''Thunderhawk'', known as ''AH-3 Thunderstrike'' in North America (in Europe known as ''Thunderhawk AH-73M''), is a

combat flight simulation Combat flight simulators are vehicle simulation games, amateur flight simulation computer programs used to simulate military aircraft and their operations. These are distinct from dedicated flight simulators used for professional pilot and mili ...

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developed and published by Core Design and released for

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

and

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in 1992. A remake was made and published by JVC Musical Industries for Sega CD in 1993 and for

in 1996. An Atari Jaguar CD port was planned but never released. In the game, the player flies a fictional AH-73M attack helicopter.

Gameplay

The game consists of several

campaigns Campaign or The Campaign may refer to: Types of campaigns * Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed *Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme *Bl ...

for each one of ten world areas. The campaigns are themed around real events or activities in these areas (e.g. escorting a UN humanitarian convoy during the

Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...

, fighting pirates in the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...

, etc.) A typical campaign consists of four or five missions. Each mission has a primary objective that must be completed to successfully complete the mission, there are other targets in each missions such as tanks and

SAM Sam, SAM or variants may refer to: Places * Sam, Benin * Sam, Boulkiemdé, Burkina Faso * Sam, Bourzanga, Burkina Faso * Sam, Kongoussi, Burkina Faso * Sam, Iran * Sam, Teton County, Idaho, United States, a populated place People and fictional ...

launchers but these are only used to help the player boost their score. The primary target is usually a major structure like an enemy base or a bridge. Usually the player is equipped with a standard set of weapons - 16 missiles, 76 rockets, and a machine gun with unlimited ammunition. On some special missions the rockets are replaced by a weapon that is critical to the success of that particular mission, such as a runway cratering system when the primary objective is to destroy an airbase or a bomb when destruction of a bridge is the primary objective. The control system for ''Thunderhawk'' was fairly unusual for the platforms supporting a mouse. It used the mouse for basic control, plus some keyboard input for rarely used commands. Moving the mouse would tilt the helicopter in the specified direction, and make it start moving in that direction. Pressing the left mouse button fires weapons. When the right mouse button was held, moving the mouse up and down changed altitude, while side to side yawed the helicopter side to side.

Reception

The game received critical acclaim, and the Mega CD version was a bestseller in the UK. ''

Mega Mega or MEGA may refer to: Science * mega-, a metric prefix denoting 106 * Mega (number), a certain very large integer in Steinhaus–Moser notation * "mega-" a prefix meaning "large" that is used in taxonomy * Gravity assist, for ''Moon-Earth ...

'' placed the game at #1 in their Top Mega-CD Games of All Time, with the sequel ''

Battlecorps ''Battlecorps'' is a video game developed by Core Design and published by Time Warner for the Sega CD in 1994. Gameplay ''Battlecorps'' involves a walking robot in a variety of terrain, armed with a large number of different weapons. Player char ...

'' being fourth on the same list. '' Retro Gamer'' included it on their list of top ten Mega-CD games. ''

Next Generation Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to: Publications and literature * ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company * Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...

'' called it the best game release for Sega CD. In 1995,

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magazine ranked the Sega CD version 27th on their "Top 100 Video Games".

Sequels

''Thunderhawk'' spawned two sequels, '' Firestorm: Thunderhawk 2'' and '' Thunderhawk: Operation Phoenix''. ''Firestorm'' was created using the same game engine as the original ''Thunderhawk''. Another Core game, '' Shellshock'', also used the Thunderhawk engine.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thunderhawk (video game) 1992 video games Amiga games Bosnian War video games Cancelled Atari Jaguar games Combat flight simulators Core Design games DOS games Helicopter video games Sega CD games Square Enix franchises Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games set in Alaska Video games set in Asia Video games set in Bosnia and Herzegovina Video games set in Panama Video games set in South America Video games set in the Middle East