When I started playing flight sim games I was playing on a 386 computer running DOS. The screen resolution was 640×480 pixels, the number of polygons on the screen you could almost count, and good game-play was make or break for most sims. Somewhere along the line we got so complicated with our modern sim flying that its very refreshing to pick up and play something that is simple, easy to play, but maybe a bit harder to master. That is what the creator of Thunder Helix, David Walters, seemingly set out to do with this brilliant little retro helicopter sim. Here are my thoughts!

Disclaimer

David Walters, the author of Thunder Helix, got in touch with me a couple of months ago offering up an early access Steam key of the game to have a look at. As always with reviews and previews I will disclose if something was sent to me to have a look at. My opinions are my own and no editorial control was exerted from any external source.

Leaning into the retro, all the way

Thunder Helix knows what it is. It’s a retro helicopter game that draws inspiration from the titles of the early 1990s. Gunship 2000 is the most obvious inspiration but there were other sims that came out around that time that had similar graphics capabilities. Flat or shaded polygons, simple user interfaces, keyboard and mouse driven (primarily) experiences with some support for joysticks for those who had them, its all very nostalgic.

Loading up Thunder Helix for the first time and the game presents you with an option screen that looks ripped right out of the installer of any number of games from the era. I was instantly transported back! That experience continues throughout.

You get to choose if you want EGA or VGA graphics with either 16 colours or 256 colours respectively. You choose! I picked VGA every time but I will have to come back to this title and try the EGA version too!

You also get to choose keyboard only, mouse and keyboard or joystick, and then after that you end up at the main menu which again looks deeply and lovingly inspired by those games of the past. Even when you leave the game you’re briefly taken to a DOS prompt screen which I find enormously entertaining.

My first flight involved picking the default helicopter and getting the basics of the controls down. Mouse to point the nose, keyboard controls to climb and descend, spacebar to fire the gun. That’s all that I did and it was simple and satisfying. There are some additional controls too with the ability to change your waypoint from a series of preset options, flare countermeasure release, missile and rocket firing and a targeting button that brings up the target on a central display. It’s all the basics of an attack helicopter in a few button presses and everything works brilliantly.

There’s no denying that this doesn’t simulate a helicopter’s flight model the way you’d expect in 2024 but back in the early 1990s this was good enough to get us in and blasting enemies with quite a bit of satisfaction in just a few minutes. And even in 2024 there’s quite a bit of joy in just being able to jump in and go!

Practice and then battling it out in the campaign

There’s only a couple of scenarios available right now during early access but they are quite fun.

A practice range is what I did first. This is where I learned how to fly and get a handle on the systems. Nothing shoots back but there are some very fun barrels to blow up. What’s a retro game without some exploding barrels right? Once you’ve done this and completed it, its on to the campaign mission where things very much do shoot back (but the exploding barrels are still there).

The campaign starts with a couple of briefing notes including a weather report (always sunny for now but some weather effects are planned). Then you get started and you find yourself on the back of a destroyer. You take off and get to the business of clearing the objectives!

First there’s the beachhead with some fairly easy to dispatch targets. Then you work your way along the coast, inland to the radio station, the airbase and eventually a SAM site. Each progressively more difficult than before.

You’ll do battle with trucks with mounted machine guns, tanks (firing airburst shells), mobile AAA vehicles, SAMs and enemy helicopters too. I found that these were surmountable challenges when using your full arsenal but get in too close or mismanage your weaponry and they will shoot you down.

This game doesn’t go all Ace Combat on the loadout either. Instead you have a very normal load of rockets (16 each side), anti tank missiles that approximate Hellfires (4 to a pylon), and the onboard cannon with 1,200 rounds. Not unheard of for an Apache.

Fuel is a concern too as I ran out of it the one time and I had to respawn to get into the fight again.

Early access variety

This is game that is still in early access. There is some variety to the gameplay but more is planned before it eventually comes out of the early access state.

There are currently three helicopters to choose from. The “default” helicopter, the “Avenger” is very Apache like in its appearance and capability but there are other choppers available to fly too with a Huey-look-a-like and a stealthy Commanche-esq option available.

Each of the three have subtly different speed and handling, different cockpit art, and different armament selections. They actually have quite a bit of personality between them with each able to do mostly the same things within the mission but sometimes doing so in a very different way. The “Raven” for example is faster but there’s no auto tracking gun like on the “Avenger” so you have to aim more precisely. The rocket button opens and closes the stealthy weapon bays for the anti-tank missiles. Neat! Meanwhile the “Lewis” has twin miniguns and rockets but no guided anti-tank missiles.

The training scenario and the first campaign mission are all that’s available right now so the gameplay is limited to repeating those scenarios for now, however, more are intended to be implemented over the next 6-12 months as the developer releases more content and brings the game out of early access.

The developer has been providing monthly updates since launch via Patreon talking about the most recent work on the project and new missions and scenarios in development right now.

It’s clear too that other features are planned with the game already having some keybinds for things like sling loading. While this game may be retro, there’s some fund things that are clearly in the works for future experiences that are maybe a little typified by modern simming too.

Final thoughts

I love the resurgence of simple to play, challenging to master, retro styled games that still lean into some of the core fundamentals of flight simming while taking us back to an earlier time in the world of sim gaming. Thunder Helix is very much done in that style and in nearly everything it does it connects with that style of retro gaming.

The downside might be that the whole experience of playing this game, the menu screens, the gameplay, and everything around it feels like its out of time. In the early 1990s, user interfaces were clunkier, things were simpler but you also kind of had to wait around for things to happen. Thunder Helix minimizes some of those annoying things but in going retro it also inherits that clunky feeling. You’re going to love it, like I did because of it nostalgia, or you’re going to be annoyed by it because it doesn’t work as well as a modern game does.

Terrific fun, a great diversion from modern simming, and dripping in retro styling, Thunder Helix knows what kind of game it is and benefits all the more from that. It needs more content to bring it from its current state out of early access but you can already have quite a bit more fun right now.

If you’re interested, you can buy Thunder Helix from Steam for $19.99 USD. You can also follow development on X/Twitter and on Patreon.

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