Game of the Day - Battle Chopper

Battle Chopper looks cutesy - but it constantly kicks my ass.  The game is a side-scrolling (most of the time) shooter where you collect crystals for money and use the money to get power-ups.  The twist here is that you have to shoot the landscape to expose the crystals and then collect them (sometimes they fall).  Then, when you have enough $$$, you collect weapon power-ups by flying into them as they are buried in the environment.  You can see them, but they aren't collectable until you've collected enough $$$ by collecting the crystals first.  Then, the weapon-ups light up and you can fly into them and they power you up.

The difficulty level is very high as the crap just keeps on your ass.

The other interesting thing is that one button fires your gun (left or right depending on how you are facing) and the other button fires a missile straight up (the way you blast away at crystals).  BUT, there are also crystals below you and it took me a few minutes to figure out how to blast them (since the missile button fires straight up).  The answer is, if you land on the ground (or lowest level of the screen), the missile button drops bombs on the ground instead -- thus blasting away at the crystals.

Graphics are cute but nothing special.  The fun here is in the challenge and the constant moving to stay away from the pesky enemies.