Tiger-Heli: Beneath the Surface. An Analysis.

The Game.
In 1985 computer game publisher Taito released to arcades a game known as Tiger-Heli. One year later it was ported, quite faithfully, to the Nintendo Entertainment System in the United States. It is a top-down view, vertical scrolling shooter, with gameplay comparable to 1942, or The Guardian Legend. In this game, the player assumes control of the titular state-of-the-art military attack vehicle which is, according to the NES game instruction manual;'' “... the result of a billion dollar defense project to create the ultimate stealth jetcopter.”'' The mission is described as a sneak attack to stop the fictional, militaristic, terrorist nation of Cantun from organizing a massive offensive assault in a effort to “...take over the whole world.” The game begins giving the player a limited number of chances or, helicopters to use in an effort to obtain as high a score as possible. After all helicopters are destroyed by enemy forces, the player receives a “Game Over,” erasing his or her current score, and requiring he or she to restart the game from the beginning. There is however a way to avoid losing one's game progress. During the display of the Game Over screen, if the player simultaneously presses and holds down the A button, and the B button, he or she may continue from the point at which they lost their final helicopter. This trick is relatively well known among people who have played the game, and is easy to learn through a quick Google search.

Tiger-Heli features 4 playable stages which offer little in the way of visual, or gameplay variety. Each stage features an urban, mountainous, or oceanic setting, and sometimes a mixture of two of more. The objective of each level is to destroy as many enemy vehicles (including tanks, gunboats, gun turrets, and grounded aircraft) and structures as one can while collecting power-ups and bonuses ultimately reaching the ending checkpoint without losing all of one's helicopters. Once a player reaches the goal of stage four, the game seamlessly begins again at stage two. This cycle continues indefinitely, yet level one is never revisited.

Despite the game's simplicity, repetitive gameplay, run-of-the-mill graphics, and minimal use of music and sound effects, it is said to have sold somewhere near one million copies in the United States and also spawned sequels in the Twin Cobra series. In all, this is a fairly solid and enjoyable game for those who like arcade style shooter games.

The Analysis.
On the surface, Tiger-Heli seems a straightforward good versus evil military confrontation, the player and the country he or she represents being the protagonists, and the Cantun terrorists being the antagonists. The NES version of the game is in English, and the manual depicts the military to which the player belongs as large, organized and well funded. Though it is never explicitly stated in the instruction manual, I do not feel it is a stretch of plausibility to assume that the military power depicted as “good” represents the United States.

Further analysis of the storyline, and gameplay reveals a great deal of symbolism and allegory paralleling the history of major conflict and war both in recent history, and as a whole. The idea of a game based on a war, or military mission is neither shocking, nor uncommon, yet arguably trivializes the real, and bloody conflicts which seem to be an unfortunate symptom of the human condition.

The game in question gives very little backstory with which the player can familiarize his or herself. The instruction manual, as was touched on before, simply tells the player that the nation of Cantun is run by terrorists, and that their goal is world domination through violent means. It seems logical that such an apparently malevolent, and threatening entity ought to be dealt with through either diplomacy, or military aggression.

Yet we, the players, are given only the most brief description of the nation of Cantun, and their goals. We know nothing of the history of this country, what their war crimes have been, what manner of government they employ, whether or not their citizens are oppressed or in danger, or if they conceivably even have the means to follow through or their apparent threats. All we know is what we are told by a person, likely of political or military importance, who represents one side of what appears to be a complex conflict. We have no reason to doubt this information, yet neither do we have reason to believe it.

In the opening level of Tiger-Heli on NES, the combat chopper is released from the back of a truck across a body of water from what we assume is the coast of Cantun. The player advances, and quickly comes into contact with a handful of armed tanks. Interestingly, these tanks initially have their cannons directed inland, the opposite direction of the helicopter. Is this the enemy being caught off guard, or is this possibly a symbol of government oppression against its citizens? We can not be sure. Shortly after dispatching, or avoiding all the tanks, the player advances into what looks to be a residential neighborhood. Colorful, yet simple, looking houses are peppered about an area of green grass, shrubbery and two lane streets. These homes pose no apparent threat, and can be shot at by the player. Each house fired upon yields 100 points to the player's score. Similarly, points are awarded for destroying cars parked at these houses, railway cars, and a large fuel tank in the neighborhood.

Regardless of the graphical limitations of the Nintendo Entertainment System, the houses appear small, and humble. Like homes that would be lived in by the general population, and not those in political or military power. You can elect not to fire upon these houses, but you forfeit the points they award, and collateral damage to them is difficult to avoid. In the light of the destruction the player brings upon what seem to be the homes of innocent people, we ought ask; can a nation's military, regardless of its government and ideals, really be faulted for defending themselves by trying to shoot down an invading chopper? Human reason and rationality would dictate not. Thus we enter a cycle of violence in which neither party feels unprovoked, or unjustified in their killing.

Once past the first area of level one, no more civilian domiciles are seen in the game. In fact there are very few structures in general in the remainder of the game, simply military vehicles and weaponry. Boats, tanks, grounded aircraft, and other fighting machines.

As one continues to play through this game, it will become apparent to he or she that the gameplay is repetitive, bordering on inane. All one does is shoot enemies, and collect powerups. If one is particularly skilled, or utilizes the Game Over button combination to continue playing indefinitely, he or she will eventually notice that they are experiencing a strange sensation of deja-vu. When the fourth level of play has been completed, the game starts the player not at a new stage five, but back at stage two. As I mentioned before, this cycle of two-three-four, two-three-four, et cetera continues perpetually until the game is turned off. We only see stage one, once per playthrough.

I find this interesting. This would seem to be due to some technical limitation, or design flaw, but in reality, makes sense in a sadly unfortunate way. War, or military conflict as a whole runs rampant through western, and world history. It can seem as though war is a perpetual enterprise, never truly ending or beginning, but simple repeating, occasionally morphing slightly in the form of a new enemy. The way that levels in Tiger-Heli cycle endlessly represents this unending cycle of violence.

The fact that the first level is never repeated is also telling. Could this mean that despite death and sorrow our constant, and unending conflicts continually lose meaning? That we become so entrenched in bloodshed, that we neither remember, nor care about what started the violence to begin with?

In the beginning of the game, it seems that innocents are sacrificed to this fictional war, yet we never revisit that thought. After we have attacked and killed those who are helpless, we must hide, must forget these atrocities in the interest of steadfast, yet self defeating progress. For if we can truly forget this, then it is as if it never happened, and we absolve ourselves of our crimes. Forgetting also enables us to continue to repeat our mistakes, and perpetuate a static culture.

The fact that the game depicts eternal war with no redeeming outcomes is unpleasant enough. I find it downright sad to ponder the trick allowing players to endlessly continue from Game Over. It makes the death of the helicopter pilot the player controls seem beyond trivial. As soon as the pilot is dead, the controlling force, i.e. the player representing the government military in charge, suffers no consequence, and is immediately ready to send another worthless pawn to his meaningless death in a war that literally cannot be won.

We are engaged with the purposefully fictional nation of Cantun, a place that on the surface has nice residential areas, plenty of water, mountains, and a semblance of infrastructure. Nothing is unique or telling about this country, it could be almost any territory existing above third world status. In fact the name itself; Cantun, is reminiscent of the word “canton” which is derived from European languages, simply means “small corner.” So we have a huge, well funded military power, and a non descript nation presented as a small corner, or perhaps more accurately, every corner. As touched upon earlier, the nationality of the protagonist is never revealed, yet seems to be a large western power. Perhaps the true answer lies in the hidden meaning of the name itself; Tiger-Heli. Military vehicles are often given intimidating names; Black Hawk, Cobra, Chinook, Apache et cetera. Many are named after fearsome beasts, and this is true also of Tiger-Heli. Yet, why “Tiger” instead of another strong, quick and powerful animal, or cat? Jaguar, Puma, Cougar, Lion, Sabretooth, all of these would seem to get across the same point as the Tiger. When most of us think of a tiger, the first thing we think of, in fact what many of us know from early childhood, is their striking appearance. Tigers are striped.

The word helicopter is derived from the Greek words; helix, meaning spiral, and pteron (think pterodactyl) meaning wing. This makes crystal clear sense, and would explain the truncation of Helicopter to Heli. It is however interesting to note that on its own, heli would still only represent half of the total word helicopter, only the part meaning spiral. Consider if you will, another interpretation that Heli is perhaps a bastardized version of another, very similar Greek word, Helio. This word is used in relation to the sun of our solar system. It is common knowledge that our sun is a star, the brightest star in our sky. When broken down in such a way, Tiger-Heli can be interpreted in its two parts; Large predatory beast with distinct markings (stripes), and the life giving sun (star.) Could it be that the name Tiger-Heli provides us with the clues we need to see the truth of the attacking nation of the game? Stripes and stars clearly point to the US most likely being the protagonist nation.

While this is not a stunning revelation, its implications are interesting in the context of other factors regarding the game. We have the US sending us, the player, on a mission invading a small nation based solely upon hearsay, or propaganda, with no physical intelligence or proof of the threat of said nation. A nation that seems to have endless amounts of weaponry, perhaps as a result of a wealth of a valuable commodity, possibly fossil fuel as showcased in the early appearances of railroads and a huge fuel tank.

So in a full summary of this analysis, we have; Tiger-Heli, the United States, the manifestation of the stars and stripes, sending countless, military pawns to their inevitable, yet meaningless deaths in a war based only on faith in hearsay with a self sufficient nation which could represent any and every corner of the planet.

Perhaps there is more to this quaint, aging video game than seems apparent on its unassuming surface. Perhaps this is a representation of Western empire building and a culture of excess and entitlement, where the average man has no purpose but to die for his country. Perhaps Tiger-Heli shows us a fiction that is all too close to reality...

Author's Note:
Thank you for reading, and yes I know that this whole theory or (over) analysis of a simple shooting game is silly. This was simply written for my own amusement, and for the entertainment purposes of readers.

- Urkelbot