G.I. Joe: Cobra Strike for Atari 2600. Ewwww!

I’ve just viewed IGN’s video preview of the cast for the upcoming live action G.I. Joe the Movie, and it has gotten my loins all fired up for anything and everything G.I. Joe—especially the Baroness. Rawrr!

If you don’t have time to go through the video, you can check out Filmgecko’s writeup on the G.I. Joe movie cast.

Of course, since this blog is about classic and retro games, I’ve opted to, at least for the meantime, stick to the topic and give you a review of what is probably the first G.I. Joe video game, G.I. Joe: Cobra Strike for the Atari 2600.

Here’s a two-word review for the game: IT SUCKS!

Well, G.I. Joe: Cobra Strike might have been cool back in the 1980s, especially with that good rendition of a giant cobra swishing back and forth in an attempt to obliterate the Joes, but in retrospect, I find it more fun moving a small dot that represents the Millennium Falcon around a large dot that represents the Death Star. Yes, I’m talking about the classic Star Wars video game, Return of the Jedi: Death Star Battle.

Going back to G.I. Joe: Cobra Strike, the player controls a G.I. Joe training camp on the bottom of the screen protected by a barrier and armed with two laser cannons. In this mode, the goal is to keep the giant cobra-operated robot snake from destroying the shield and thus the training camp by hitting it eight times. The Cobra robot shoots (surprise, surprise) venom and laser beams.

In the cooperative mode, the training camp is split between two players as they work to destroy the Cobra robot. There is also a competition mode in which one player plays Cobra and the other takes the role of G.I. Joe, of course.

Find it interesting? Well I don’t, except for the fact that it’s a G.I. Joe video game. I’m not the only one. Check out this video by Classic Game Room where the guy who did the voiceover talked less about the video game and more about the cartoon and comic book series.