any fond memories of Jungle Strike? Add a comment to the space below!      "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/retro-corner/news/a407533/retro-corner-jungle-strike/>