Since Alex Kidd is oddly relevant this year, today we’re going back to an Attack Helicopter Week of years past to look at one of the most innovative stages from SEGA’ flagship title for the Master System, Alex Kidd in Miracle World. In the mid to late 80s, the SEGA Master System was the underdog in a sales race with
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Welcome back to Attack Helicopter Week here at The Splintering! We previously reviewed Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf in Attack Helicopter Weeks of years past, so this year, we’re diving into that game’s sequel: Jungle Strike for SEGA Genesis. Published by Electronic Arts in 1993 for multiple platforms, Jungle Strike: The Sequel to Desert Strike is very much like
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Welcome to a special Attack Helicopter Week edition of Art Highlight, a recurring segment where contributors to The Splintering showcase a piece of original art in their collection. In honor of this week’s theme, I am revealing a gem from my vault, the original splash art page to Fantastic Four #316, Page #3. This page is an absolute beauty and
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Welcome back to Attack Helicopter Week here at The Splintering, where we celebrate all things attack helicopter, whether good or bad! And today we have “bad” in spades, folks, as we’ve chosen to subject ourselves to critiquing Airwolf published by… Acclaim. (*Shudder!*) So everyone find your seat, buckle up, and keep your hands close to yourself, because it’s going to
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Welcome back to Attack Helicopter Week here at The Splintering! Today, we’re taking off with Choplifter for the SEGA Master System. We previously reviewed Jaleco’s Nintendo Famicom port of Choplifter a while back, so let’s take a gander at how SEGA’s Master System port fares compared to its 8-bit contemporary. (Spoilers! – Pretty damn well) Among side-scrolling shooters, Choplifter is
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We love our theme events here at The Splintering, like Festival of Dread, Jolly Jinglings, and Monochrome May, but sometimes people ask me, “Why do you do an Attack Helicopter Week?” To which I answer, “Why do you hate attack helicopters, ya’ bigot!?” Do we need a reason to celebrate all of the contributions to our society that have been
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Is the opposite of Under Defeat, Over Achieve?
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Klabater have released Heliborne – Enhanced Edition, an updated version of their helicopter-based combat game originally released in 2017. The Enhanced Edition comes with a variety of goodies, including new content, enhancements, and all of the game’s DLC packs. The price of this new, girthier package has been increased to $29.99, but if you already purchased the game, all of
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There’s quite a selection of SEGA’s 3D Classics line on the Nintendo 3DS: After Burner, Space Harrier, Fantasy Zone II; many of them are considered to be highly-regarded classics, but Thunder Blade isn’t usually part of the conversation when SEGA fans reminisce about the company’s glorious arcade past. Why is that? I contend that one reason is that Thunder Blade
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Welcome back to Attack Helicopter Week here at The Splintering. Today were reaching back into the retro gaming vault to discuss the Top Ten best helicopter boss battles. Without further ado, let’s get started! 10. Rambo (NES) Rambo for the Nintendo Entertainment System isn’t a great game. The titular hero seems to spend far more time killing bees and tigers
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Welcome back to The Splintering’s Attack Helicopter Week. I wish we were meeting again under better circumstances… When I don’t or can’t fully complete a game, I try not to call my critical write-ups “reviews”, and instead opt for the term “impressions”. I did not finish Preventative Strike, and I’m not sorry. Developed by TocanaDev, Preventative Strike is an old-school,
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Welcome back to Attack Helicopter Week here at The Splintering! Today, we’re going to feature an old-school shooter close to my heart, Tiger Heli! When my family first got an NES, it was a Christmas gift from my aunt and uncle. With it, we received three, non-Mario related games: Rad Racer, Hogan’s Alley, and Tiger Heli. Nice spread, right? That
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Welcome back to Attack Helicopter Week here at The Splintering! We certainly hope that you’ve been enjoying some of our gaming content celebrating the best of our fine, attack helicopteroid friends! Every now and again, we at The Splintering are going to lean on our mascot, Chomp the Termite, to go out into the world of myth and fiction to
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Welcome to The Splintering’s Attack Helicopter Week. With 2020 being the 30th anniversary of Saddam Hussein invading Kuwait, it makes sense to mark the occasion with one of the games inspired by that short-lived conflict. Published by Electronic Arts in 1992, Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf is a slower-paced, isometric shooter released for multiple platforms. While it was inspired
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We’ve done several theme months here at The Splintering (the Festival of Dread, Jolly Jinglings, and Monochrome May), but we’ve also decided to bring back our retro-gaming theme event Attack Helicopter Week! Why? Do we need a reason? It’s a wacky time, so let’s have some equally wacky fun. Attack Helicopter Week will be a celebration of all things helicopters,
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Welcome back to Attack Helicopter Week here at The Splintering. Before we start with the review, let’s play a little game… One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn’t belong. Space Harrier – After Burner – Hang On – Out Run – Thunder Blade Can you tell which thing is not like the
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Welcome to yet another review celebrating Attack Helicopter Week here at The Splintering! Today we’re picking apart another retro arcade game port, this time it’s Steel Talons for the SEGA Genesis. Before we get going, however, I have to note that this game is ROUGH. I couldn’t play it through in a normal state, so the only solution was to
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Welcome to Attack Helicopter Week here at The Splintering! How about kicking things off with a lesser-known, retro import? Grab your yoke and pop in your earplugs, because today we’re picking apart Choplifter! for the Nintendo Famicom. Choplifter! is a unique title as it started as an Apple II game and was later ported to the arcades. The Famicom version
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Following our last theme week in May (SEGA Week), we’ve decided to do have another special event here at The Splintering. Starting Monday, 29 July, we’ll be launching Attack Helicopter Week! We’ll be posting reviews and features covering some of your most beloved (and perhaps most despised) attack helicopters. Even if you are not an attack helicopter yourself, everyone is
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It may be a bit early for Attack Helicopter Week, but indie game publisher Tendokore is already getting into the festive spirit by officially releasing 2D shoot ‘em up GyroBlade for the Nintendo Switch. Developed by H.T. Project Games, GyroBlade is a vertical scrolling shooter inspired by the classic games of the 8-bit era (Tiger Heli comes to mind), complete
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Next week marks the 30th anniversary of the launch of SEGA’s most successful console, the SEGA Genesis. System launches were quite a bit different in 1989 than they are now, so details of the event are a little sketchy. What we do know is that the Genesis (known as the Mega Drive outside of North America) launched in both the
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We may have Attack Helicopter Week, 80s August, Monochrome May, and finally Jolly Jinglings to close out the year, but the theme event that started them all is October’s Festival of Dread! And this year’s Festival of Dread event promises to be even bigger than the last! We have plenty of Halloween-themed pieces coming your way, including multiple features, the
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We’ve enjoyed many different theme events here at The Splintering (the Festival of Dread, Jolly Jinglings, and Monochrome May and Attack Helicopter Week), but waiting until October for the next one just seems like too long of a wait… That’s why we’re christening this August as the inaugural 80s August! Starting next week, we’ll be posting reviews and features celebrating
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Well, well! It looks like M2 is getting into the Attack Helicopter Week spirit! The Japanese developer recently announced that Kyukyoku Tiger-Heli will be coming to both Nintendo Switch and PS4 in Japan as a “Toaplan arcade garage” collection. Scheduled for release on 28 October, Kyukyoku Tiger-Heli will be available both in digital format for 3,960 yen and a physical
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Be afraid! Be very afraid! Sure, we have Attack Helicopter Week in the Summer, Monochrome May, and Jolly Jinglings to close out the year, but none of these events are as big as October’s Festival of Dread. And this year’s Festival of Dread event promises to be even bigger than the last! We already have several Halloween-themed pieces in the
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On the latest installment of Sit Down Sunday (hosted on Patrick Thomas Parnell’s YouTube channel Riot Press Productions), The Splintering founder Blake Worrell got another chance to discuss recent comic book news with Parnell, The Shepherd creator Dr. Andrea Molinari, and The Splintering’s own George Travlos. This week, we discussed the ongoing success of Patrick’s Johnny Phantasm 1985 crowdfunding campaign,
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Earlier this week, independent comic book publisher Tonic Comix launched a crowdfunding campaign for Lilly and Wepwawet, a 44-page spin-off book set in the Saving the World universe. Written and illustrated by Tonicmole and featuring a back-up short story illustrated by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Jim Lawson, Lilly and Wepwawet is a sci-fi adventure featuring a time-traveling bank teller
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The Dairymen has announced that their narrative adventure game Orwell’s Animal Farm will be available sometime this Fall. Based on George Orwell’s 1945 classic Animal Farm, this new narrative-based game looks to put players in control of Napoleon, the pig who goes from proletariat leader to brutal dictator over the span of the original story. Players will make decide how
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Over the weekend, independent comic book creator James Hostler launched an Indiegogo campaign for issues 1-5 of The Bobcat, a steampunk fantasy comic series that takes place at the dawn of the Industrial Age. Written by Hostler and illustrated by Jim Mehsling, The Bobcat blends superhero and Western elements with steampunk technology and Native American mythology. Here’s the official plot
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On this week’s Sit-Down Sunday show, The Shepherd creator Dr. Andrea Molinari revealed that the next book in the series is inching ever closer. So close, in fact, that he has (finally) set up a pre-launch page on Indiegogo in preparation for the graphic novel’s crowdfunding campaign, which is expected to launch in the next couple of months. The Valentine
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