The Digital Odyssey: New Completion - Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf (Genesis)

Was it meant to be? On a day where I saw a real life USMC Apache helicopter fly over my house, I finally beat a game I've been unable to finish for some fifteen years. And that game is about an Apache helicopter.

Life can be funny sometimes.

I FINALLY BEAT YOUR GAME MIKE POSEHN! DO YOU HEAR ME?!

There's so much I could say about this game that actually has nothing to do with the game itself. Moments, people, certain emotions; it's nostalgia down to it's purest form. This game ranks amongst my top three most nostalgic games (with Earthworm Jim, and Vectorman). When I think of my childhood, or even the 90's in general, I often picture sitting in front of a CRT television with the glow of orange reflecting off of everything in the room and a tiny little green helicopter flimsly flittering around the screen.

I also think of frustration. You see, Desert Strike is a really difficult game. Not so much in the technique, though that is certainly important, but mostly in patience and endurance. These are all things most 8 year-olds lack, and I was no exception.

'Don't be sad fellas! I'll be back in 15 minutes after I fail the mission again!'

But that's the beauty of maturing. You become stronger, smarter, more persistent, never willing to be defeated by a simple play thing! Well, except for the couple times I rage quitted last night. But today was different! Today I had a purpose! And when I looked up and saw that Apache helicopter fly o're head, I knew what I must do!

Grind! A lot! And keep grinding until somehow I fluked my way to victory. Albeit I killed my own co-pilot once, was shot down by running into buildings a few times, and wove a tapestry of curse words that could be seen from space ('A Christmas Story' refernce for ya there). But in the end I succeeded. I SHOOK GEORGE HERBERT WALKER TEXAS RANGER BUSH'S HAND!

Now onto the game itself. This game, despite what I said above, is surprisingly short. 4 missions to be exact. Each mission has a set of objectives to be completed in order. You fly around, shooting missiles or a chain gun, at various targets across a large isometric map. You have limited ammo and fuel which you must monitor throughout the mission, and replenish by picking up items scattered and or hidden across the map. You can also pick up health items to repair your helicopter, as well as a few *very rare* extra lives. You are initially given three lives to finish the mission, and if you run out of lives it's 'Game Over' and you must start all over.

Thankfully, if you do finish a mission successfully you are given a password so that you can resume from the last uncompleted mission. This was something I did not comprehend as a child, and thus why I never could beat this game. For whatever reason, in my small little underdeveloped brain, passwords were for cheats. The idea of using them as a checkpoint was so foreign and beyond me, I never really had a chance. And this would haunt me and my ability to beat old games for a long time.... but that's another story.

I saw this a lot as a child.

Thankfully I'm not such a puritan anymore. I happily used those passwords and HOLY HELL that makes the game a lot more bearable. Now I just have to take things a mission at a time. And that's what I did. All in all Desert Strike is still a lot of fun. I think it has held up a lot better than most games from the early 90's, and visually it still impresses me for a Genesis game.

Whether or not I would recommend it to a casual fan of games? Probably not. It's not long enough, nor rewarding enough for the effort it requires to see it through. But if you had a Genesis/Super Nintendo and somehow missed this game, it is absolutely worth a look. I know I feel much better about finally checking this one off the list.

Oh, and it has a rad theme song too: