Tiger-Heli on Famicom: Toaplan’s First Shooter, Its PNF-TH Cartridge, and the Sequel Called Kyukyoku Tiger

Tiger-Heli was Toaplan’s first shooting game: an arcade helicopter shooter from 1985, sold by Taito, that scrolls upward over tanks, gun emplacements and boats. A year later it came home as a Famicom cartridge from Pony, released in Japan on 5 December 1986.

It also started a line. Toaplan’s 1987 follow-up, 究極タイガー (Kyukyoku Tiger, sold abroad as Twin Cobra), is the sequel, and it went to more Japanese systems than any other Toaplan game. This guide is about finding the Famicom Tiger-Heli, with the Kyukyoku Tiger cartridges and discs alongside it.

• The cartridge: タイガーヘリ, Famicom, Pony, 5 December 1986, 4,900円 before tax
• Product code: PNF-TH; barcode 4988013007994
• Abroad: an NES version came out in North America in September 1987, from Acclaim
• The sequel: Kyukyoku Tiger (Twin Cobra) — PC Engine TP01001, Famicom CBS-QT, Mega Drive T-24033; its own sequel on the Saturn is T-18715G
• Both in one: 究極タイガーヘリ (2021) collects the arcade games and the Famicom and NES Tiger-Heli — Switch HAC-P-AXMVB, PlayStation 4 PLJM-16923
• Buying it: search タイガーヘリ ファミコン at both Japanese shops

What was Tiger-Heli?

Japanese Wikipedia describes it as Toaplan’s first shooting game, made by Toaplan and sold by Taito in 1985. You fly a helicopter with a short-range main shot and a bomb that explodes over an area, wiping out enemies and cancelling their bullets. Japanese Wikipedia calls it the first vertical-scrolling shooter with this “bomber system”, which later became standard in the genre.

It is also hard. Your helicopter is slow, its hit box is large, and tanks keep firing from behind; Japanese Wikipedia puts the difficulty in the upper range and notes that learning where enemies appear makes it far easier. The arcade game has four stages. Small support helicopters, picked up from panels on the ground, fly beside you and add fire.

Which Famicom cartridge is it?

The Famicom version was developed by Micronics and published by Pony, on a 512-kilobit cartridge. The code is PNF-TH: it is on Suruga-ya’s trade-in page for the cartridge, on FamiWiki and in NesCartDB. The Media Arts Database has the cartridge (M878180, 4900円 (税抜)) but no product code; we added PNF-TH to the Kataban catalog on 14 October 2026.

The North American NES cartridge, from Acclaim, is the same game for a different console. And a Famicom cartridge needs a Famicom: it is a 60-pin board that does not fit an NES without an adapter.

Is Kyukyoku Tiger the sequel?

Yes. Japanese Wikipedia introduces 究極タイガー as the sequel to Tiger-Heli: a 1987 Toaplan arcade game, again sold by Taito, in which you fly the “Battle Tiger” helicopter against a giant fortress. Overseas it became Twin Cobra, with two players at once. It was a big hit, and Japanese Wikipedia says it is the Toaplan game ported to the most platforms. The Japanese home versions:

• PC Engine: TP01001, Taito, 31 March 1989 — the version that entered Famitsu’s Gold Hall of Fame
• Famicom: CBS-QT, CBS/Sony, 4 August 1989 (listed as 究極TIGER)
• Mega Drive: T-24033, Treco, 22 February 1991
• Saturn: 究極タイガーII PLUS, T-18715G, Naxat, 18 December 1997 — a port of the 1995 arcade sequel 究極タイガーII, made by Takumi

The Saturn disc is sold under Naxat, a brand of Kaga Tech, which is the company name the Media Arts Database records.

Is there a modern way to play both?

Yes. 究極タイガーヘリ, released by M2 on 28 October 2021 for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, collects the arcade Tiger-Heli and Kyukyoku Tiger together with home versions — Japanese Wikipedia lists the Famicom and NES Tiger-Heli among them. Famitsu reported a boxed edition at 7,480円 and a download edition at 3,960円, both including tax. The boxed editions are HAC-P-AXMVB (Switch) and PLJM-16923 (PlayStation 4); we added both to the Kataban catalog on 14 October 2026. If you want the original cartridge, though, it is still the 1986 Pony cartridge.

Where can you buy them today?

On 14 October 2026 we counted 33 listings of the Tiger-Heli cartridge and 16 of the Famicom Kyukyoku Tiger on Buyee.

Tiger-Heli · タイガーヘリ · Famicom, 5 December 1986 (PNF-TH) · Pony

Where to buy: Suruga-ya.jp — title (タイガーヘリ ファミコン) · Buyee — the same words · eBay — Tiger Heli famicom

Kyukyoku Tiger · 究極TIGER · Famicom, 4 August 1989 (CBS-QT) · CBS/Sony

Where to buy: Suruga-ya.jp — title (究極タイガー ファミコン) · Buyee — the same words · eBay — Kyukyoku Tiger famicom

Search Kataban: Tiger-Heli → · タイガーヘリ → · Twin Cobra → · 究極タイガー →

Holding a boxed copy? Scan the barcode on the back of the box with Kataban’s scanner, and it finds the cartridge.

Why search Kataban for this one?

Because the two games share a word but not a name. A search for タイガーヘリ finds the Famicom cartridge, the two 2021 究極タイガーヘリ editions and the four Kyukyoku Tiger entries, because the catalogue also files the sequel under that name; Tiger-Heli finds the Famicom cartridge and the same four. 究極タイガー finds the four Kyukyoku Tiger entries — PC Engine, Famicom, Mega Drive and the Saturn sequel — plus the two 2021 editions, and Twin Cobra finds the four without them. Each appears with its platform and code, so you can tell the two games apart.

One tip on codes: at Suruga-ya, PNF-TH also brings up 子猫物語, another Pony cartridge, so the title is the cleaner search there.

A slow helicopter, a screen-clearing bomb and a short-range gun: Tiger-Heli set out the pattern that Kyukyoku Tiger made famous. The cartridge that brought it home is easy to find, as long as you search for the right name.