Desert Strike Return to the Gulf is a shoot ’em up video game released by Electronic Arts (EA) in March 1992^[2] for the Sega Genesis. The game was released on several other formats such as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, including a much upgraded version for the Amiga home computer. The game was inspired by the Gulf War and depicts a conflict between an insane Middle Eastern dictator, General Kilbaba, and the United States. The player controls an Apache helicopter and attempts to destroy enemy weapons and installations, rescue hostages and capture enemy personnel, while managing supplies of fuel and ammunition.

Lead designer Mike Posehn had no video game experience prior to developing Desert Strike. Inspired by Choplifter, he aimed to create a nonlinear game with smoothly animated vehicles. Posehn developed a camera system with momentum to mimic realistic helicopter movements. Three-dimensional (3D) modeling was used to generate the vehicle sprites, which were later touched up on the pixel level with color.

Desert Strike was a commercial success: it was a chart-topping best seller and at the time Electronics Arts’ highest selling game. The game also received a favourable critical response, with several magazines awarding scores of over 90%. Reviewers praised the game’s enjoyability, mix of action and strategy, graphics and sound. There was some controversy regarding the game’s subject matter, with commentators criticising it as in poor taste due to the proximity of its release to the recently ended Gulf War.

Gameplay

The player’s Apache engages anti-aircraft weapons in order to attack the grounded aircraft

Desert Strike is a shoot ’em up game in which the player pilots an AH-64 Apache helicopter (albeit modified with a Fenestron rotor). The game is less frantic than typical shoot ’em ups, with the addition of greater strategic elements.^[3] The action takes place on open, multi-directional scrolling levels viewed from an isometric perspective.^[4] The player views the action from outside the helicopter, rather than from within the cockpit.^[5]

Levels consist of several missions, which are based around the destruction of enemy weapons and installations, as well as rescuing hostages or prisoners of war, or capturing enemy personnel.^[6] The Apache is armed with a machine gun, more powerful Hydra rockets and yet more deadly Hellfire missiles.

Plot

The game opens with a self-proclaimed general named Kilbaba invading one of his neighbors, a small but wealthy emirate in the Persian Gulf. Installing himself as dictator, Kilbaba quickly begins fortifying his position with military weapons and installations, including facilities for building nuclear bombs. The United States decides to send in a single helicopter, piloted by the player’s unnamed character and aided by a co-pilot, to infiltrate and destroy Kilbaba’s forces in a series of swift strikes.^[9]

Altogether, four missions need to be resolved:

• In the first level (Air Superiority), the player must destroy several enemy airstrips and their support facilities, as well as liberate an exposed pro-American spy who holds important information about Kilbaba’s next plans.
• Reception[edit]
• Reception
• Desert Strike was an immediate commercial success, going straight to the top of sales charts.^[28] The game remained a top-10 best seller for months after its release,^[14] and was at the time Electronic Arts’ highest selling game ever.^[15]