Tiger-Heli

1985 · Vertical Shooter · Arcade

Overview

Tiger-Heli (1985) is Toaplan's first shoot 'em up, a vertical helicopter shooter whose screen-clearing bomb became a staple of the genre.

Deep Dive

The player flies a Tiger attack helicopter whose missiles hit both air and ground targets, while bombs destroy enemies and their bullets within range. Shooting certain bunkers releases extra bombs or small helper helicopters: red ones fire to the sides, grey ones forwards. After four stages the game loops back to the second stage at a higher difficulty.

Developer Story

Masahiro Yuge, Tatsuya Uemura and Yuichirō Nozawa programmed the game, with music by Yuge and Uemura. Taito released it in October 1985, and Micronics converted it to the NES, which Acclaim published in North America in 1987. Twin Cobra followed in 1987.

Did You Know?

Game Machine listed it as the most popular arcade game in its 1 October 1985 issue.
The NES version reportedly sold more than a million copies in North America.