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G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Published By: Alan Bell On: 25/06/2009 10:00

AT A GLANCE

"G.I. Joe is coming back from the 80's."

The Good: Revisiting your childhood.

The Bad: Is G.I. Joe still relevant?.

The Ugly: The 80's. Seriously. That hair! Those computers!

By Alan Bell

G.I. Joe was the kids toy to have in the early 80's. Originally a reinvention of the 1960's favorite Action Man series, G.I. Joe was an action figure line with a companion TV series targeted at a young male audience that many still believed had no interest in "playing with dolls". G.I. Joe and his so-patriotic-it-hurts "Real American Hero!" slogan had them queuing overnight to buy new toys.

Time, as they say, marches on - the franchise has been around almost the entire time but its relevance to the common child has been significantly reduced.

It seems that Hasbro are keen to reinvigorate their franchise, with a big budget movie helmed by the director of the Mummy movies slated for an August release. A big budget movie just wouldn't be the same without a tie-in game released alongside it, which is where our interest is piqued.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is coming to no less than seven different platforms, including the just-won't-die PlayStation 2. The premise is pretty straight forward - take on the role of one of the twelve heroes of the tale (with four unlockable Cobra characters to play as) and battle your enemies via third person (over the shoulder) action arcade gameplay.

Set after the (still mysterious) events of the film, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra draws on 45 years of G.I. Joe history to populate the game with enemies, storylines and characters that should be familiar to ardent G.I. Joe fans.

The Rise of Cobra (video game) is not aiming for Game of the Year accolades or being too ambitious, opting to go with an "updated retro gameplay" experience rather than a complicated action adventure or something too driven by narrative. Whether it's enough to stand as a full retail product in this age of downloadable arcade experiences remains to be seen.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is set for near simultaneous release with the film of the same name, due to hit NZ shores the first week of August.

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COMMENTS (11)

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On 25 June 2009, 10:42AM Posted by Xenojay

And reading the article shows why the next gen graphics look like tweaked PS2 ones.
Good wh*ring HASBRO..

On 25 June 2009, 10:54AM Posted by PotatoLegs

so long as there's snake eyes i'll be happy

On 25 June 2009, 11:17AM Posted by Gazza22

G.I. Joes. Easily the best toys of my childhood.

On 25 June 2009, 02:04PM Posted by Mongrel_Rob

Reply to Gazza2225 June 2009, 11:17AM
G.I. Joes. Easily the best toys of my childhood.

Mine too! :D
I'm actually looking forward to the movie.

On 25 June 2009, 06:37PM Posted by The Host of Chaos

It's GI Joe against Cobra the enemy
Fighting to save the day
He never gives up
He's always there
Fighting for freedom over land and air

GI Joe- A real American hero
GI Joe is there

etc

On 25 June 2009, 09:34PM Posted by Oliver

I never even watched G.I. Joe but I sure as hell wanted the toys. Most of my mates had them and I was so jealous.

In fact the only G.I. Joe stuff I've ever watched is the piss-takes on Youtube. They're pretty hilarious.

On 26 June 2009, 12:56PM Posted by Ninja-15

I was never a GI Joe fan, I was always Transformers fan...Although I did have a few GI Joe action figures... I remember I had the bad guy with the Silver Head (can't remember his name), he came with thing which fires out these orange discs...

On 26 June 2009, 06:07PM Posted by rebolta

I would give this a go. I thought the toys broke too easily.

On 27 June 2009, 01:22AM Posted by Oliver

Reply to Ninja-1526 June 2009, 12:56PM
I was never a GI Joe fan, I was always Transformers fan...Although I did have a few GI Joe action figures... I remember I had the bad guy with the Silver Head (can't remember his name), he came with thing which fires out these orange discs...

Hell yeah, still got some of me old Transformers!

On 27 June 2009, 10:31PM Posted by The Host of Chaos

Reply to Oliver25 June 2009, 09:34PM
I never even watched G.I. Joe but I sure as hell wanted the toys. Most of my mates had them and I was so jealous. In fact the only G.I. Joe stuff I've ever watched is the piss-takes on Youtube. They're pretty hilarious.

I love the original Fensler Films ones. They are brilliant. G. I. Joes were by far my favourite toys as a kid. I still collected them until about the age of 15, picking up ones I didn't have off other kids who didn't want them any more. Unfortunately I pulled the box out recently and a lot of them have fallen apart =(