The last few years have seen a bevy of beat ‘em ups based on classic shows and movies. There’s TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge and The Karate Kid: Street Rumble, as well as upcoming games like Toxic Crusaders and Lady Death: Demonicron. Canadian developer Maple Powered Games recently released their own nostalgic beat ‘em up in the form of G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra. This one features multiple playable characters, animated cinematics, and 4-player local co-op. Unfortunately, clumsy gameplay and a lack of polish prove even more threatening to the Joes than Cobra.
Wrath of Cobra is based on the G. I. Joe: A Real American Hero animated series that ran from 1983-1986 and continued from 1989 to 1992. The game opens with a new cartoon intro that attempts to emulate the style of the classic show (without the theme song). Unfortunately, the art, animation, and voices of the intro and subsequent cut scenes are cheap and amateurish, largely negating the coolness that would normally come from animated cinematics. What’s more, on Steam, the game sometimes freezes at the end of cut scenes, forcing players to close the game and then skip the cut scene the next time they play. Cloud saves have been broken in the Steam version since launch as well.
Story Mode is the primary game mode, though two additional modes can be unlocked over time. 1-4 local players will select from a handful of iconic Joes, including Duke, Roadblock, Scarlett, and Snake Eyes. Gung-Ho and Ripcord can also be unlocked from the in-game shop. Everything in the shop costs floppy discs (probably meant to represent intel) that are dropped by enemies and awarded at the end of stages. All of the items in the shop are expensive, however, so players will need to grind to unlock everything. One playthrough of the game’s 12 stages will take 2-3 hours, and stages can be revisited after they’re cleared.
Wrath of Cobra’s gameplay is serviceable. Each character has a weak attack and strong attack, as well as the ability to attack while dashing. There’s a block and parry button, though I seldom bothered with it. One of the bumper buttons seems to taunt, though its purpose isn’t fully clear since the game never explains it. As the heroes fight, a super meter slowly fills. Once the meter fills completely (which is accompanied by a cool flashing animation), the character can perform a unique special move, such as Snake Eyes calling his dog or Duke calling bombs down from the sky. Enemies and breakable objects sometimes drop guns as well. These can be fired ten times before running dry.
Anyone who has played Capcom’s The Punisher beat ‘em up (recently included in the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection) knows how fun and exciting the shooting segments in that game are. Well, shooting’s not very fun here, and that’s emblematic of the gameplay problems as a whole. Gun shots are slow and lack impact, so they don’t make players feel powerful. The actual fighting lacks the smoothness and interesting combos of better beat ‘em ups. A fun fighting engine is foundational to a beat ‘em up, so that’s a problem.
Enemies consist mainly of different colors of Cobra soldiers, not unlike how the TMNT games rely heavily on colored Foot soldiers. These foes become repetitive much more quickly, however. Perhaps it’s the lack of personality that the enemies (and even the heroes) display. Players do get to fight some Cobra vehicles and robots at times, admittedly. While a few of the bosses are just dark versions of the Joes, others are iconic foes like Cobra Commander, Destro, and Storm Shadow. Strangely, Serpentor is mentioned in the store description, but he’s not even in the game. The heavy enemies and bosses have way too much health, however, which makes them boring to fight instead of cool.
Naturally, Wrath of Cobra is a bit better in co-op. Up to four local players can team up and take on the forces of Cobra together. Character balance is a little wonky (Snake Eyes is easily the best hero, and Duke the worst), but the combat is less lonely with a friend or three. There are no co-op moves, nor is there a revival mechanic, both of which would’ve been welcome. Still, bringing more players along at least alleviates the grindiness of the mid-boss and boss encounters.
While G.I. Joe arguably makes more sense as a shooter than a beat ‘em up, G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra still had plenty of potential. All it had to do was look and play like a lost Capcom or Konami arcade game, and children of the 80s would’ve loved it. Sadly, the game doesn’t rise to those heights. The art design isn’t quite sharp enough, and the clumsy gameplay fails to make up for it. The developers clearly have some love for the property, and forgiving fans will probably want to play through at least once to see all it has to offer. Now you know how rough Wrath of Cobra is, and knowing is half the battle.
G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra costs $24.99 on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and Steam. The Steam version is Steam Deck compatible.
A Steam download code was provided by the publisher for this review.