Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first few minutes of Action Force make you feel less like an all-conquering pilot and more like a frantic escort. The AWE buggy trundles onward below while you fly Wild Bill’s Dragonfly overhead, swatting at enemy aircraft and watching the road ahead for gaps. That constant need to split your attention is the game’s best idea. You are guarding a vehicle that cannot protect itself, and its momentum turns every stretch of terrain into a looming problem.

Bridge duty is what gives the action its nervous edge. You must lift bridge parts and lower them over gaps so the buggy can continue safely, all while hostile aircraft are trying to destroy it. It is a good fit for the helicopter theme: the craft is not merely a gun platform, but an emergency response vehicle. When you spot the next hazard, deal with the threat, and get a bridge into place before the AWE reaches disaster, Action Force briefly feels like a proper airborne rescue mission.

Then the punishment starts to wear on you. The AWE has 100 hit points and the Dragonfly has 200, but certain bombs and terrain can kill either instantly. That makes the game far less forgiving than its simple side-view action initially suggests. You need patience, quick prioritisation, and a willingness to replay dangerous sections after one bad approach. If that pressure sounds exciting, the central challenge clicks; if you want a breezier 1980s shooter, the escort demands may feel like more stress than fun.

Graphics

The side-view camera keeps the Dragonfly, the slowly advancing AWE buggy, enemy aircraft, and the gaps needing bridge pieces in the same readable slice of landscape. You spend much of the game watching the small ground vehicle below while steering the helicopter above it, which makes the vulnerable convoy easy to track.

Different landscapes mark progress between levels, and end-of-level messages give each completed run a small pause before the next stretch of danger.

Story

COBRA’s attack on Botsneda gives Action Force a clear, appropriately pulpy assignment: secret documents have been left behind, and letting COBRA recover them would create a security breach. Rather than launch an all-out counterattack, the island’s defenders send an AWE buggy through terrain it can navigate and assign Wild Bill to keep it alive from the air.

It is a thin premise, but it works because the story directly explains the unusual mission structure. The buggy’s lack of defenses is why you have to protect it; the broken route is why bridge lifting matters. Nothing is wasted on elaborate storytelling when the real drama is whether that little vehicle survives another screen.

Messages at the end of each level provide the game’s story punctuation before another landscape begins. Do not come here for character development, but the COBRA-versus-Action Force framing gives your defensive scramble a specific purpose instead of making it feel like a random score chase.

Overall Experience

Action Force has a stronger core idea than its middling reputation might suggest. Escorting the AWE while shooting down aircraft and building safe crossings creates a nice three-way tension between combat, positioning, and timing. It asks you to think beyond simply staying alive, because a perfectly healthy helicopter still fails the mission if the buggy drives into a gap.

The trouble is that its instant-kill hazards make that tension abrasive as often as thrilling. A game this demanding needs you to accept failure as part of learning the route and threats. When you are in the mood for strict, old-school arcade pressure, that can be absorbing. When you only want to blast enemy aircraft, the buggy can feel like a liability you are forever rescuing from its own forward motion.

Give it a chance if the idea of an escort shooter with aerial bridge work sounds more interesting than a standard helicopter game. Its rough edges are real, but so is the satisfaction of shepherding the AWE through another hostile landscape. If you want to continue with the series, Action Force II: International Heroes is the natural next stop.

Retro Replay Score

5.7/10