If any of you went out to see Star Trek (and from what I've seen that includes just about all of you), then you were probably beaten in the face with a retro stick. While it's nice that entertainment studios out there have the good grace to recreate something about our childhood that we liked, it's only fair that we second guess as much as possible as to what the quality of the outcome may be. It gets to the point, though, that you begin to wonder if altering the formula is really such a good idea.
I could rampage on about the Transformers 2 trailer, but I'm going to hone fanboy rage on the target of GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra. Last year's Super Bowl spot was an absolute joke, and you would think that someone would have nudged the creators and told them that they might want to change it up a bit for the Star Trek premiere.
Oh, that's right. The director made The Mummy series.
Knowing that the new trailer was going to be just as bad, I instead turned around to gauge the audience reaction. I should mention that I live in a military town, so the place was littered with buzz cuts and the type of gun waving America "f--- yeah!" types you would expect to get off on seeing anything involving live action GI Joe. Sadly, they all had that look on their face as if someone had just blasted their little sergeant with a Super Soaker filled with ice water.
Of course, there will be a game to go along with this, at first glance it appears as if it might have a little bit going for it. The creators seemed to sacrifice realistic aesthetics for more of an action figure look in a giant Assault course. Sound like fun, and with power ups and multipliers aplenty, you would imagine that it might be a little bit like if Commando and Burnout joined forces.
Yet, it seems to be missing something. Gun blazing mayhem sounds good, but the key word is mayhem, and the game looks like it has the worst parts of both ideas going against it. The gun blazing looks cheap, and the mayhem looks like it's stemming from potential control problems. So much for that.
In the age of revamps, we could just as easily have accepted what is already a great GI Joe game being ported in a way that Bionic Commando: Rearmed was. In 1991, Taxan released GI Joe for the NES, and while no one is putting it on any top lists for the generation, the game was undoubtedly fun. There were only a few things that were lacking, and that's precisely why a good port would do it more justice. More on that further on.
GI Joe is a run-and-gun shooter based off of quick-swap teamplay. Duke, Snake Eyes, Blizzard, Capt. Grid Iron, and Rock N' Roll are the major players in this game, and you are given the option of taking three with you on any mission. Each mission forces one on you as the team leader, which makes mission two a real annoyance since Blizzard has no value over any other team member whatsoever. By value, I mean skills, and they each have their own set. Snake Eyes does not need bullets and can jump the height of the screen, while Duke and Capt. Grid Iron are well rounded movers and have a welcome spread to their guns. Rock N' Roll moves like a brick, but he has the most powerful gun of the crew and it already has a full spread as well.
The missions are broken up into three parts. First, there is the standard dash to the boss fight where you take on one of the trademark Cobra vehicles. Second is a non-linear bomb planting spree where you find the hidden bomb points, plant the goods, and run to the exit before time expires. Finally, you get to do yet another sprint to the boss, but you take on an actual baddie instead of something mechanical.
Control of your characters is probably what makes the game a lot of fun. Unlike Bionic Commando or Ninja Gaiden, you almost never commit yourself to a single action, such as jumping, that is going to kill you. The power-up mechanic is as simple and rewarding as it gets; pick up the gun icons and your spread gets bigger. It's very simple in design, but that's a plus for this game, since you just take your favorite characters and get going. There aren't many cheap spots for the game to unfairly clobber you and it's also forgiving to a point. However, the difficulty ramps up by the third mission, and on top of that, there are a full three quests in the game that are progressively more difficult.
As I said, there are faults, but you're not going to find them in the gameplay. More characters and bigger stages are about the only thing the game could improve on, but we're talking about the NES days. This is why I write articles like this. There are old game mechanics out there that still work and cost a hell of a lot less to create. If you're working on GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra - The Game, then maybe you should look at THIS game, look at Rearmed, and imagine the cheap fun you can be creating. GI Joe is a hidden gem on the NES that will only frustrate you in the good ways, and I can recommend the $5-10 it might take to get this over the $70-80 it might take for you to see the movie and buy the companion game. It'll be more fun, anyway.
I could rampage on about the Transformers 2 trailer, but I'm going to hone fanboy rage on the target of GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra. Last year's Super Bowl spot was an absolute joke, and you would think that someone would have nudged the creators and told them that they might want to change it up a bit for the Star Trek premiere.
Oh, that's right. The director made The Mummy series.
Knowing that the new trailer was going to be just as bad, I instead turned around to gauge the audience reaction. I should mention that I live in a military town, so the place was littered with buzz cuts and the type of gun waving America "f--- yeah!" types you would expect to get off on seeing anything involving live action GI Joe. Sadly, they all had that look on their face as if someone had just blasted their little sergeant with a Super Soaker filled with ice water.
Of course, there will be a game to go along with this, at first glance it appears as if it might have a little bit going for it. The creators seemed to sacrifice realistic aesthetics for more of an action figure look in a giant Assault course. Sound like fun, and with power ups and multipliers aplenty, you would imagine that it might be a little bit like if Commando and Burnout joined forces.
Yet, it seems to be missing something. Gun blazing mayhem sounds good, but the key word is mayhem, and the game looks like it has the worst parts of both ideas going against it. The gun blazing looks cheap, and the mayhem looks like it's stemming from potential control problems. So much for that.
In the age of revamps, we could just as easily have accepted what is already a great GI Joe game being ported in a way that Bionic Commando: Rearmed was. In 1991, Taxan released GI Joe for the NES, and while no one is putting it on any top lists for the generation, the game was undoubtedly fun. There were only a few things that were lacking, and that's precisely why a good port would do it more justice. More on that further on.
GI Joe is a run-and-gun shooter based off of quick-swap teamplay. Duke, Snake Eyes, Blizzard, Capt. Grid Iron, and Rock N' Roll are the major players in this game, and you are given the option of taking three with you on any mission. Each mission forces one on you as the team leader, which makes mission two a real annoyance since Blizzard has no value over any other team member whatsoever. By value, I mean skills, and they each have their own set. Snake Eyes does not need bullets and can jump the height of the screen, while Duke and Capt. Grid Iron are well rounded movers and have a welcome spread to their guns. Rock N' Roll moves like a brick, but he has the most powerful gun of the crew and it already has a full spread as well.
The missions are broken up into three parts. First, there is the standard dash to the boss fight where you take on one of the trademark Cobra vehicles. Second is a non-linear bomb planting spree where you find the hidden bomb points, plant the goods, and run to the exit before time expires. Finally, you get to do yet another sprint to the boss, but you take on an actual baddie instead of something mechanical.
Control of your characters is probably what makes the game a lot of fun. Unlike Bionic Commando or Ninja Gaiden, you almost never commit yourself to a single action, such as jumping, that is going to kill you. The power-up mechanic is as simple and rewarding as it gets; pick up the gun icons and your spread gets bigger. It's very simple in design, but that's a plus for this game, since you just take your favorite characters and get going. There aren't many cheap spots for the game to unfairly clobber you and it's also forgiving to a point. However, the difficulty ramps up by the third mission, and on top of that, there are a full three quests in the game that are progressively more difficult.
As I said, there are faults, but you're not going to find them in the gameplay. More characters and bigger stages are about the only thing the game could improve on, but we're talking about the NES days. This is why I write articles like this. There are old game mechanics out there that still work and cost a hell of a lot less to create. If you're working on GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra - The Game, then maybe you should look at THIS game, look at Rearmed, and imagine the cheap fun you can be creating. GI Joe is a hidden gem on the NES that will only frustrate you in the good ways, and I can recommend the $5-10 it might take to get this over the $70-80 it might take for you to see the movie and buy the companion game. It'll be more fun, anyway.