GI Joe: Wrath of the Cobra review

Today we offer a return to a franchise and a genre whose heyday was the 90s of the 20th century. GI Joe: The Wrath of the Cobra takes over the “Joes” and invites us to clean the streets again, this time from the evil “Cobra”. Maple Powered Games recovers the franchise from one of the most famous toys in history. Are we facing a good match? Well, keep reading to try to answer that question.

GI Joe, a fever of the last century

GI Joes were military soldier toys that appeared in the 60s of the last century. His success was very great and he had several lines over different decades. One of them, GI Joe: a true American hero He arrived from 1982 to 1994 and was one of the peaks of sales and fame for the franchise. In Europe, at the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s, a real fever broke out, fueled by animated series.. No toy line has been as successful as this one, and in fact, even today, some vehicles and characters from this era have been incredibly re-evaluated.

The franchise was adapted for cinema with films of questionable quality a few years ago. Something similar, or worse, happens with his video game adaptations. The most recent, the catastrophic GI Joe Operation Blackout. Only a '90s arcade knew how to get the most out of the franchise.

Beat them

GI Joe: The Wrath of the Cobra It takes up the classic genre of cleaning the screens of criminals with your bare fist. This choice of genre probably comes from the recent success of works like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, Streets of Rage 4 o Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons. The genre seems to be experiencing a second youth and any franchise is good for appealing to nostalgia for the genre and the franchise itself.

The title fully respects the classic elements of the genre. we will have normal blow, powerful blow and special attack. The special is “loaded” with our actions and combos. One of the “problems” is that special attacks charge too easily. It will not be difficult to use the attack 7-8 times per phase. It is true that this makes the adventure more spectacular, but it also loses the importance of knowing how to use said special attack strategically and reserving it for bosses or difficult moments. He use of weapons This will also be very common within the gameplay and will give a touch of variety to the game.

Finding similarities, it reminds us a lot of the classic beat'em up from The Avengers.

Gameplay of GI Joe: Wrath of the Cobra

We can choose between four characters: the legendary leader, Duke, as well as Scarlett, Roadblock and the famous ninja Snake Eyes. They can be joined by two other unlockables as we'll mention later. Each with their own skills speed, strength and resistance to blows. The commands respond well, although we encountered issues with the “hit boxes“– Some hits should affect enemies, but require you to be even closer than they should. While not a very serious problem, it obscures this section slightly.

The phases are long and there are quite a few screens, although we are missing some additional possibilities such as alternative paths or the possibility of entering certain areas. locations in scenarios. The variety of items we collect is also somewhat limited: life (only one type), weapons or immunity. The proposition of the kind is rare, which grants life without having several objects in which each recovers a more or less large sum. Here we only have one first aid kit, which fills about 60% of life. All this leads to GI Joe: The Wrath of the Cobra It's excessively linear and simple.

Yes indeed, In its favor it has longer phases than usual, very varied enemies (there are many types of Cobra enemies), a mid boss and the possibility of chaining combos.. The failures mentioned above do not diminish the pleasure that the title provides and which is enhanced by the possibility of cooperative and local play, of course.

More game modes and characters, but you'll have to earn them

While we crush the hordes of soldiers, they leave us floppy disks, very typical of computers from the 90s and early 2000s, which are used to buy things in the store in the game. These range from power modifiers, difficulty, skills, aspects, to two completely new characters: Gung-Ho and Ripcord. This becomes a way to make the title replayable. Of course, the “money” required is important, so we will have to repeat it, perhaps too many times, if we want to unlock everything.

There is also an unlockable mode called arcade. This one involves more difficulty and has a special alternate counter. Then there is the typical mode which pits us against all the bosses in the game one after the other.

Sound and graphics

The graphics section is really rich and with a 90s aesthetic.. He pixel art It's truly magnificent and the details populate the scenarios showing us the technology and the legendary vehicles of the “Joe”. However, we encountered a odd screen tearing in the center of the screen which we assume will be fixed in later patches. In this section it is worth mentioning both the intro and some intro phase screens in style cartoon from the classic animated series. A wink and a very successful tribute that will make even the most veterans cry with nostalgia.

Concerning the sound, it does not particularly stand out, except for the opening songcreated expressly for the game. The rest of the melodies and effects do quite well without standing out.

Conclusions from GI Joe: The Wrath of the Cobra

To conclude, we can say that despite some flaws, GI Joe: The Wrath of the Cobra it's a very fun gamealthough perhaps too simple for today's times. This does not detract from the interest of fans of the genre, who will get over it a much appreciated franchise in a fun proposition that will offer us just over two hours of fun.

The option of Unlocking multiple modes, in addition to characters, adds some life and replayability to the game although it suffers from not having an online gaming option and leaving us only with local co-op.

SO, GI Joe: The Wrath of the Cobra It is recommended for the most die-hard fans of the genre and the adventures of GI Joe, but is somewhat rare for the most demanding players.

GI Joe: The Wrath of the Cobra It is available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch and PC. From the Xbox area, we would like to thank ICO the code provided that allowed us to perform this analysis.