Developer: Maple Powered Games Publisher: Indie.io Release: 09/26/24 Genre: Beat em up Also on: Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series
The side scrolling beat em up went through a long period of hibernation. The once cornerstone of the industry fell by the wayside like so many once popular genres like shooters. But it is undergoing a renaissance of late and it does my heart proud to see it come back. Even better, the designers of today have learned from the mistakes of the past and created modern classics that stand up to the best of them. G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra unfortunately is almost there but makes a few rookie mistakes that will inevitably frustrate players. After the seminal Shredder’s Revenge I cannot help but be slightly disappointed with this one.
The story sees Cobra Commander create a clone army to organize tactical strikes around the world, stealing major landmarks as a distraction in his bid for global conquest. The long intro cutscene gives the impression that this will be a story driven game. However once the intro is over the only bits of story you get are the brief synopsis before loading in to each level and nebulous dialogue after defeating each boss. Not that I expected more but they did sort of get my hopes up at the start of the game. The voice acting is also not very good so maybe it is for the best.
Although they have not been in the public eye as much there have been numerous G.I. Joe video games in the last fifteen years or so. Unfortunately they are all awful and a bad reminder of how licensed games were treated in the past. It was a bold move to go with a beat em up instead of a third person action game like you would expect. Considering the quality of the last few however I suppose a change was in order. G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra goes a long way toward redeeming this license and has its good points. But it also has many problems that mar what is an otherwise above average brawler.
Wrath of Cobra has a small playable roster. Duke, Roadblock, Scarlett, and Snake Eyes are your initial four so at least they cover some of the fan favorites. Each character has ratings in attack, defense, and speed and the differences are notable. Offensively everyone has a light attack, a heavy attack that can charge, two dashing variants, and a special. While the general controls are the same for each character their moves differ. Snake Eyes has a sword so his range is longer. Whereas Roadblock performs a ground smash as his heavy he executes a lunging stab. Instead of a jump kick Scarlett fires a downward arrow. There are defensive techniques as well. You can block and parry attacks to stun enemies to counterattack. Special attacks are unique and use a special meter that charges rapidly. These are pretty cool such as Duke’s air strike or Roadblocks’s chain gun.
Your tool kit is not built for the long haul and the game gets repetitive as a result. Enemies attack in waves of as many as 6-12 every few steps. As such the focus becomes crowd control rather than elaborate combos and throws. In fact you can only throw enemies when they are on the floor and stunned. That means you spend the majority of the game repeating the same three hit combo and it is tedious. They try to vary things with semi frequent weapon drops. But all of these have limited ammo. I like what the game is throwing down; the enemies are aggressive and not afraid to attack even on normal. A few could use some tuning like the Stinger and Steel Kaiju but whatever. They have the makings of a great game; they just need more in terms of mechanics and pacing to make it shine.
Wrath of Cobra is one of the longer brawlers out there at twelve levels which is significant by genre standards. Each stage can take upwards of fifteen minutes to clear. That length only serves to highlight the pacing problems as well as the lack of variety. Two of the levels are palette swaps of prior stages and the boss AI is outright dumb. As much as I do not want to compare them it is unavoidable. Recent beat em ups like Streets of Rage 4 and Shredder’s Revenge understand that straight fisticuffs can grow tedious after a while. They offer fun departures such as vehicle levels or auto scrolling segments to spice up gameplay. In concert with their far more diversified move sets and characters and you have games that you want to engage with to reap their rewards.
That is another area Wrath of Cobra falls flat. The floppy discs you collect are currency to purchase a wide swath of extra modes and two characters as of this writing. Most of the modes are modifiers to make the game more difficult for those wanting an even greater challenge. You can double the number of enemies, randomize items, and even try your hand at a 1-hit death mode. That one is bonkers. The problem is the base game is only mildly tolerable and with these prices you would need to grind the game an excruciating number of times to get it all. I enjoyed my first run and played around with double impact mode but had no desire to try anything else. The game needs to be compelling first if I am going to grind through it multiple times for meager rewards.
For as much as the game has its flaws it is full of G.I. Joe fan service. The enemy roster is full of deep cuts that I doubt most will remember. They even throw in a lot of Cobra vehicles which awakened my inner child who desperately wanted all of those toys. The bosses are mostly all of the most popular members of Cobra which would have been a crime otherwise. The only issue is the playable cast honestly. They have some of the main favorites. But the first two unlockables are questionable. Gung-Ho over Flint or Shipwreck? And who the hell is Ripcord? I watched every episode of the show growing up multiple times and I still had to look up this loser. Come on you can do better than that.
In Closing
G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra is a hard one to sum up. In terms of fan service and making use of its license the game does an exceptional job. But as far as being a compelling video game that you would want to replay over and over to unlock its extras it fails. With the planned updates such as online coop, bug fixes, and additional characters maybe it will get better. As it is it feels like an incomplete product, one that I do not regret playing but also will not outright recommend until it gets potentially better.
