G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra on PC
The revival of the old-school side-scrolling beat ’em up genre has been heartening. Plenty of gamers are always happy to revisit the days of standing next to friends and bashing on arcade cabinet buttons to save the day. That’s exactly the kind of simple pleasure that can be derived from enjoying G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra from Maple Powered Games and indie.io; just don’t expect anything more.
And that is perfectly fine, as the premise of the game is as straightforward as they come. Be it solo or with partners; it is up to the heroic Joes once again to thwart the plans of the Cobra Commander. This means going from stage to stage, revelling in the nostalgic colours and visuals, and punching and kicking every enemy that stands in your way. A tale that twists and turns, this is not, but it is clearly a labour of love considering the near-perfect replication of all things G.I. Joe.
If you have had the pleasure of playing the likes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge recently, then you already know what you are in for. As Duke, Roadblock, Snake Eyes, or Scarlett, each Joe brings a different way of fighting to the table, complete with unique stats and special abilities. With the amount of goons sent to stop you, there’s plenty of action to be shared around, with players just needing to master light and heavy attacks, blocking, jumping, and the special attack.
Going it alone is already quite an enjoyable journey, but alongside partners, the pick-up-and-play nature of the game is quite perfect for a party night or a perfect end to the day. The sheer chaos on screen is always fun to watch across the 12 stages of G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra, and activating any of the special attacks only enhances the spectacular action on display. Seeing Duke call in an airstrike that decimates everything is great, and so is witnessing Snake Eyes’ beloved pet wolf, Timber, going to work on the forces of Cobra. The stage designs are also varied enough to keep things fresh, bringing you from the streets up to the air in Cobra’s home base, but the biggest issue is just how fast everything ends when you are having fun.
Each stage usually takes around 10 minutes to complete, and you are looking at around two hours to complete the entire run. Sure, you may want to experience other characters or play with friends, but the lack of new mechanics or exciting set pieces does not help with the repetition. That problem can potentially be alleviated by using the in-game currency to unlock new Joes and modifiers like a boss rush or a one-hit mode, but the fundamentals remain largely untouched.
It also doesn’t help that G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra still has some bugs to work out. Beyond some missing audio cues, the gameplay can be affected by invisible enemies and wonky hitboxes. It is not exactly major stuff that you cannot overcome, but it can be annoying if you are trying to put together a full run, especially when it performs really well on PC without a hitch.
While it is not breaking the mould or bringing groundbreaking innovations to the genre, G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra serves a particular audience and does it admirably. There is always a bunch of Cobra henchmen waiting to be trounced, and the license is put to work in all the best ways. If the developers can find a way to freshen things up in the various stages more and hasten their plans for console ports, then it will certainly help make the game more comparable to contemporaries which are more fleshed out.
G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra is available now on Steam.
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Summary
Pure nostalgic ’90s fun comes in the form of G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra, a side-scrolling beat ’em up that delivers authentic action and visuals for fans, but with room for improvement still.
