''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 milit ...

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developed and published by

Core Design Core Design Limited (known as Rebellion (Derby) Ltd between 2006 and 2010) was a British video game developer based in Derby. Founded in May 1988 by former Gremlin Graphics employees, it originally bore the name Megabrite until rebranding as Co ...

and released for

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and

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in 1992. A remake was made and published by

JVC Musical Industries is a subsidiary of JVCKenwood that produces and distributes music, movies and other entertainment products such as anime and television shows in Japan. It is known as JVC Entertainment in countries where Sony Music Entertainment operates the RC ...

for

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in 1993 and for

in 1996. An

Atari Jaguar CD The Atari Jaguar CD is a CD-ROM peripheral for the Jaguar video game console. Only 13 games were released for the Jaguar CD during its lifetime. However, previously unfinished and homebrew games have since been released. History Atari announc ...

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 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 ( / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incid ...

, 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 South China, in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan island, Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luz ...

, 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 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'' placed the game at #1 in their Top Mega-CD Games of All Time, with the sequel '' Battlecorps'' being fourth on the same list. ''

Retro Gamer ''Retro Gamer'' is a British magazine, published worldwide, covering Retrogaming, retro video games. It was the first commercial magazine to be devoted entirely to the subject. Launched in January 2004 as a quarterly publication, ''Retro Gamer'' ...

'' included it on their list of top ten Mega-CD games. ''

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'' 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". The game sold about 300,000 units in Europe.

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 Victor Entertainment games 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 Single-player video games