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Heli Attack 3 is a run-and-gun shooter game created by the company squarecircleco.squarecircleco. on Heli Attack 3 (main > games > Heli Attack 3) - URL accessed 13/07/06. and released on June 16, 2005.NuneWorld Games Forums discussion about Heli Attack 3's release - URL accessed 13/07/06. The player takes on the role of a paratrooper who must travel through different locations or zones and use a wide array of different weapons to destroy a series of helicopters, or helis, whilst they simultaneously attempt to harm and, ultimately, kill you.John Sadowski on the role of the player in Heli Attack 3 - URL accessed 13/07/06. There are sixteen different levels in Heli Attack 3, and the helis in earlier levels are comparatively weak with inaccurate and low powered guns. As you progress through the game you must take on weaponry that can cause considerable damage to your health, such as missile launchers. There are also a number of purely ground based enemies in the game; in early levels these have either weak weapons or none and all, but in later levels their aim is highly accurate and, if ignored, they pose a big threat to your health.
History
As its name suggests, Heli Attack 3 is the third game in the Heli Attack series, each of which follow the same principle plot of a soldier whose mission is to shoot at and destroy enemy helicopters. A brief history of the series, along with comparisons of earlier games in the series and Heli Attack 3 follows.
Heli Attack
The original Heli Attack game was released by squarecircleco. in 2001. The game was considered incomplete, partly because it lacked any soundtrack or sound effects. Though the graphical appearance was comparatively crude by the standards of their later games, many important elements of Heli Attack 3 were present in this game. Examples include the theme of a soldier whose aim is to destroy helicopters, a range of increasingly powerful weapons and power-ups that fall from the sky after helis are destroyed, and the yellow bullets of the soldier and the red bullets of the enemy helis. Equally, there are some notable differences: perhaps the two greatest are that there was only one type of heli present in the entire game and also only one level that ended when the player was killed. The closest parallel to this concept in Heli Attack 3 is Zone X.
Heli Attack 2
In 2003, squarecircleco. released the follow-up to Heli Attack, Heli Attack 2. Originally intended as an improved version of the first game, Heli Attack 2 proved to be a major evolution in the series. It featured a significantly improved graphical interface, a soundtrack and sound effects, and a range of thirteen different weapons - eight more than the first game. Heli Attack 2 also introduced some of the more powerful weapons seen in Heli Attack 3, such as the RPG and A-Bomb Launcher, as well as power-ups that allowed you to distort time. However, Heli Attack 2 still only featured one heli and one level with a continuous wave of enemies. In spite of this, the fast-placed and addictive gameplay proved popular and the game won the awards for Miniclip Game of the Year 2003 and Flashkit.com Most Addictive Game of the Year 2003.
Weapons
Heli Attack 3 has been applauded for featuring a wide range of thirty-two different weapons,Heliattack.com on the enemies and weapons present in Heli Attack 3 - URL accessed 13/07/06. nineteen more than it's prequel. Whilst some of the weapons are naturally similar to others present in the game, each has it's own characteristics, as well as advantages and disadvantages. It is worth noting that ever since the original Heli Attack game the player has shot yellow bullets at the enemy and the enemy has shot red bullets at the player and this remains true in this latest game in the Heli Attack series.
There are four basic weapons which the player will always be given at the start of the game. These are:
| Name | Description | Clip size | Damage caused | Reload time (seconds) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Knife | A sharp-edged hand-held weapon to stab the enemy from close range. | Infinity | 50 | 0.46875 |
| Bow&Arrow | A weapon that fires arrows at the enemy using the elasticity of the bow. | Infinity | 30 | 0.625 |
| Grenade | A hand-held bomb which the player throws at the enemy. | 25 | 50 | 0.625 |
| Pistol | A small firearm that shoots single bullets at the enemy. | Infinity | 10 | 0.25 |
The twenty-eight other weapons in Heli Attack 3 must be unlocked, either by receiving them during levels or finding them in hidden areas. These weapons are:
| MachineGun | A fully-automatic firearm that fires single bullets in quick succession. | 150 | 10 | 0.15625 |
| AkimboMac10's | A handgun that gets it name from firing two bullets at once. See also: Akimbo (gaming) | 75 | 8 | 0.125 |
| ChainGun | A fully-automatic firearm that fires strings of bullets. It is faster than any other gun in Heli Attack 3. | 100 | 10 | 0.0625 |
| Shotgun | A firearm which fires four bullets simultaneously. The bullets spread apart the further they travel from the gun. | 20 | 15 | 0.78125 |
| DoubleShotgun | Identical in principle to the Shotgun, but it fires eight bullets at a time and is slower to reload. | 20 | 15 | 1.09375 |
| SniperRifle | A gun which can shoot single bullets extremely precisely with the aid of a laser sight. | 12 | 75 | 0.625 |
| GrenadeLauncher | A weapon which fires grenades, sending them further than the player could by throwing them. | 15 | 75 | 0.9375 |
| RPG | A hand-held rocket launcher. The rockets leave the weapon at very slow speeds but then suddenly accerelate. | 15 | 85 | 0.78125 |
| RocketLauncher | Similar to an RPG, but the rockets accelerate more steadily and cause greater amounts of damage. | 11 | 100 | 1.25 |
| SeekerLauncher | Similar to the RocketLauncher, except that it's rockets automatically lock on to the nearest enemy and are almost guaranteed to then hit it. | 7 | 100 | 1.5625 |
| DrunkerLauncher | Similar to the RocketLauncher, except that it fires three rockets that fly around in random directions. | 6 | 50 | 1.875 |
| GuidedLauncher | Similar to the RocketLauncher, except that it fires guided missiles which precisely follow where the weapon is aiming. | 9 | 100 | 1.5625 |
| FlakCannon | A cannon which fires twenty separate small pieces of shrapnel in many different directions and at different trajectories. | 8 | 10 | 1.5625 |
| ShotgunRockets | A shotgun that fires three small rockets. | 7 | 25 | 1.25 |
| FlameThrower | Fires a continuous stream of fire that burns the enemy. It causes damage over the entire life of the flame, but it also causes less damage as its flames grow larger. | 150 | 2 | 0.0625 |
| SparkPlug | Similar to the AkimboMac10's, except that instead of bullets it fires two sparks. | 30 | 30 | 0.46875 |
| GooGun | A handgun which fires Goo, an explosive substance that can either be shot directly at an enemy or onto the ground so that they might walk on it. | 25 | 50 | 0.3125 |
| Bladerang | As its name suggests, a cross between a blade and a boomerang. It is fired forwards, but then turns around and returns backwards on a trajectory determined by the angle it was shot at. | 7 | 20 | 1.5625 |
| LaserRifle | A firearm that shoots fast-moving laser beams which can both travel through multiple enemies and damage the same enemy multiple times. | 25 | 30 | 0.5 |
| AutoLaserRifle | Similar to the LaserRifle, except that it fires faster and is more inaccurate. | 25 | 30 | 0.25 |
| ShotgunLasers | A cross between ShotGun and LaserRifle that simultaneously fires three laser beams in a widespread pattern. | 12 | 20 | 0.9375 |
| RailGun | A firearm which shoots slugs of uranium at extremely high speed. It is also capable of shooting enemies through walls. | 6 | 200 | 2.34375 |
| Anytime | A firearm similar to the RailGun, except that the denotate as they hit the enemy and do more damage on contact. | 5 | 130 | 4.6875 |
| AirStrike | A mobile phone that calls for an bomber which drops multiple highly-damaging rockets across the field of play. | 4 | 0 | 1.25 |
| Taser | An electrical plug tethered to a large handgun by a wire. When it makes contact with an enemy it attaches itself to them and delivers a prolonged electric shock that is certain to destroy them. | 2 | 5 | 6.25 |
| Soundwaave | A gun that fires soundwaves that can penetrate multiple enemies and cause damage for the life of the wave. It can also be fired through walls and whilst underground. | 30 | 10 | 0.3125 |
| A-BombLauncher | A hand-held weapon that fires slow moving localised nuclear weapons that do intensely high levels of damage. The fallout from the explosion is equally distructive. | 3 | 500 | 9.375 |
| BlackHoleGenerator | A weapon that creates a miniature black hole that sucks in and destroys all enemies which come into contact with it. | 1 | 0 | 18.75 |
There are two weapons that can only be found in Heli Attack Special Edition. These are:
| FireMines | Also present in Heli Attack 2, these are land mines that explode upon contact with the ground and detonate a vertical stream of fire into the air. | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
| AntiMatterCannon | A firearm that is a deadly cross between a FlameThrower and a RailGun. | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
If a weapon fires bullets, these will cause damage to enemies on contact and then immediately cease to harm them. Explosive weaponry provides additional damage to enemies with the fallout from the explosion before then stopping, and the FlameThrower, LaserRifle, AutoLaserRifle, ShotgunLasers, Bladerang, Anytime, Taser, and Soundwaave cause damage over the entire life of their respective projectiles. In particular, the Bladerang and Soundwaave are most effective on large enemies since the damage they cause is determined by the length of time their projectiles are in contact with enemy.
Enemies
There are eight different forms of enemy present in Heli Attack 3. Four of these are the helis which you must destroy in order to progress through the game, and the other four are ground based enemies, two of which will actively attack you and two of which will not. With the exception of holograms, destroying any of these enemies will earn you points and extended use of the time powers.
Ground based enemies
| Name | Description | Zones in which present | Hit points required to destroy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hologram | An immobile red and yellow holographic projection designed for target practice. | Training Zone. | 30 |
| Roller | A small wheeled robot with limited mobility and no weapons. | 1-2, 1-3, 2-2, 2-3 | 10 |
| Walker | Larger and more mobile than Rollers and similar in appearance to the Drone. It's | 3-1, 3-2, 3-3, X | 20 |
| Sniper | Sniper Robots have guns and aim with high accuracy in any direction. They are very low to the ground and are the smallest of the armed enemies. | 4-1, 4-2, 4-3, X | 10 |
Helis
| Drone | Small unmanned machines with ineffective guns that can only fly at a set altitude. | 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 3-1 | 50 |
| Flying Bug | A standard helicopter fitted with a chain gun that can do moderate levels of damage but that has a bad aim. | 1-4, 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 3-2, 4-1 | 300 |
| Small Thread | An angular helicopter with better aim and more stamina that the Flying Bug. Equipped with both a machine powerful gun and rocket launcher which cause a lot of damage. | 2-4, 3-3, 4-2 | 450 |
| Big Gun | Reminiscent of the Apache helicopter, it has a highly accurate and quick fire machine gun that can rotate to fire large quantities of bullets in all directions. The Attack Heli can also precisely and rapidly fire missiles. | 3-4, 4-3, X | 600 |
Zones
Excluding the training zone, Heli Attack 3 is comprised of sixteen different levels. These are organised into four groups of four, and one of these groups is set in each of the different Zones; for example, the levels in group one are Zone 1-1 through to Zone 1-4, and those in group two are Zone 2-1 to Zone 2-4, and so on. The Zones in Heli Attack 3 are as follows:
- Training Mode : Set in a secret laboratory located in North America, this is the starting point where you learn how to play the game.gotoAndPlay() on the Training Zone - URL accessed 13/07/06. Onscreen tips guide you through the different skills you will need to master. You are provided with infinite amounts of ammunition and time powers can be used for any length of time.
- Russian Arctic : Early levels set in an alpine area where the player can warm up their skills.
- Amazon Jungle : A tropical location for four slightly harder levels where you must take out many more Helis to proceed.
- Canyon Lands : These levels takes place in canyons in Africa. Helis are more powerful and there are considerably more of them to destroy than in the previous Zone.
- Underground Lab : These levels takes place in a secret laboratory, indentical in appearance to the Training Zone, but supposedly located in Australia.
To complete Zones 1-1 through to 4-3 you must destroy a set number of Helis before you are killed. However, the final level Zone X only ends when you are killed: your task is to destroy as many Attack Helis as you can before this happens to help you to amass a high score. Since a player's arsenal may potentially be low at this stage of the game a random weapon appears on the ground to pick up at the start of the level.
Time Powers
Time powers in Heli Attack 3 allow the player to control time. During active gameplay, the player can select a Time power by pressing the Modify key along with the Next and Previous Weapon keys, and they can utilise them by holding down the TimeDistort key. If done carefully and cleverly being able to move faster than the enemy and their projectiles gives the player a big advantage over their opponents, though they only work for a limited period. They also take a long time to recharge after use, but this process can be accelerated by destroying any kind of enemy.
There are four different time powers in Heli Attack 3 which all work in similar but different ways. They are as follows:
- TimeBreak : Stops the enemy from moving at all, whilst the player can move at full speed. The player can also move through enemy bullets without being hurt. If a weapon is fired during Time Break the projectile immediately freezes, only moving once Time Break ends.
- TimeRift : Slows down the enemy and any projectiles fired whilst the player can move at full speed. Moving through enemy bullets will hurt the player.
- TimeDistort : Slows down everything, including enemies, projectiles, and the player.
- TimeSink : Temporarily allows unlimited use of any of the time powers. Unlike the other time powers, Time Sink can only be used when it falls from a Heli.
References
External links
- Heli Attack 3 at Miniclip.
- squarecircleco. official website.
"Heli Attack 3"