Game Review: GI Joe The Rise of Cobra for Nintendo DS

Movie licensed games don't have a stellar record for quality, so I was a bit apprehensive when entering into this review. Instead I got a fairly solid title, it just didn't go much above and beyond. Given the time constraints of making a game that's expected to coincide with a movie release it's definitely understandable, but with more time this game could have been seriously addictive.

GI Joe The Rise of Cobra for DS feels sort of old school in its design, but not necessarily in a bad way. It is a top down action game, and you can choose between 6 Joes. I never watched GI Joe growing up so I couldn't tell you of any glaring omissions to the line-up, but I believe its essentially the same as the movie.

Each character has a basic attack which is always some sort of a gun, and a secondary attack which is usually a grenade with the exception of Snake Eyes who uses a sword. Eventually a meter fills up and you can use a special, although I only ever used it with maybe 2 characters so I couldn't tell you how drastically they differ, but its basically a screen clearing move.

These mechanics are all solid enough, but there isn't really anything to elevate it to the next level. X-Men Legends is a very similar game that drew people in with its RPG elements. While your character does level up in GI Joe, its more of a stat boosting thing. If you had gained new abilities, it would have added much needed variation to the gameplay.

There are a total of seventeen levels (including one bonus level after you complete the game) and a handful of boss fight levels. The problem is there isn't much enemy variation in the game. With the exception of the seldom seen ninja, all the enemies behave the exact same way. Some are just stronger then others. Adding to that almost every level is one path from beginning to end, so it can tend to get a little boring.

I can see so much promise in this game if they only had more time with it. Adding new abilities, several more enemy variations, and more unique level layouts would have boosted this game to a 5 for me. Even adding just one of these things would have probably made it a 4.

As it stands, the core mechanics are solid and work well. The game kept my interest enough to make it all the way through. I didn't keep track but it probably took me around 6 or 7 hours to beat. However I did take the time to level up all of the characters. Since there isn't really anything in the way of bad design or gameplay to speak of, I'm giving the game a perfectly run-of-the-mill score. It's just too bad they didn't have time to make it the truly addictive game it could have easily been.

Score: 3 out of 5
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