History VideoGame / StrikeSeries

* CrimefightingWithCash: The Russian mob in ''Soviet Strike'' during the Moscow mission can be swayed to your side by "buying" them (namely, dropping a crate on a helipad near them) with valuables: gold, diamonds, counterfeit cash, [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers [=TVs=] and genuine jeans]].

* ObviousBeta: Mission 4 of ''Soviet Strike'' climaxes in an EnemyCivilWar between Vila Ceausescu and Dr. Ukranian. Or at least that's what was ''supposed'' to happen, as the final objective seems to have been rushed: Vila's tank is nigh-invulnerable, and while she one-shots several of Ukranian's lesser goons on her way to fight him, she's incapable of harming him or the player. The player themselves can't hurt Ukranian or his elite bodyguards, who don't move or react to being attacked by you or Vila in any way. The "recommended" way of completing this mission requires the player to wait for Vila to reach the graveyard (whereupon she endlessly and ineffectually fires at Ukranian while he and his bodyguards stare off into space) and then drop a nearby tombstone on her. Trying to fight her "normally" will take your entire ammo reserves and then some. Somewhat lampshaded as Hack tells you that both Vila's and Ukranian's tanks are custom models with ''lots'' of extra armor and that they don't care about you, only about killing their rival.
** In the same mission, the [=UN=] forces are duking it out with Ukranian's men. You ''somehow'' can't damage them until you've dropped Amad to take command of the [=UN=] forces.

* ViolationOfCommonSense: Due to an oversight ([[ObviousBeta shocker]]) not only do you not have to rescue Nick in the final level of ''Soviet Strike'', it's actually recommended that you ''don't'', as the four [=ICBMs=] that you have to destroy as the BigBad [[TimeLimitBoss is escaping]] will only trigger after you pick him up. Ignoring Nick allows you to unload on Shadowman's plane at your leisure, [[EasyLevelTrick essentially cutting the game's final mission in half]].

** The [[ObviousBeta rushed nature]] of the Dracula mission in ''Soviet Strike'' means you never fight Dr. Ukranian, and what becomes of him is unknown.

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: Neither mission in ''Soviet Strike'' takes place in Russia until the final one: Crimea and Black Sea Strike take place at the south of Ukraine (at the time of the game's release), Caspian Strike is most likely set in Iran, "to the north of [[CallBack Operation Desert Strike]]", and Dracula Strike takes place in Transylvania, which has been *Romanian* territory for a long time. The artistic license part becomes even more obvious when you realize that, according to the loading screens, both Crimea and Transylvania are located "somewhere in Southern Russia".

* ShoutOut: The first enemy you're likely to see in the second game is an ordinary van with an RPG-wielding terrorist in the roof hatch, ripped right out of ''Film/BackToTheFuture''.

* {{FMV}}: The fifth generation titles were loaded with them. Mission briefings, intel and updates used live actors and stock footage, where enemy profiles usually used CG. All the relevant information can be read through as with the previous games, as well as political views and motivations of who you're fighting, with videos available with a button press. The N64 port of ''Nuclear Strike'' lacked these however.

* GratuitousRussian: To the surprise of no one, Russian writings in lowercase cursive are sprinkled all over ''Soviet Strike'''s [=FMV's=]. Also, Vladimir Chisinau's and Grymyenko [[MyNaymeIs Ukranian]]'s names. The former's family name references Moldova's capital - which is localized differently in the Russian language and thus, should've been transliterated as is. Ukranian, meanwhile, has ''two'' family names to himself.

* SensoryAbuse: The FMV's in ''Soviet Strike'' and ''Nuclear Strike'' are rife with obsessive-compulsive editing, complete with abundant usage of filters, running lines of code and numbers, multiple picture-in-picture scenes and frequent angle transitions that could even happen mid-sentence. Think [[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianDawn EVA]]'s computery animations but more in-your-face.

* BottomlessMagazines: ''Jungle Strike'' features an F-117 with literally infinite ammo. This was done because the game's mechanics weren't really designed to handle a constantly moving jet fighter. That and the level has significantly less fuel and ammo pickups, so you will ''need'' to use the Stealth to stay afloat.

* ''Jungle Strike'', which deals with General Kilbaba's son Ibn Kilbaba forming an alliance with the Colombian drug dealer Carlos Ortega in the name of revenge. After their initial assassination attempts on the President of the United States are foiled, the player is sent into South America to locate and capture them.

* {{FMV}}: The fifth generation titles were loaded with them. Mission briefings, intel and updates used live actors and stock footage, where enemy profiles usually used CG. All the relevant information can be read through as with the previous games, as well as political views and motivations of who you're fighting, with videos available with a button press. The N64 port of Nuclear Strike lacked these however.

* FoxChickenGrainPuzzle: An interesting take on this happens during Soviet Strike with Amad's family: his sister Delilah (The Fox), his uncle Nimrud (The Chicken), and his cousin Bessus (The Grain). If Nimrud's forces cross paths with either of the others, the two groups will fight. You also have to make sure they fight the right enemy units or else they will be obliterated. It also fits nicely with their personalities: Delilah is cunning and sneaky, Nimrud is a hotheaded playboy, Bessus doesn't give a crap about the family feud and prefers to tend his farm. To hammer it home, Delilah and Bessus use respectively light tanks and [=APCs=] while Nimrud uses [=WW2=]-era heavy tanks and the enemies consist of a column of heavy tanks and a column of light tanks.

* InsurmountableWaistHeightFence: Your chopper can't change altitude, so you have to fly around two story buildings or mountains. Urban Strike has you flying over the fog of San Francisco, with the taller buildings and Golden Gate Bridge jutting above it. The Fifth Generation games alter this slightly, having your helicopter constantly flying at a given altitude above the ground. You'll be shown flying up over hills and small buildings, but you still have to fly around larger geographic features and structures.

* IntrepidReporter: Andrea's job is to act as one to deliver cover-up stories for Strike missions.

* KilledOffForReal: There's one mission in Urban Strike where you can kill your copilot. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Naturally, this removes them from the game.]] Oddly though, the player isn't court-martialed for it, and the rest of the mission is restarted like nothing happened,

* MagicPlasticSurgery: Carlos Ortega, the South American drug lord, survives the final mission in ''Jungle Strike'' and changes his identity to that of the very American H.R. Malone for ''Urban Strike''. The first mission in Urban Strike involves finding the plastic surgeon who worked on him.

** Armor Repair Toolboxes instantly repair all damage to your chopper with no explanation as to how or even what was fixed. HandWaved in Nuclear Strike as the SMART Armor. Also acts as a medkit for the pilot himself in ''Urban Strike''.

* MoreDakka: In Nuclear Strike, you can pick up weapon packs that change either your rockets or your missiles with something else. Typically, these will be autocannons. Try using them alongside your regular machineguns for even ''more'' dakka.

* NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead: Fail a mission via SNAFU and Earle will angrily chew you out on the game over screen. Fail a mission via death and Earle will be solemnly mourning the loss of the Commander no matter how badly you were doing before.

* NonLethalWarfare: The "News Chopper" in one Nuclear Strike mission which is only armed with pellets, tear gas and smoke bombs. Somehow, this does not stop it from being able to blow up tanks.

* RedAlert: Flying into areas you're not supposed to yet will trigger "Danger Zones" in which enemies will become near-invincible and too powerful to fight. As you complete objectives and eliminate early-warning systems like radar dishes and guard towers, these zones will vanish.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Urban Strike was made in 1994 and takes place in 2001. Many, many fictional weapons inexplicably appeared during this timeframe.

* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: One mission in Urban Strike has your copilot exit your chopper to complete an objective. Naturally, you can kill them, although this removes them from the playthrough. Oddly, you only get chewed out by your CO for it, instead of getting charged for treason.

* WesternTerrorists: Beauford Lemonde, the BigBad of Nuclear Strike, is an ex CIA agent turned warlord who, after stealing a nuclear device from Belarus (heavily implied to be the remnant of Shadowman), sparks chaos from the Indochina, South China Sea (where Lemonde bluffs STRIKE with false leads) to Korea (where Lemonde successfully nuke North Korea, almost sparking a war between North and South that was thwarted by STRIKE decimating the remnants of the North Korea army at the DMZ border), with the final goal of [[OmnicidalManiac launching nuclear missile into the atmosphere to destroy the atmosphere's ozone layer itself]] [[ForTheEvulz for basically no reason other than he can.]]

* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: Jungle Strike's climactic mission is set in the dense Amazon, blowing up secret underground bases and fighting enemy Apache helicopters until you eventually capture the BigBadDuumvirate and take them back to Washington DC to stand trial at the Supreme Court... and then the remains of the Drug Lord's army invade DC and bust them out, forcing you to evacuate the president, wipe out the enemy forces and kill the two once and for all. However, ''Urban Strike'' reveals that only Ibn was killed after his escape vehicle was destroyed by the player, but Ortega was still at large.

The ''Strike'' Series were a series of five games from Creator/ElectronicArts, where the player took control of a combat helicopter to undertake several missions for the US government (and later on a fictional American covert military arm known as STRIKE), usually attempting to thwart the plans and lives of various megalomaniacal dictators or warlords threatening the world's safety.

The games were played from an {{isometric p|rojection}}erspective, and as such were more tactical than an out and out shooting game, requiring precision in 360 degrees.

The series included:
* ''VideoGame/DesertStrike'', set at the end of the Gulf War where the player must thwart the Saddam Hussein-a-like General Kilbaba.
* ''Jungle Strike'', which dealt with the son of Kilbaba making negotiations with the notoriously dangerous Colombian drug dealer Carlos Ortega in South America after his initial assassination attempts on the President of the United States.
* ''Urban Strike'', whose main enemy is H.R. Malone, an insidious politician who takes control of the media and plans to convert the USA into his personal armed fortress.
* ''Soviet Strike'', the first of two Fifth Generation games where the STRIKE organisation must take down a mysterious Russian terrorist called "The Shadowman" and his plans to bring back the glory of Soviet Russia through violence.

* NonStandardGameOver: If at any point you render a mission unwinnable or destroy major landmarks, you'll be sent a Return to Base/SNAFU message, which you must do in order to restart the mission from the beginning.

** After the first mission in Urban Strike you learn that the villain H.R. Malone is actually Carlos Ortega, one of the main villains of Jungle Strike who has undergone plastic surgery. This plot point never comes up again, even when you face Malone in person.
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: Jungle Strike's climactic mission is set in the dense Amazon, blowing up secret underground bases and fighting enemy Apache helicopters until you eventually capture the BigBadDuumvirate and take them back to Washington DC to stand trial at the Supreme Court... and then the remains of the Drug Lord's army invade DC and bust them out, forcing you to evacuate the president, wipe out the enemy forces and kill the two once and for all. However, only the Mad Man was killed after his escape vehicle was being destroyed by the player, but the Drug Lord himself was still at large.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: The intro sequence in the original Sega Genesis version of ''Desert Strike'' included a scene where a guard is slowly lowering a prisoner hanging from a rope into a large bubbling vat, possibly meant to be boiling water. Later versions changed the scene to simply have the prisoner standing behind bars with the guard standing in front of them.

* ElvisImpersonator: There are dancing Elvis impersonators inside the Las Vegas casino in ''Urban Strike''. If you hang around one long enough, their dancing will generate an armor crate for you. This particular mission is ''extremely'' difficult because of how hard it is to avoid enemy fire while running around on foot, so these guys can be crucial to your survival.

* {{FMV}}: The fifth generation titles were loaded with them. Mission briefings, intel and updates used live actors and stock footage, where enemy profiles usually used CG. All the relevant information can be read through as with the previous games, as well as political views and motivations of who you're fighting, with videos available with a button press.
** The N64 port of Nuclear Strike lacked these however.

* MadScientist: Dr Ukranian in ''Soviet Strike'' is obsessed with the idea of curing the radiation poisoning in Transylvania, to the point that he has his private army kidnap local citizens and [=UN=] peacekeepers to experiment on them. It's implied he did find a cure, as Ivan Uralia was one of his patients.

** Armor Repair Toolboxes instantly repair all damage to your chopper with no explanation as to how or even what was fixed. HandWaved in Nuclear Strike as the SMART Armor.
*** Also acts as a medkit for the pilot himself.

** The first and last levels of ''Jungle Strike'' take place in Washington D.C. with several associated monuments that can be destroyed (but will lead to a mission failed). In the first level you have to protect them from terrorists.

* NonStandardGameOver: Of a "Mission Failed" variety, it's called "SNAFU".

* CriticalExistenceFailure: Your chopper can be shot full of holes from all manner of rocket and AA gunfire, down to 5 remaining hitpoints and still keep fighting just as well as it does at 100% health, but one stray bullet from a soldier's rifle, and...

* DestroyableItems: In ''Jungle Strike'', the player can blow up half the buildings in Washington DC and still win the mission with no more than a few points deducted from the mission's final score. Just be sure not to blow up any famous monuments.... or the soldier standing guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The IRS Building is fair game, though, and you actually ''earn'' points for blowing it up.

* DestroyableItems: In ''Jungle Strike'', the player can blow up half the buildings in Washington DC and still win the mission with no more than a few points deducted from the mission's final score. Just be sure not to blow up any famous monuments.... or the soldier standing guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The ''Strike'' Series were a series of five games from Creator/ElectronicArts, where the player took control of a combat helicopter to undertake several missions for the US government (and later on a mercenary organisation known as STRIKE), usually attempting to thwart the plans and lives of various megalomaniacal dictators or warlords threatening the world's safety.

** The SA-4 Ganef is a [=TEL=] (Transporter Erector Launcher) vehicle, not a [=TELAR=] (Transporter Erector Launcherr and Radar). It requires a Radar equipped vehicle to accompany it and relay targeting data and it needs to remain still to fire. As a long-range medium-to-high altitude air defense system, it would fare poorly against low-altitude threats. Especially if they were flying nap-of-the earth.

* AwesomeMcCoolName: The pirate Octad leader Napoleon Hwong in Nuclear Strike's second mission, as well as the mercenary Cash Harding that you will hire in the same mission.

* UpToEleven: The final mission in ''Soviet Strike''. Saving the Russian government (including Boris Yeltsin) from a [[RenegadeRussian rogue Russian army]] invading Moscow? Plausible. Kidnapping and interrogating a Russian mob boss by dropping him in the bear pit of the local zoo? Silly but okay. Destroying Lenin's Mausoleum to reveal the secret entrance of the BigBad's hideout? No way. [[spoiler: Razing ''the whole Kremlin and Saint Basil's Cathedral'' as they're actually hiding nuclear missiles]]? This trope.

* WeaponOfMassDestruction: Chemical, bio and nuke weapons in ''Desert Strike'', nukes in ''Jungle Strike'', super-lasers in ''Urban Strike'', nukes in ''Soviet Strike'' and Nuclear Strike. Taken UpToEleven in the final mission of Nuclear Strike: [[spoiler:A pair of missiles named 'Shiva's Daggers' which will cause chain reaction to the earth's ozone layer, stripping it and exposing the earth to the sun's radiation in full, culminating with TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.]]

* ViolationOfCommonSense: Due to an oversight ([[ObviousBeta shocker]]) not only do you not have to rescue Nick in the final level, it's actually recommended that you ''don't'', as the four [=ICBMs=] that you have to destroy as the BigBad [[TimeLimitBoss is escaping]] will only trigger after you pick him up. Ignoring Nick allows you to unload on Shadowman's plane at your leisure, [[EasyLevelTrick essentially cutting the game's final mission in half]].

* WeaponizedLandmark: In ''Soviet Strike'' towers in the Kremlin wall turn out to be hiding ICBM missiles. The cannon statue behind its walls is, surprisingly, an actual loaded cannon.

* WalkIntoMordor: {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''Urban Strike''; while the player enters [[TheVeryDeifnitelyFinalDungeon Malone's Casino]] on foot, they get back to da choppa when it comes time to scour his ElaborateUndergroundBase beneath the casino.

* WarriorPoet: Amad in ''Soviet Strike'' is an Iraqi-born former [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships SAS operative]] who both speaks in a rather flowery manner and quotes various philosophical lines.

* WeaponizedLandmark: In ''Soviet Strike'' towers in the Kremlin wall turn out to be hiding ICBM missiles. The cannon statue behind its' walls is, surprisingly, an actual cannon.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: In ''Desert Strike'', General Kilbaba (who invades a small but wealthy Arab emirate) is basically Saddam Hussein and the camouflage-wearing man giving the mission briefings resembles General "Stormin' Norman" Schwarzkopf. In Jungle Strike, Carlos Ortega is a very powerful South American drug lord, like Pablo Escobar.

* ArtisticLicenseGeoraphy: Neither mission in ''Soviet Strike'' takes place in Russia until the final one: Crimea and Black Sea Strike take place at the south of Ukraine (at the time of the game's release), Caspian Strike is most likely set in Iran, "to the north of [[CallBack Operation Desert Strike]]", and Dracula Strike takes place in Transylvania, which has been *Romanian* territory for a long time. The artistic license part becomes even more obvious when you realize that, according to the loading screens, both Crimea and Transylvania are located "somewhere in Southern Russia".