
	Platform Playstation 3 Genre Action Publisher Electronic Arts Developer Double Helix Games ESRB T (Teen) Released August 4, 2009

- Mindless shooting fun for a while - Vaguely reminiscent of early side-scrolling arcade shooters like Contra - PSA unlockables

- Recycled levels viewed through a horrible camera - Silly character lock-outs - Extremely repetitive - Vehicle controls are crummy

Review: inFamous (PS3) Review: Overlord II (PS3) Review: Afro Samurai (PS3)
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G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra

Score: 5.0 / 10

As far as first impressions go, GI Joe: Rise of Cobra tweaked that part of me that houses the ‘80s version of my brain, which is still watching the old GI Joe cartoon. The first time the main theme swelled to a crescendo I got all excited about playing this game. I won’t lie; a shiver went up my spine.

Soon after, the game falls into awful repetitiveness and what can only be termed as a pure lack of imagination and, seemingly, effort from the development team.

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- Playstation 3 Game Reviews
- Action Game Reviews
- Games Published by Electronic Arts

You’ll fight in the same areas many times over, even though the locations supposedly change, the action does not change from level to level. Holding down the shoot button and strafing from left to right is pretty much the only strategy you need, whether playing with the AI buddy or with a real person.

There was an effort to extend the game by

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locking out the playable characters. After finding the dog tags or completing a mission that “frees” the character, they’re added to your roster but you can’t make them an active member until you trade-in some badges (earned through scoring points during action). As soon as I had Snake Eyes, I stopped caring about that stuff. A bad-ass ninja with a sword and pistol is really all you need.

Further strikes against Rise of Cobra is a very unreactive camera that will often completely obscure targets and even your characters and incessant interruptions of other Joes trying to fill in some kind of story. It’s GI Joe against Cobra, it doesn’t need to be more complicated than that.

The vehicles, though very powerful, are difficult to control at best. Sometimes they respond just fine, but the majority of the time I had trouble keeping them moving in any kind of straight line.

There are one or two thrills to be had by fans of the old GI Joe cartoon, but that’s about all that can be said for Rise of Cobra, which is unfortunate because as campy as GI Joe is there’s a lot of potential for a good game.

- Aaron Simmer

(August 27, 2009)