By James Booth
From Pazzazz Games and Astraware comes Hellfire: Apache vs. Hind, the helicopter combat action game that puts you in the pilot's seat of an Apache gunship or Soviet Hind attack copter.
You may remember Pazzazz Games (see http://www.pazzazzgames.com/NP_home.htm) as the same team that brought us GTS Racing Challenge. Astraware (see http://www.astraware.com) has a complete repertoire of games, such as Bejeweled, Alchemy, GTS Racing Challenge, and Insaniquarium for Palm, Pocket PC, and Windows platforms.
Hellfire is available for the Palm OS and Pocket PC platforms, but as I own a Palm and not a Pocket PC, I'll be covering the Palm version.
Briefing
Set in the Cold War era, Hellfire: Apache vs. Hind casts you as the pilot of either a U.S. Apache AH64A/D Longbow attack helicopter, or the Soviet MiL Mi-24 D Hind. With a realistic weapons load-out in your arsenal, you'll be flying sixteen different missions in a worldwide theater of operations against either Soviet or US adversaries, depending of course on which helicopter you choose to fly.
Preflight
Once past the splash screen, you'll hit the Select Mode screen, in Figure A, where you choose between Trial, Campaign, Mission, Random, and Options. The Options screen will allow you to program the Controls and Settings. The Trial is just the single mission demo, so we won't cover that here, but rather the game as a whole.
FIGURE A
Make your selection on the Select Mode screen. (click for larger image)
The controls for Hellfire are completely user configurable, enabling you to program whichever buttons you like for the functions of land/take off, forward, reverse, left, right, weapon select, and fire weapon. In addition, Hellfire provides complete support for the Palm 5-way navigator button.
Settings are the controls for the game's speed, volume, and control method -- either Button or Graffiti.
The Campaign will take you on a series of sixteen missions spanning the globe on a quest to defeat your enemy superpower.
Missions seems to be the list of missions that you've already played and can replay again, perhaps to refine your combat technique, or resolve a problem mission.
Random will generate a mission for you, or allow you to input a mission code number to play a specific mission.
Once you've selected your mode of play, you'll be prompted to select a difficulty level from Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain, or Colonel. Figure B, shows the Superpower screen, where you choose which superpower you will fight for, the Americans or the Soviets. From there, it's on to the mission briefing.
FIGURE B
Who will you fight for, the US or the Soviets? (click for larger image)
