As a 90s beat ’em up fan, I couldn’t be more thrilled by the recent insurgence of the old-school side scrolling goodness in gaming. I don’t ask for much; just a simple and chaotically fun time punching my way through mobs with a friend or two. Still, some games lag behind the competition when it comes to variety and content, and that’s where I sit with G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra.
It’s a simple and straightforward beat ’em up that doesn’t have anything better to offer from its competitors other than its IP. That and there’s some gameplay issues and bugs that hinder this promising blast from the past from reaching a mainstream audience as others in the genre have. But despite some issues, there’s just a lot of retro charm here that just might make the price tag worth it if you’re itching for this kind of game.
If you enjoy lightning-quick movement in your beat ’em ups, Wrath of Cobra’s control scheme will satisfy … unless you like precise control of your characters. It’s fun zipping across rooms and knocking over mobs, but the movement sensitivity is almost non-existent. You’re either running very fast or Olympic sprinting with no way to walk or gradually control speed. Like a majority of side-scrolling beat ’em ups, Wrath of Cobra prioritizes its horizontal movement, exclusively advancing through level from left to right with some vertical positioning. Your vertical acrobatics are limited, with no way to sprint or directionally attack up or down.
Speaking of attacks, the cast of six heroes each possess a respectable five or six different attacks, with a small cluster of combos you can pull off between them. I mostly relied on the sprint and jump attacks for all the characters due to their damage output and positioning advantage, though heavies such as Roadblock and Duke achieve better results blocking with follow-ups most of the time.
“Each character has their own special ability that does quad damage across a wide area.”
Fans of G.I. Joe will enjoy the lineup of playable characters well enough. Duke, Scarlett, Roadblock, and Snake Eyes form the initial quartet, while the two secret characters get unlocked by collecting floppy disks. Each of the character’s special attacks feel cool to pull off and are balanced well between the cast. Also, I know character stats don’t amount to too much in a game like this, but I appreciate the attempt at differentiating the characteristics for each of them, nonetheless.
Thankfully for completionists, the floppy collectables are a breezy to snatch up, flying out of defeated enemies like candy as they constantly do. They’re not too much of a grind to collect, but expect to complete the game’s 12 stages more than once to unlock everything. It’s worth noting that I experienced a couple soft locks when picking up enemies and throwing them. The throwing animation amid all the chaos can endlessly loop, preventing further progression. Hopefully, such bugs get squashed with future patches. Oh, and I was playing single player when these happened, so I imagine four-player co-op would prompt soft locks even more. Overall, the controls and general gameplay are fun enough to enjoy for bursts of fun, but the simplistic foundation relies on good level design and interesting enemy encounters to prop up how rudimentary and basic they are.
“Cobra boxes contain useful health and ammo pickups and are laid out evenly throughout the levels.”
And it’s in that level design and enemy variety where Wrath of the Cobra disappoints. Each of the 12 levels may look distinct, yet they lack any real variety in their gameplay content. You’re going to be running from left to right engaging in combat screens full of repetitive Cobra troops no matter if it’s through an aircraft carrier or a dank cave system. The one breakable environmental object looks different across levels, sure, but the result is the same regardless. The environmental objects in this game exist merely to give the player the illusion of level intractability, without any tangible reward or benefit. Your real item pickups come from the convenient Cobra boxes scattered throughout stages, containing full heath restoratives and perishable firearms. Invincibility pickups are rare, but very useful for the waves of enemies that persist throughout the game’s second half.
If there’s one thing I’ll praise about the levels design, it’s the placement and pacing of pickups; right when you’re hanging on for dear life following a barrage of Cobra waves, there’s always a handy health box on the next screen. I also like how pickups are not super frequent either, balancing the difficulty of the game’s combat nicely.
There’s nothing more to really talk about regarding the level design in Wrath of Cobra; it’s as straightforward as a beat ’em up can get with its left-to-right stages. I don’t mind a simple side-scrolling beat ’em up, but it needs a little bit more enemy variety than what Wrath of Cobra offers to feel particularly engaging and fun. You’ll find yourself fighting wave after wave of the same old Cobra enemy units. As you progress further in the stages, new units appear such as the invisible ninjas and those annoying throwing star guys, but the basic Cobra unit from the beginning of the game are a very common mob that you’ll inevitably get bored fighting.
“Most of the mini-bosses are a slog to get through due to overly padded health and repetitive attacks.”
And then there’s the mini-boss enemies, which I loathe for their tankiness and padded health. There’s a Cobra-headed mech that frankly feels like a waste of time yet is a necessary hurdle to overcome time and again. This giant annoyance has a strong stomp move and a straight laser, both of which are easy to dodge and block. The problem with this tanky enemy type is how much health it has in comparison to how much damage you can deal. Performing a punch and then block, punch, block, etc., gets old fast, especially if you don’t have a partner along for the ride.
This easy and repetitive method of defeating artificially padded enemies extends to some of the bosses as well. Each stage has a boss awaiting you at the end, and let me tell you, these are some of the lamest boss fights in any beat ’em up I’ve played. The game’s bosses have three moves at most, four if it’s one of the better ones. I was instantly disappointed by the first boss’s bog-standard shooting pattern. It felt just like fighting a regular Cobra mook, albeit with a ton more health and higher damage per hit. What’s worse, the bosses don’t vary up their style or have stages to their fights, resulting fights that feel like glorified mob enemies from earlier in the same level. Some bosses can be cheesed by just whacking them on the edge of the screen repeatedly. I’m a sucker for unintentional ways to cheese fights (like the Mega Man 1 pause trick), but it feels more like a QA oversight in this game than a fun way to manipulate the game. While I’ll give credit to a couple of fun bosses, Wrath of Cobra doesn’t do anything special overall, failing to eclipse many of the older beat ’em ups from the 90s with its tepid boss mechanics.
“Visually, Wrath of Cobra is strikingly colorful with its sprite-based art style. The world of G.I. Joe is captured well by the game’s sights and sounds.”
Where Wrath of Cobra shines is in its sprite-based visuals and energetic chiptune soundtrack. Each environment and character is lovingly crafted with an attractive color palette. Characters behave just as you’d expect them to with animations true to the source material, though it’d be nice to have some more characteristic sounds from each of them. My ears were delighted with 90s-inspired tunes the whole way, so I guess lack of character voices isn’t a complete deal-breaker. Big props for each level having its own separate musical track; I’m always on the lookout for games that attach a distinct theme to each environment, so Wrath of Cobra earns my praise in that aspect. Similarly, each stage features unique background objects and vistas that give them their own unique vibe and theme. Regretfully, this artistic enjoyment is let down by constant screen tearing on the PS5 version of the game. It runs at a pretty constant 60 FPS, but man that screen tear is brutal.
As a fan of old school beat ’em ups, I want to love this game as much as TMNT Shredder’s Revenge or Streets of Rage 4, but it lacks the kind of variety and polish that those games have. Wrath of Cobra feels more like a recently discovered game from an old era of beat ’em ups than a modern classic, and not one of the better ones. I’d still recommend this to any fan of this genre or the G.I. Joe IP, but the lack of modern bells and whistles and polish knock it down below most contemporary attempts.
This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.
