Choplifter followed an interesting path to the arcade. Normally a game would appear in the arcade first and then get ported to home systems. Choplifter did the exact opposite, appearing first as a home game and then making its arcade debut four years later. Less unusual is what happened to Choplifter when it did get that four-year make-over. Like a lot of other older games dusted off and packaged for a new late '80s audience, Choplifter got a lot of enhancements for its arcade release. Graphics, sound and gameplay were all fleshed out, with lots more detail, new music, new levels, and a whole lot more enemies to battle. And since arcade players like to brag about their high scores, scoring was also added to the game. Fortunately the heart of the game remained the same: to win, you must rescue hostages without getting them killed. The better news is, unlike some updates, this rechristined Choplifter is just as good of a game as the non-arcade original. The only problem is in how the game progresses from one level to the next. 32 hostages are held prisoner in every level, but you "win" if you bring back 20 or more. This makes a "full" rescue of any level impossible. That's a minor point to a typical arcade gamer who just wants to score a lot of points and get as far into the game as possible, but to someone who knew and loved the original, having to leave hostages behind might sting a little.