REVIEW: Lanneret (Hawk)
"Lanneret I helicopter got the task to execute one special task and save hostage. Lanneret I went through the domain of enemy and were attached by the enemy. The enemy possessed a mass of helicopters, tanks, blockhouse and army. Lanneret I is facing the challenge. Will it succeed in accomplishing the task?"
One of the things that makes Game King games such quirky collectible oddities is their very literal 'Engrish' translations. So when the rather oddly named Lanneret boots up to the usual little animation and the word 'Hawk' is emblazoned across the title screen it may prompt some confusion.
A bit of googling informed us that a Lanneret is a type of female hawk (the bird, not the helicopter), hence the lost in translation style confusion that occurs between the game and it's external packaging. What's immediately clearer upon pushing start is that, like so many Game King titles, Lanneret/Hawk is an ingenious clone of a previously existing title: in this case, it's a lo-fi re-rendering of the 8-bit classic Choplifter.
As in that game, you control a helicopter and must pilot it through vertically scrolling levels, rescuing hostages and blasting bad guys. As with many Game King clones, things have been simplified to fit the memory constraints of the little handheld. As such the game takes a more traditional fly from left to right route through it's stages than the source material, which let players fly in any direction at any time.
The screen only scrolls when you guide your helicopter forward. Doing so tilts the whirlybird down, altering the trajectory of your bullets. Flying backwards won't scroll the screen but it will tilt the helicopter up allowing for similar diagonal shooting.
Your gunship comes equipped with two types of firepower. A fast machine gun (B button) and a slower but more powerful missile (A Button). Choosing which to use does become necessary at certain parts of the game where quick thinking and twitch-like tactical movement become necessary to avoid and/or destroy enemies who will come at you whether you are scrolling the stage or not.
Enemies come in three flavours: Ground based grunts, enemy helicopters who move similarly to your own vehicle and missile launching tanks (who generally take two or three hits to kill). As with many Game King games these come in rather oddly proportioned sizes, with the soldiers looking like giants in comparison to the vehicles. A direct collision with any enemy will cause you to lose one of your three lives instantly. Your helicopter can absorb a certain degree of gun-fire but its maneuverability will suffer when damaged and it will begin slowly descending when the d-pad is left untouched.
A bit of googling informed us that a Lanneret is a type of female hawk (the bird, not the helicopter), hence the lost in translation style confusion that occurs between the game and it's external packaging. What's immediately clearer upon pushing start is that, like so many Game King titles, Lanneret/Hawk is an ingenious clone of a previously existing title: in this case, it's a lo-fi re-rendering of the 8-bit classic Choplifter.
As in that game, you control a helicopter and must pilot it through vertically scrolling levels, rescuing hostages and blasting bad guys. As with many Game King clones, things have been simplified to fit the memory constraints of the little handheld. As such the game takes a more traditional fly from left to right route through it's stages than the source material, which let players fly in any direction at any time.
The screen only scrolls when you guide your helicopter forward. Doing so tilts the whirlybird down, altering the trajectory of your bullets. Flying backwards won't scroll the screen but it will tilt the helicopter up allowing for similar diagonal shooting.
Your gunship comes equipped with two types of firepower. A fast machine gun (B button) and a slower but more powerful missile (A Button). Choosing which to use does become necessary at certain parts of the game where quick thinking and twitch-like tactical movement become necessary to avoid and/or destroy enemies who will come at you whether you are scrolling the stage or not.
Enemies come in three flavours: Ground based grunts, enemy helicopters who move similarly to your own vehicle and missile launching tanks (who generally take two or three hits to kill). As with many Game King games these come in rather oddly proportioned sizes, with the soldiers looking like giants in comparison to the vehicles. A direct collision with any enemy will cause you to lose one of your three lives instantly. Your helicopter can absorb a certain degree of gun-fire but its maneuverability will suffer when damaged and it will begin slowly descending when the d-pad is left untouched.
Lanneret lowers the rope to scoop up a hostage but risks a potentially fatal mid-air collision as it does so.
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The game's title screen, which identifies it's true name to be 'Hawk'.
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The Game King's limited pixel palette leads to some oddly proportioned enemies. Perhaps these soldiers are giant mechs?
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Along the way, and in Choplifter tradition, you must also rescue hostages who sit waving there arms and screaming at you (with voice samples that are quite possibly lifted from Cannon Fodder). This involves flying close to them to make a rope descend from your helicopter (in what is a neat graphical touch for the Game King) and scooping them up and onboard.
At the end of each stage you are faced with what the manual calls a "blockhouse". This is akin to a typical Contra-esque fortress whose gun turret must be taken out to progress to the next stage.
In what might be a genuine first for a Game King game, the game omits the usual loop of sampled music,instead choosing to use that part of the Game King's audio output to keep a steady rotor-blade sound effect going amid all of the other sound effects. It's a design choice that works and is in keeping with the mood of the game.
Lanneret's difficulty is taxing. Despite there only ever being a few enemies on screen at any time there is a constant sense of tension that one wrong move will see you explode and be sent back to either the start of the level or the mid-level check-point. The challenging difficulty means that, as of the writing of this review, we have yet to beat it so can't comment on how long the overall game is (although most Game-King side-scrollers are limited by memory constraints to three stages, so this would seem a good bet.) Despite the difficulty, however, the game rewards repeated plays and memorization of enemy patterns and has an addictive, "just one more go" quality to it.
It's a challenging, well made shooter that deserves it's place in your Game King collection...whatever its name actually is.
Score: 8/10
At the end of each stage you are faced with what the manual calls a "blockhouse". This is akin to a typical Contra-esque fortress whose gun turret must be taken out to progress to the next stage.
In what might be a genuine first for a Game King game, the game omits the usual loop of sampled music,instead choosing to use that part of the Game King's audio output to keep a steady rotor-blade sound effect going amid all of the other sound effects. It's a design choice that works and is in keeping with the mood of the game.
Lanneret's difficulty is taxing. Despite there only ever being a few enemies on screen at any time there is a constant sense of tension that one wrong move will see you explode and be sent back to either the start of the level or the mid-level check-point. The challenging difficulty means that, as of the writing of this review, we have yet to beat it so can't comment on how long the overall game is (although most Game-King side-scrollers are limited by memory constraints to three stages, so this would seem a good bet.) Despite the difficulty, however, the game rewards repeated plays and memorization of enemy patterns and has an addictive, "just one more go" quality to it.
It's a challenging, well made shooter that deserves it's place in your Game King collection...whatever its name actually is.
Score: 8/10
