Flying Hero (Japan) - Software MAME

Nintendo Famicom cart. published 30 years ago:

Flying Hero © 1989 Epic - Sony Records

Flying Hero is a fire-fighting action game developed by Aicom and published by Epic/Sony Records. The plot of the game is simple - a group of courageous firemen have the unenviable task of extinguishing building fires and rescuing people in distress. The player takes control of two firefighters and a large trampoline. A third firefighter bounces off the trampoline and goes hurtling towards people in order to rescue them - as long as his friends can catch him before he painfully crashes into the ground. Each building is chock full of windows that come in two main flavors. Some feature people waiting to be rescued and the fireman can grab them, one at the time, and bring them down to safety. Some windows sometimes turn red and people will start jumping off the building to save their lives - as long as the firemen can catch them. Other windows are simply burning and hitting them reduce the blaze but also release special items which range from Power-Up (changes the color of the fireman and increase his resistance to fire), larger trampoline (cancelled out by the hammer item) and lives. However, there are a lot more items to collect, or avoid. Each burning window that the player hits drops a small flame that sets the trampoline on fire, and doing it twice brings a 'game over' unless he can collect a fire extinguisher. Other items complete the level - the trumpet calls a rain cloud that will extinguish the blaze, a curious looking staff takes the player inside the building where he has to pick up a key to unlock the exit door and, finally, the radio calls for a helicopter that complete the stage and brings the player to a bonus stage in the clouds (as long as the he can hold onto it before it exits the screen). Adding another degree of strategy, flying creatures (such as birds) move around the screen and bounce the fireman around. Although most levels each occupy a single screen, some scroll vertically as well to reveal much taller buildings.

TECHNICAL
Game ID: ESF-FZ/55-6R-3

TRIVIA
Flying Hero was released on February 17, 1989 in Japan for 5500 yen.

The game was never released outside Japan even if it was slated for an American release by ASCII. This version, renamed 'Blazebusters', was ultimately canceled. Interestingly, Flying Hero also appeared at the time in American video game magazines under the name 'Super Rescue'.

STAFF
Developed by Aicom.

CONTRIBUTE
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