BlackShark 2 Siberia

Have you ever wanted to fly dangerous missions into snow covered wastelands with nothing much more than a helicopter armed with bombs and missiles? Then if so, BlackShark 2 Siberia is what you’ve been waiting for.

This game is a horizontally scrolling game where you must fly into increasingly dangerous as well as bigger, more elaborate caves and open spaces. Hazards come from all angles, from the ground you are shot at by men, trucks, missiles, submarines and more, in the air you will come up against planes and guided missiles, and from above, you’ll have to dodge canons and other nasty weapons. That’s not all, you must learn to handle your helicopter with quite a bit of care as the ground and ceiling of caves as well as man-made structures will all spell sudden disaster should you touch them.

Although your mission in simplest terms is ‘kill them all – oh and don’t forget to destroy the nuclear missiles’, you will need to use a mixture of speed, positioning as well as judgement. Your cannons are unlimited in ammo but your bombs and rockets are not. Fortunately there are a couple of power-ups to pick up along the way, the most important is the fuel cans which appear, and the other is the bomb symbol which tops up your bombs.

Your helicopter tracks forward (and points its nose downwards) when you press right or 6, the chopper moves backwards (and points its nose upwards) when you press left or 4, you can move up and down by pressing the d-pad accordingly or hitting 2 and 8. Fire is set as automatic but can be switched to manual, however you will find keeping it on is by far the easiest way as it leaves you free to move around and clear the levels. Should you want to drop a bomb, you press the # button and to use a missile (once you’ve upgraded) you press the * button.

Speaking of upgrades, you are rewarded at the end of a successful mission by cold hard cash which you can use to improve your helicopter. These range in a variety of ways, offensively you can improve the cannon to fire two rounds at a time, you can upgrade a diagonal machine gun which will help clear ground units as you go, armour piercing missiles, guided missiles and the superbomb (which kills all on screen – press softkey 1 to activate). Defensively, you can buy light, medium and heavy armour too – which will mean you can take more hits before hitting the dirt. Lastly you can improve the capacity of your chopper by upgrading its fuel storage and bomb limit – in both instances you double the capability.

If you remember the classic game of Silkworm, this is just about the same thing however the graphics are actually a little better (despite it being on a smaller screen). To sum things up then, this is a great shoot-‘em-up which will keep many guys happy. The levels are tricky but with enough practice you’ll be able to accomplish the mission. Your helicopter is pretty flimsy when taking hits or being crashed into by planes, so there are the frequent instances where you’ll probably tear your hair out in frustration – especially if you’ve managed to get to the end of a level.

Rating 87%

Positives

Great graphics

Excellent fun and highly addictive

Unlimited lives – so you can continue wherever you left off should you bite the dirt

Every level’s different

Negatives

Sudden death when you’re hit (although it doesn’t always touch you)

Buying upgrades isn’t as clear as it could be