Desert Strike

When you pause Desert Strike, a map showing the entire current level, along with all the important stats of the Apache, comes up. Even with all of these great statistics that are available for viewing, you'll need to be looking at the map the majority of the time. The map tells you how many of each kind of weapon you have left, how much fuel is swishing around in the tank, your current armor supply, how many people you've picked up, how many lives you have left, and your current score.

As you probably figured, there are many items you can pick up and use in each level. There are fuel crates, ammo crates, armor repairs, an item that makes your ladder go up and down faster, and the very hard to find extra lives. To pick up an item, you just have to fly over and come to a halt right above any item. A ladder automatically drops down from your helicopter to steal the ground-ridden prize. You can also pick up people, whether it's an MIA, a prisoner, or even an enemy on the run. The helicopter can hold up to six extra passengers at a time. At any time, you can head over to a landing zone (represented by a white X on the ground) in order to drop the people off.

Don't let the fact that Desert Strike only has four levels scare you off. All four of the levels are huge, and they have several challenging and fun objectives to complete. Even if you're not super crazy about games in which you control an aircraft or games about war, give Desert Strike a chance.

Overview

Desert Strike, the popular action/adventure game that brought the Middle Eastern struggle into your Genesis home front, now moves to your Game Gear battle zone. Desert Strike for the Game Gear, from Domark Software, features smooth controllability and complex missions that score big on the little screen.

You're an ace pilot manning a state-of-the-art chopper armed with a variety of missiles and guns. Your mission: To wipe out the Desert Madman...lock, stock and barrel...before he unleashes his deadly and dangerous nuclear attack for world domination.

You will fly four complex campaigns of increasing difficulty In addition to taking out radar installations, blowing up command centers and capturing enemy commanders, you will also have to rescue hostages and POWs, and do some mighty fine sharp-shooting to prevent the world's largest oil spill. Your chopper is equipped with an Overview Map, detailing enemy targets and supplies...but some of your supplies are behind enemy lines. Get set to fly the not-so-friendly skies!

Review the Overview Maps as soon as you start your mission. Press Pause to see the first map, then press D-Button Right to scroll through the other maps to see the locations of enemy targets, landing zones, and fuel and ammo supplies. Press D-Button Down once to get information about your mission, then again to get your mission status.

Hot Hints:

1. Your guns have a longer range than missiles. Adjust your position whenever you use them.
2. When rescuing hostages, MIAs and POWs, your max load of passengers is six. Drop off passengers at safe landing zones, then pick up the rest.
3. Check out the enemy's military equipment on your mission maps and information screen. Info such as the equipment's armor rating will tell you whether to use your missiles or guns to take it out.
4. Always take out the enemy's radar sites first. When its radar is active, the enemy has increased range.
5. Do your missions in the order given. Those are your orders.