Desert Strike Advance

Now, nearly ten years later, Desert Strike has been released on everyone's favorite mini-SNES: the Game Boy Advance.  Is it everything I hoped it'd be?  You'd better believe it!  Sure, Desert Strike is a port, but it just happens to be one of the best ports out there.

The helicopter movement is pretty standard these days, but back then, it was quite revolutionary.  In some ways, it's a little reminiscent of Resident Evil's control scheme.  The Left and Right directional buttons turn your helicopter left and right, but you're stationary the whole time.  The only way to move forward or backwards is by pressing up or down.  So if your helicopter is pointing toward the bottom left corner, then that's the direction you'll fly in when you press Up.  Landing is done automatically when you are near a launch pad, but only if you have a fellow soldier that needs to be dropped off.  This combination of movements is just about perfect.

On the other hand, the weapon accuracy is somewhat lacking.  If an enemy troop is standing near a building, your missiles and machine gun fire will almost always be redirected to the enemy troop, even if you're aiming right at the building.  Sometimes this happens when the enemy isn't even visible (because of the GBA's smaller screen, and hardware limitations, you must fly around a lot to see each enemy).   This is a problem that existed in the original 9 years ago.  That doesn't make it okay, but it makes it a little easier to deal with.  I would have preferred that Electronic Arts update the game a little more and fix this small (but annoying) mistake.  It's not enough to take away from the game's greatness though, which is probably why they didn't feel the need to fix it.

The first level throws you right into the middle of the action with five fairly complex mission objectives.  These missions range from easy (destroy two radar towers) to very difficult (fly into a danger zone, avoid enemy fire, take out as many enemies as possible and destroy their base).  There is no break, no save point or any other way to prevent your progress from being lost if you die (you get three lives, but trust me, they're going to deplete faster than you can react).  This makes the Desert Strike all the more challenging.

Enemies are smart.  They don't wait around for you to start firing at them.  If they see you, they'll open fire immediately.  There are missile launcher-protected towers at almost every enemy base and tons of armored vehicles, as well as a few stray troops (who have enough firepower to take you down).  Your only hope is to dodge their fire, quickly retaliate and find as much ammo as you can.

That reminds me, I forgot to mention that your ammo is very limited, as is your fuel.  When your ammo runs out, you can't fight; and when your fuel tank is empty...I think you can figure this one out for yourself, right?  If your fuel tank is completely full, you'll have about 100-140 seconds to fly around and kick some butt.  There are lots of fuel cans and a few ammo packs dispersed in each level, but most of them are far away or hidden inside of enemy buildings.  You could blow up buildings all day and never find more than a single ammo pack.  The more time you waste blowing up buildings, the more fuel you'll lose (not to mention the wasted ammo!).

In many ways, this isn't a game of war; it's a game of survival.  But I love it.  It's the perfect car trip game.  I haven't been on a car trip in years, and I haven't been on a plane since I was 12, but I have been in plenty of boring situations.  Desert Strike would have been the perfect solution to all of them.  Usually I find myself over-praising an old game that I haven't played in years, and then when I finally get to play it again, I'm disappointed.  But Desert Strike is actually better than I remembered.  EA should have never stopped making "Strike" games.  I hope the acclaim that they receive for Desert Strike Advance encourages them to take the series to the next level and develop an all-new game for PlayStation 2.  A new portable Strike game couldn't hurt either.

Gameplay: 8
Desert Strike's classic gameplay is fully retained in this GBA port.  This is one of the most enjoyable ultra-challenging games ever made.  If you've never had the pleasure of playing this game before, then do yourself a favor and get it now.  I like this version the best of all the console versions (SNES, Genesis, etc.) because I can play it wherever I go.

Graphics: 6.9 
The graphics look good, but some of the troops are way too hard to distinguish from one another.  Aside from the little white line (an extremely small rocket launcher) that the enemies carry, it's almost impossible to tell them apart.  Enemy troops are green, and your allies are brown, but the GBA is too dark for those colors to really stand out.

However, the ships, explosions, tanks and backgrounds are nearly as impressive as the console versions.

Sound: 7
The sound quality itself is not very good, but I love the music.  I had completely forgotten about how good this game's music was, but the minute the title screen appeared, I knew that I had heard (and loved) that song before.

Difficulty: Hard
This game must have been what inspired Master P to write his famous rap song, "Make 'Em Say Ugh."  Seriously, Desert Strike is one of the most challenging games ever made.  It's challenging without frustration, a rarity these days.

Concept: 6.5 
Among other original concepts that were developed this year, Desert Strike doesn't stack up; but when it comes to ports, this is by far one of the best available.

Overall: 8
When humans are reborn in Resident Evil, they become flesh-eating freaks that should be destroyed immediately.  When old SNES games are reborn on the Game Boy Advance, gamers find themselves re-immersed in the classic games that once ruled the industry.  Every Strike-lover should buy this game, but if you already own the SNES version and hate to spend more money, convince your friend to buy it so that you can "borrow" it from him!  You probably won't want to give it back, though...