Thunder Helix

I have been looking for a game like this for a long time. I started flying choppers in 1982 with Chopper Command. I graduated to Choplifter later that year. I was in the cockpit when Microprose released Gunship! in 1986 then Gunship 2000 in 1991. I was a big fan of the various arcade flight sims on the Sega Genesis, like F-22, and MIG29 games but I wanted to fly helicopters again and I was happy when Desert Strike made its debut on the 16 bit consoles of the day. Finally, LHX Attack Chopper was released and I was in heaven! A fun, light but challenging attack chopper flight sim that I could pick up and play. It served me well into the current day through emulation and DosBox. But it was old and didn't bring any new surprises. I eventually outgrew LHX and we parted ways. But man, I still wanted a fun, light and action packed chopper sim. Comanche Maximum Overkill just didn't vibe with me even though it was everything I wanted. So I started looking for games like Thunder Helix by searching for "games like LHX Attack Chopper" and this was the second result I got. The first was MH-Zombie and while that was close it was just to janky for me. So Thunder Helix it is! I love how responsive…

Off the bat, for people who are unaware, this game is not a simulator like Classic Elite or the old DOS Flight Sims. It is a very competent and enjoyable arcade style game. The Choppers were easy to control, with each having their own funny little handling quirks, and were extremely enjoyable to mess around with. The levels were fine with objectives being well explained and having a lot of detail, even had enough flair to them to keep me coming back. However, what was not enjoyable was trying to figure out the controls. That’s because this game does not have a tutorial, and it honestly desperately needs one. My first hour with this game was pure frustration and spamming google and Reddit for help. Nothing is explained, be it basic flight controls, weapons, camera controls, nothing. It’s my only gripe with the game, and it could be very easily fixed with a control scheme tab in the pause menu or even button prompts on the hud. A tip for controller players, select will toggle the camera between interior and exterior orbit cam, while holding select and pressing a face button will toggle between several different chase cameras. Would I recommend this game? Yes. If you’re in the mar…

You'll not find more fun to be had with 12.6mb while pretending you're the pilot in Desert Strike.

An excellent retro flight sim riffing off an era when those were actually fun. Highly recommend.

Fun retro helicopter sim. Runs great on old hardware or through pc emulation services like winlator or gamehub. Look forward to more updates/missions (or maybe a mission editor?), though already fun and playable as it is!

Excellent game. It works so well on Steam Deck. It took some time to click into the controls, but it's normal for me, coming from PC+mouse and all. One small piece of hope for the future - network multi-player. At least LAN 1vs1. It's just a hope, but if there are any such plans, I'd like to encourage it.