Turbo Pudding

HelicornScreenshot Saturday

Postcards from all six worlds

· The Turbo Pudding team · 4 min read

Thistle, a cream helicopter with orange trim, a green tail fin and green cannon pods, flies over Greenfold Meadows beside a straight black road, with pink and white blossom trees on rolling green hills, gray silos and the corner of a red barn on the left, small orange cone stacks on the road and the grass, a black barrel, and a yellow forklift carrying a blue crate under her

Thistle used to sow clover from the air. Now she flies across six worlds to undo the Paver’s work, one road machine at a time. It’s Saturday, so here are six postcards, one from each world, all taken in the first minute or so of a mission: Wren at the controls, Tilly on the radio, Old Hatch grumbling in his shed and the Paver shouting over all of them.

Greenfold Meadows

The cover is home: blossom trees, red barns, silos and a brand-new road where a meadow was yesterday. The first mission, Fresh Tarmac, starts gently. “Stacks and sheds first. Nothing out there shoots back. Yet,” says Tilly. The cogs that fly out of every wreck are Scrap, and Thistle only has to fly close for them to come to her. Over the meadow, the Paver makes its first announcement: “ATTENTION. THIS MEADOW IS NOW A CAR PARK.” Wren’s review: “It talks.” Tilly’s correction: “It shouts. Different thing.”

Rustrock Canyon

World 2 is red mesas and a turquoise river, and the Paver has laid rails through all of it. In Red Line, its Asphalt Trains roll down the canyon, and some of them roll onto bridges. Hatch has the plan: “Tank cars burn like the bitumen tanks. Bridges fall if you ask them nicely.” Wren: “I’ll ask with the cannon.” Drop the span while the train is on it, and the whole thing goes into the river.

Thistle, a cream helicopter with orange trim, a green tail fin and green cannon pods, flies over the sandy floor of Rustrock Canyon between tall red mesa walls, with hoodoos, tall rock pillars with caps, and a wind pump on the rim; beside her two capsules burst open inside glowing white rings and spill gold pieces, a silver cog floats on the left, and below, a road and a rail line run toward a turquoise river, where a black tank car and two wrecked freight cars sit on the rails just before a short bridge deck at the water’s edge, with more wreckage lying in the river below it
Typed “helicopter game with trains”. Fewer bridges than before.

The canyon also has road signs that aren’t quite road signs. “That DETOUR sign flips into a launcher,” warns Tilly. The Paver doesn’t see the problem: “THIS CANYON WILL BE A RING ROAD. PLEASE USE THE RING ROAD.”

Saltwind Reach

World 3 is open sea, green islands and sandy shallows. The Paver is pouring concrete pontoons into the water and running a road across the waves. The first mission is called Low Tide, and the sea comes with its own hazard. Hatch warns that “the cone floats pop when you fly over them.” Wren has a simple fix: “So I don’t fly over them.”

Thistle banks hard over the blue sea of Saltwind Reach above a long straight road built across the water, with grassy hills on a sandy island to the left, a small orange cone on a white float bobbing on the waves, a cardboard crate and a pinecone glowing inside white rings on the right, a small boat further out and cannon fire streaking ahead toward the horizon
Search: “helicopter game over the sea”. Don’t fly over the cones.

Hatch knows these islands well. “Thistle seeded these islands once. Clover from the air. Took a week.” Wren: “And it’s taking the Paver a week to undo it.” The Paver, meanwhile, has new traffic rules: “THE SEA IS NOW LANE SEVEN. PLEASE KEEP LEFT.”

Rimeridge Glacier

World 4 is blue ice, white snow fields and dark crevasses. In Whiteout, snow falls the whole way, and the Paver’s snow line runs down the left edge of the glacier with trains on it. Where the rails cross a crevasse, there’s a span, and you already know what to do with spans. Wren’s rule for flying in a blizzard: “Everything white is snow, everything yellow is a target.”

Snow falls over Rimeridge Glacier as Thistle flies over a snow field between steep blue ice cliffs dotted with dark pine trees; on the left a rail line crosses a dark blue crevasse on a short span with yellow railings, in the middle a road crosses the same crevasse on its own span with two yellow road rollers rolling over it, and a row of pink enemy shots flies across the gray sky ahead
People also ask: “is there a snow level?” A whole glacier.

Cinderworks

World 5 is the Paver’s foundry, gray ash ground, black slag heaps and tall chimneys. The first mission, Cinder Gate, brings Ladle Cranes, Gas Holders and troughs of glowing slag that sometimes erupt. Hatch explains the geysers: “A ring on the ground first, then a column. Don’t be in the column.” Wren: “Rings bad. Got it.”

Thistle flies past a tall yellow Ladle Crane holding a black ladle full of glowing orange slag, with a dark red chimney rising behind it, over the gray ground of Cinderworks; a road runs through the middle with a yellow road roller on it, a trough of orange slag glows on the left beside a yellow forklift with a blue crate, a gold capsule bursts open in a white ring and a row of pink enemy shots flies across the yard
Search history: “helicopter game factory level”. Mind the ladle.

It’s also the saddest place in the game, and Hatch says why: “Everything here was a meadow tool once. Mowers, seeders. Melted down for road parts.” Wren: “Then we’re taking them back.” And on a lighter note: “Warm in here. The rotor smells like toast.”

The Lot

World 6 is where the Paver parks everything it owns: an endless car park at sunset, with multi-story parking garages, lamp posts, toll booths in rows and Megaphones on every corner. Shoot a Megaphone, and the guns around it slow down. The Paver is very proud of the place: “WELCOME TO THE LOT. SPACES AVAILABLE: ALL OF THEM.”

Thistle flies over the endless car park of The Lot under a pale evening sky, past a gray multi-story parking garage on the left, rows of tall lamp posts, yellow toll booths with red-and-white barriers, yellow hatched lines on the asphalt and a small orange cone stack, while a burst of silver cogs and a green bonus inside a glowing ring tumble over the road on the left and a yellow forklift carries a blue crate below her
Searched “biggest parking lot game”. Found it. Unpaving now.

Wren sounds almost sorry for it: “Rows and rows of nothing. It’s almost peaceful.” What waits at the far end of The Lot, we’ll leave for you to find.

Fly the first world

World 1, Greenfold Meadows, is free to play in your browser at helicorn.com. The full game, all six worlds, is $4.99, paid once. More about the game is on its Helicorn page.

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