Full gameplay longplay, playthrough walkthrough and guide to Metal Hawk from NAMCO with this one credit clear. It's fair to say this is one arcade game that slipped by us in the 80s, most likely due to the fact it was outsold by the SEGA arcade game Thunder Blade which also featured a helicopter. Fair to say Metal Hawk was up against some tough competition when it released in 1988 and one game none of us here at Randomised Gaming played until the Arcade Archives release.
Metal Hawk is an impressive looking and playing top down helicopter shooter which has you zooming around the map trying to take out enemy targets. What's so impressive with this one is that you get full 360 control of your chopper and have vertical control as well, allowing you to dive in close to targets or attack from the skies above. Making for an intense short game that was designed more as an amusement ride, thanks to the huge moving sit down deluxe cabinet version. The 2D scaling shown in game is first class, not least due to the size of some of the sprites in game and rivals SEGA games from the eras.
Each stage has a different theme and objective, the first stage has you hitting ships and an island base, another has you hitting the streets of a city, while a third has an attack on an aircraft carrier and our favourite has to be the attack on the flying base even if it is one of the hard missions. The game lets you pick the next stage from the nearest selection, apart from the final stage, only downside is there isn't a final boss. Each mission has a set score the player must reach to travel to the next mission; all enemies and targets award a score, but main objectives award more points than secondary targets.
It really is an excellent game and one that is fairly quick and quite easy to finish, clearly designed more as an attraction ride with the deluxe version. It's a pity it seems so many arcade owners overlooked this one, certainly one to grab if you are a fan of the shooting genre and want something a bit different to other arcade titles.
Time stamp & chapter details:
00:00 Game Details & Intro
00:21 Mission 1 Area H-3 -The First Point
01:07 Mission 2 Area K-5 -The Taskforce
02:13 Mission 3 Area J-9 -Cross Fire
04:10 Mission 4 Area D-9 -Attack The Airbase
05:38 Mission 5 Area F-7 -Tank Buster
07:34 Mission 6 Area B-6 -Fortress in the Sky
08:46 Mission 7 Area E-4 -Canal Zone
10:26 Mission 8 Area G-11 -The Last Target
Also known as: メタルホーク (Japan)
Release: 2022 (Arcade 1988)
Developer: HAMSTER (Original Arcade game NAMCO)
Publisher: HAMSTER Corporation
Genre: Shooter
Players: 1
Version Shown: PAL
Format: PlayStation 4 / プレイステーション4 (PS4)
Metal Hawk Arcade Archives is also available on the Nintendo Switch.
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Footage is captured directly from a PlayStation 4 via HDMI for all games, using an Elgato Pro HD60 capture card. Upscaled to UHD 4K to improve the video bit rate, watch in HD or UHD for best video playback on KZread.
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