G.I. Joe: Wrath Of Cobra (2024)

I grew up and was of the prime age for G.I. Joe. The 80’s and early to mid 90’s saw a boom in modern toys and cartoons for the Joes, and I was fully entrenched into most of them (or mostly the toys). I had all the action figures, vehicles and bases, I occasionally watched the cartoons (when they were on, remember TV and movies were not as easily accessible back then as they are now).

It wasn’t until the last couple years, that I actually dug deeper into the G.I. Joe’s story, via comics. My cousin Matt is the biggest influence of this. He got me to read all the original Larry Hama comics and I devoured them. Every night I would read several issues of the original run of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. It quickly explodes the characters out into much more fleshed out versions, and not as goofy as the cartoon portrays. Since Hama is an actual vet, he writes the characters like actual military, along with using correct terminology that doesn’t sugar coat most things for the readers.

So, I was excited to see a new brawler game in the same style as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. My main issue with that game, is that a lot of it is focused on fan service (not meaning characters with huge exposed body parts), but the actual fan service, where they spend more time going “hey look, we did the thing from the original!”. TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge was fun, but ultimately a very shallow experience. It didn’t expand the gameplay out enough, it was just good enough, but gave the fans a proper 1980’s version of the turtles.

That’s basically what we are looking at here with G.I. Joe. We get a modern cover of 1980’s G.I. Joe’s theme song from the TV show, a handful of main characters to play as, and some solid level selection (seeing downtown Springfield, Cobra’s own covert “hidden in plain sight” base, is really cool to see). But beyond the surface, there is absolutely nothing else there. The gameplay is very basic, with a single special attack. The enemies are mostly fodder, but do have a couple different varieties near the end, and they make good use of the bosses, with lots of higher level Cobra heads.

Beyond the single playthrough, there is zero reason to ever return to it. It’s a solid fun time sitting on a couch with a buddy who also knows G.I. Joe, but never would warrant a secondary or more playthrough. I hate writing reviews like this, because it might seem like I am down on the game, and I am not. It’s mostly that it’s just a very basic game, and without writing several paragraphs breaking down every single sprite animation, there just is not really much to talk about.

I will say that the one main cutscene, where it plays out like an original PSA of the cartoon, but it’s with Cobra Commander talking to some young boys instead of someone like Duke, is actually brilliant, and there should have been so much more of that instead. I also loved that there was unlockable characters, but basically you have to beat the game to earn enough points to unlock the two secret characters. And like I said, it’s not worth playing through a second time. Having Gung-Ho and Ripcord as unlockable characters are cool, but having them each require more than a single playthrough of points each basically means you aren’t going to unlock them and get to enjoy them.

It would have been more beneficial if the game allowed for more unlockables earlier on. These games just don’t offer enough of content to warrant multiple plays. I did have a blast streaming the game, and talking about the different locations and characters of the Joes and Cobra, and explaining why the comics are so rad! But without more to the game, it’s worth it to play through once, but never again. Hopefully it does well enough to see a sequel, but I get the feeling this is a one and done type of G. I. Joe game. Either way, it was fun while it lasted… Yo Joe!