Choplifter (Atari 7800 review)

Developer: Ibid, Inc.
Publisher: Atari Corporation
Released: 1987

Choplifter is a scrolling shooter that was originally released on the Apple II in 1982.

+ Gameplay is immersive, in large part due to its hook of testing your ability to return all 64 hostages to base.

+ Travelling deeper and deeper into enemy territory is nerve-wracking and making it out alive is extremely gratifying.

+ Tanks are more menacing than the Atari 5200 port (1984) due to their size, with the upshot being that they're easier to hit.

+ Significant visual upgrade from the Atari 5200 version and there's some cute graphical flourishes that add character.

- Takes an age for the hostages to exit your vehicle and it's bothersome how much it slows down the action.

- There's some dreadful slowdown when flying straight-on, and enemy jets fly in too quickly to competently react.

- Two-player option is absent, there's only one difficulty setting and no additional modes have been added.