Maybe you’re like me and you have a few games that blend together in your mind. Maybe they have really similar gameplay and aesthetics like Overwatch and Battleborn, or perhaps any multitude of racing games. There’s also games that have similar titles, similar covers, etc. That’s precisely where I found myself with RC Helicopter and RC Stunt Copter, both Playstation action games and both relatively forgotten my most gamers these days. While I wouldn’t call them stellar games, they are both fun for a single play session, which is a lot more than you can say for other 20+ year old games.
Though both games feature helicopter or helicopter-adjacent flying machines, the gameplay of each is quite different. RC Helicopter involves various missions around your home town, using your remote controlled flying machine to do tasks like picking up trash and placing it in a garbage can, or collecting baseballs that have been stuck on the roof. This usually involves precise navigation over the object, pressing a button to grab your desired object, then flying back to your next obstacle. It’s simple, but somewhat marred by poor controls.
RC Stunt Copter on the other hand is more of a precision movement and high score type game. The big challenge comes from physically maneuvering the Stunt Copter around each environment. There are buttons for elevation and descent, buttons for acceleration and braking, and buttons for turning. It all comes together in a sort of QWOP or Grow Home type way, challenging you to learn the controls to effectively complete each stage. Speaking of stages, they have much more variety over RC Helicopter, with some having goals of navigating an obstacle course, others with defeating enemy targets, and more having you land in a goal zone. This assuredly gives RC Stunt Copter the award for a more thorough game, but it still isn’t one for everyone.
Oddly enough, there are a lot of similarities and differences in the visuals of these two games. Sure both feature a tiny helicopter flying around doing stuff, but the presentation of said action could not be more different. RC Helicopter is an Anime styled game of all things, with cut scenes, character portraits, and a Japanese aesthetic. Stunt Copter has more of a bright, colorful, arcade sports game feel to it. While I associated the two games together in my head prior to playing them, I can easily differentiate between the two having spent some time with each. I think I preferred the charm of RC Helicopter a bit more, if for no other reason than how absurd some of the requests and actions are.
How absurd, you ask? How about using your RC helicopter to fight possessed pictures of famous composers? Or battling Yokai swimming around the local pool? If that’s too spooky for you, there are also tasks like moving post office packages from one side of the train tracks to another, because something that wild can only be done by someone with an RC Helicopter. This is very much the biggest appeal to RC Helicopter: You wouldn’t assume it from the cover art or the title, but this little game has a good bit of fun and laughs for anyone that plays it. Is it a good game? Absolutely not. But it certainly isn’t a bad game.
Not to be left on the tarmac, RC Stunt Copter also has it’s quirkiness, but not in its visuals and presentation, but rather in its sound. Specifically, the announcer. From the very start of the game and in every stage after, an announcer will give commentary on your performance, and hot damn is he sassy! If you score lower than the top two or three slots on a stage, he’ll berate you for placing poorly. If you fail to stick the landing on a stage he’ll say something sarcastic like “that’s the best landing I’ve seen” and then send you on your way to the next stage. The sheer amount of different voice lines and one-liners was impressive, and I found myself chuckling along with the losses.
As I look back on this streaming project to play these games, surprisingly enough RC Stunt Copter and RC Helicopter will likely be some of the favorites. For the latter it’s due to the total unexpectedness of it all. For the former, the announcer and stage variety. What each game lacks the other excels at, but only in a 6 out of 10 sort of way. Flight simulation enthusiasts as well as action or sports game fans won’t find much here outside of a single play session. But that’s all these games really need to have in order to show you what they are, give you a good time, and create a fun memory. And what more can you ask from from a couple of games about remote controlled helicopters?
Laters,
Jsick
