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Stage Flow[edit]
Each stage follows a prescribed pattern that you play through as you fight your way to the end, where you must survive in a battle against a boss in order to advance to the next stage. Throughout the stage, a distance meter is displayed at he top of the screen, below the score, indicating just how much farther in the stage you have to go until you reach the boss.
- Overhead view
- You begin each stage in an overhead view, or bird's eye view. You view the scene from directly above the helicopter, looking straight down at the ground. Both your guns and your missiles are always directed down at the ground. You have control over your altitude and may get closer or father away from the ground as you wish. In many stages, you must avoid colliding with buildings or cliff walls as you fly. While you are primarily concerned with projectiles being fired at you, you must also evade any helicopters that suddenly rise off the ground and attempt to collide with you. After you fly in the mode for a while, you will automatically transition to the next mode.
- Behind-the-cockpit view
- The camera will adjust from a position above the helicopter, to a position directly behind the helicopter, giving you more of a view ahead of you. While your missiles will continue to drop to the ground, your guns are now directed straight ahead in the helicopter's direction. It is generally a bit harder to hit things in this view since they must either pass in front of you, and the path of your Gatling gun, or they must be immediately below you in order for the missiles to hit. You also have a higher likelihood of crashing into obstacles or enemies if you don't pay attention to what's ahead of you.
- Boss battle
- Once you reach the end of the stage, the camera will return to Overhead view (in all stages but the final stage.) Back in this view, you must fire your guns and missiles to take out as many offensive batteries that the large boss vehicle has at its disposal, and reach the front of the boss. Doing so automatically destroys the boss regardless of how much damage you've done. In fact, you don't even need to destroy a single battery, as long as you fly fast enough to get ahead of the boss. On the final stage, the view remains in the "Behind-the-cockpit" view for a different type of boss battle.
When a boss battle is concluded, you are awarded bonus points based on two factors: how long it took you to reach the end of the stage, and how many hits, or destroyed vehicles, you achieved. Obviously when it comes to time, the faster you are, the more points you will win. When it comes to hits, you are awarded points on the following basis:
| Hits | Bonus |
|---|---|
| 50 or over | 500,000 |
| From 40 to 49 | 250,000 |
| From 30 to 39 | 100,000 |
| From 20 to 29 | 50,000 |
| From 10 to 19 | 10,000 |
| From 5 to 9 | 5,000 |
| From 0 to 4 | No bonus |