G.I Joe (Taxan 1991)

I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised by the quality of this title. Not only is this a great title which should please all G.I. Joe fans but the solid gameplay will ensure that everybody is drawn in. The storyline is typical GI Joe and sees you following the orders of General Hawk to destroy a series of Cobra hide outs. For each of the levels on offer a leader is appointed and you then get to choose two additional team members to help out. The line-up includes Duke, Blizzard, Rock&Roll, Capt. Grid Iron, Snake Eyes and even the General himself on the last stage. You have complete control over all three party members and can switch between them at any time.

Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses and using the right team member for the job at hand can make things easier. During levels you can acquire more ammo, increase your health and also upgrade your weapon with the right power-ups. While you'll mostly stick to punching enemies during the levels you'll definitely want a fully upgraded gun and lots of ammo for the boss battles. These consist of some of the coolest vehicles and bad guys from the toy line and fans will instantly recognize their favourites  The game also feature some originality in its gameplay and unlike most platform games you're not just making your way from left to right, shooting everything in sight. Each level is split up into three sub-levels and usually has a boss waiting at the end. You'll have to hurry though as you have a strict time limit and if time runs out its game over. The reason for this is the fact that on each second sub-level you have to explore the stage and plant bombs at predetermined spots. These spots are usually well hidden or just out of reach and the cool level designs also makes things tricky. It's definitely a lot more fun than simply killing everything in sight. Desperately looking for the exit while the time counts down can be nail biting.

Upgrading your characters weapons is essential for the boss fights and the good news is as long as your character doesn't die he'll keep his fire-power from one stage to the next. Also cool is the various GI Joe vehicles hidden away on most levels. These are pretty weak and hard to find but definitely makes the levels more fun to explore. At the end of each main level you are given a password to save your progress which is great since this game is slightly longer than your average platform title. Even cooler is the fact that after you've completed the game you're given a new password and can restart the game on a slightly harder difficulty level. This time round you only have two characters with which to complete the levels instead of three which definitely makes the game more challenging. Who knows what rewards await the dedicated?

Visually the game looks pretty good and G.I Joe fans will instantly recognize their favourite characters and vehicles. There are loads of huge bosses and the game employs lots of nifty special effects like enemy characters leaping out of the foreground at you. Between levels you are also treated to a small cut-scene of the main boss for the area dissing you or something blowing up. The levels themselves are pretty unique and range from the sewers beneath New York to a dense forest and Arctic Base. One thing that caught my eye is that the game seems to have lots more variety in the enemy characters you face. This is probably due to the wealth of source material the action figures provide.

The music is pretty good although some of the tunes can get a bit repetitive after a while. The music on the final level also sound like a bit of an odd choice for a action game and reminded me of a circus strangely enough. The sound effects are nice enough and the sounds of your bullets striking a boss vehicle are very satisfying indeed. Controls are responsive and besides switching characters with the start button you can also switch between guns and fists with a tap of the select button. Characters can shoot in all four directions and even when your bullets are depleted you can still lob grenades at enemies. It's also nice to see that characters don't just look different but handle differently as well. Snake Eyes being a ninja can jump higher while General Hawk can fly with his jet-pack  Some characters can punch harder while others have better guns. Boss fights can also become very strategic as you figure out the enemies patterns before retaliating.

Although not perfect G.I Joe has very little flaws that detract from the overall experience. It would have been great if a boss battle allowed you to continue with your next character when someone in your team dies instead of starting over from the start but it does make the game more challenging and discourages you from letting one character hog all the power-ups. A little more serious is the constantly respawning enemies. While not quite as annoying as the bad guys found in Metroid and Ninja Gaiden these guys can still seriously sap your health. Some levels also throw hordes of bullets your way which can be very annoying seeing as your character jerks backwards when hit and falling down a chasm is fatal.

All of this is easy to overlook once you start playing the game though and while it might sound bad on paper it isn't really that major. This is definitely a title that every G.I Joe fan will want in their collection and might even win the action figures a few new collectors. Fun, playable and true to its' roots, what more is there to say except, Yo Joe!

[9]