AI SLOP ORIGINAL · HELICOPTER ACTION
SimCopter with the safety off: one police helicopter, four gangs, three kaiju and a ten-player city, all in a browser tab.
Free · No download · Best with a keyboard and mouse
THE PITCH
Every city-flying game has the moment where you drop below the rooftops, thread an avenue at full tilt and feel the whole place close in around you. Ghetto Bird builds its entire game out of that moment. You're the police helicopter, the one circling a neighbourhood at two in the morning with its searchlight sweeping the roofs. Except this city has four street gangs stashing gold on top of its buildings, a fleet of gang helicopters that would rather you left it there, and a kaiju nobody has managed to explain.
The loop is a heist run in reverse. Sweep the rooftops with the searchlight until a gold bag glints back, hover low to hoist it, carry up to three at a time back to the police HQ helipad and bank them before a vulture knocks one loose. Every bag you bank pushes the Gang Heat meter, and the gang answers in kind: more vultures, more drones, and eventually an orange bar at the top of the screen with a kaiju's name on it. Ten weapon systems, from a gatling to a railgun to a single nuke per game, are how you argue back.
The twist is the second role. Deploy as a Freedom Fighter and the same city turns into a third-person shooter: street caches hand out rifles, sniper rifles, RPGs, Stingers and flak, a jetpack and lifts carry you up to the rooftops, and the helicopters that were the heroes a moment ago are now the targets. Up to ten players share one room and can sit on either side of it, which is the point where Ghetto Bird stops being a toy and starts being an argument between friends.
FIELD NOTES
UNDER THE HOOD
Gatling, flamethrower, laser gatling, heat seekers, flak, rocket pod, railgun, EMP, a vortex that drags aircraft into a gravity well, and one nuke per game with a 100-metre blast radius you had better be outside of. Hoops scattered over the city hand out upgrades, fuel and repairs.
Barrel rolls, flips, quick 180s and pirouettes, each worth points, chained inside a 2.5-second window for a combo. Land them low, within 20 metres of a roof or the street, and the game pays half as much again. It quietly turns every flight between objectives into a routine.
Spot it with the searchlight, hover low to hoist it, carry three at a time, bank them at HQ. Simple to say, less simple with a vulture on your tail that knocks a bag loose on contact. Bank enough to finish a mission and the gang sends the next wave.
Ashmaw breathes fire. Cluckzilla is a rooster the size of a tower block. Dung Kong throws what you'd expect. Each stalks the nearest pilot, brawls with the others on sight and, in multiplayer, comes back after a while, so the city is never short of a problem.
The Crimson Kings, Green Vipers, Violet Saints and Orange Mob patrol the sidewalks in crews, weapons slung until they spot something worth shooting at. Helicopters, fighters, each other: nobody's exempt.
Fly, or fight on foot. Rooms hold ten, invite links are one click, and a dogfights toggle decides whether the other players are your wingmates or your targets. Night, dusk or day: pick the lighting you'd like to be shot at in.
FIRST FLIGHT
MEET YOUR BUTTONS
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
| W A S D | Fly |
| Q E | Altitude down / up |
| Mouse | Aim |
| Click | Fire |
| G | Arm or safe the weapons |
| 1 – 9 0 Wheel | Weapon system |
| Space | Searchlight |
| R C X Z | Stunts: barrel roll, flip, quick 180, pirouette |
| Hover low | Hoist gold |
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
| W A S D | Walk |
| Shift | Sprint |
| Space | Jump. Hold it in the air to fly with the jetpack (Shift boosts); it refuels on the ground |
| C | Duck (hold), or slide at a sprint |
| R | Roll |
| X | Backflip |
| F | Ride a lift to the roof |
| Click | Fire. For a Stinger, hold your aim on an aircraft until it says LOCKED |
| Right-click | Aim down the sights: hold to zoom in, with a steadier aim and a slower walk. With the sniper rifle, look through its scope |
| Wheel | Change weapons, or zoom the sniper scope (3× to 16×) while it's up |
BEFORE YOU PRESS START
Yes, in the uncomplicated sense: no price, no account, no download, no energy meter. Open the page and fly.
Yes. Choose Multiplayer, join a room and copy the invite link. Up to ten people share the city, and the dogfights toggle decides whether you're on the same side.
Not yet. It wants a keyboard and a mouse, so play it on a desktop or laptop. It runs in the browser, so there's nothing to install either way.
As long as you like. There's no campaign to finish: missions roll on, the gang escalates, and you leave when the kaiju wins or the coffee runs out.
It's the nickname for the police helicopter that circles a neighbourhood at night, the one Ice Cube wrote a song about. In this game, you're the bird.
Nobody knows. There are three, they fight each other when they meet, and they're worth a lot of points. Keep clear of the breath.
Only your callsign and menu settings, in your own browser. There are no accounts and nothing about your games is stored on our side. See the privacy policy.
PATCH NOTES
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