G.I. JOE: Rise of Cobra Review

Written by: Steve Martin Posted: 30th September 2009

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Cobra rises on the DS.

G.I. JOE: Rise of Cobra Details:

	Action
	PlayStation 3/Xbox 360/Nintendo Wii/PSP/Nintendo DS
	EA Games
	EA Games

16+

Out Now

1-2

Not so long ago, I reviewed G.I. Joe - The Rise of Cobra on the Xbox 360, and found it to be too lightweight and the gameplay very trigger-happy. Now, I have played the DS version and there is a trend appearing, and it's not a good one!

This top down 3rd person shoot-‘em-up once again relies on running around shooting anything that moves, which usually happens to be the brainless identikit, poorly animated enemy sprites and the occasional vehicle or machine gun. Levels feel empty and sparse and aren’t graphically gripping, with dull objectives including destroying generators to remove force fields, before resuming the kill all the baddies and run around again. This all gets very boring and repetitive very quickly, especially seeing as the enemies keep coming at you, constantly. This harks back to the era where games were just waves of enemies to shoot through based on Contra and the like, but unlike these games this is utterly unenjoyable. There’s little in the way of story, I assume it follows a similar vein as the film, but it didn’t make me want to find out what the next level held.

Downed enemies drop a badge which act like experience points and once your Joe has collected enough they level up and their stats such as speed and power increase, this is a nice touch if a little clichéd. Occasionally after killing a certain number of enemies you can trigger a special ability which is unique depending on which Joe you chose to complete the mission with, these abilities include shields and increased fire power or firing speed. There are also power-ups that turn you invincible for a short time and up your firepower and all your other stats, until it wears off. None of this is new or novel but in such a routine and dull game they stand out as some small portions of interest.

The touch screen is not used at all in this game, all the movement is done on the D-pad and shooting causes your Joe to stand still so you can turn him full circle to shoot 360 degrees, unlike the Xbox version you do actually have to reload your weapon which means you have to be careful to give yourself enough time to do this. The top screen is merely used to house a map of the current level and highlights where you have to go for your next objective. The missions themselves are short and there aren’t many of them either, so in general the game follows suit. Which could well be a blessing in disguise?

The cut-scenes before each mission contain some terrible static sprites of the Joes and their allies and the whole presentation of the game seems rushed and shoddy! The DS can pull off some decent graphics in the right hands but this smacks of cheap development and a quick cash in! The audio is uninspiring and unmemorable and with gun noises and explosives sounding puny.

It’s hard to recommend this, so I’m not going to try. I found this a chore to play and derived no enjoyment at all from playing it. The combination of a dull story, repetitive gameplay, drab environments and no innovation to speak of is a recipe for disaster in my opinion.