Fire Helicopter

Summary

"Man, do I want to become a firefighter!" is a phrase that raced through my mind while I was testing Fire Helicopter. In this game, you're a helicopter pilot whose objective is to fight fires from the sky! Find out if being a firefighter pilot is worth your time in our test.

Fire Helicopter puts you in the cockpit of a helicopter that drops water onto fires located on the ground. Your helicopter is controlled with your phone's motion sensors and two buttons located on the screen. Fire Helicopter offers you only three levels, but the graphics are sweet and the game play is top-notch. Even if you won't be spending the next couple of weeks or months glued to this game, you're still guaranteed to have enough fun to keep you happy in the short term (and it won't cost you a dime!). 

You can select between three different levels (Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced) on the start screen and read through the instructions to understand the game's objective.

On your game screen, you have a water meter on the left, a gas tank indicator on the right, and an overview of all burning fires in your area in the middle. You are therefore constantly informed of where the next fire is located.

On your right hand side, you have two buttons: one to keep your helicopter off the ground and another to open and close the water tank. Once you're in the air, you can control your helicopter's direction by tilting your phone in the right direction. Make sure to use your gas button sparingly to avoid flying too high above the ground. Try to find the right balance by intermittently pressing the gas pedal.

If you're located directly above a fire, you can extinguish it by dumping water from your water tank.

You can refill your water by flying really close to a body of water or actually landing on the water's surface. You can only refill your gas tank at your starting point. In order to keep your tank full, you've got to constantly fly back and forth.

Once you've completed a level by putting out all the fires in the area, you'll receive a thorough analysis displaying the amount of tress you've saved and how much water and gas you've used up. This gives you an incentive to progress in the high score rankings.

Bottom Line:

Despite having only three very similar levels, Fire Helicopter still manages to be a lot of fun. It’s definitely a great little game with neat graphics and great controls.

Fire Helicopter doesn't always run very smoothly. It stalls a bit from time to time. I didn't experience any problems beside that.

 Fire Helicopter can be downloaded for free from the Android Market.