Growing up in the 80’s cartoons were my jam. Transformers, Thundarr the Barbarian, He-Man, Inhumanoids, GI Joe, etc were all my viewing enjoyment whenever possible. So were brawling games with the release of Double Dragon in arcades, I was never good nor a huge fan though, and when I discovered Final Fight, it was over. While brawler games as we know them are kind of a late 80’s thing, licensing 80’s properties carries on even through today. Why it has taken this long to get a brawler based on GI Joe, a cartoon that was known for two things – shooting and fighting – is beyond me. Sure, we have gotten a few shooters based on this franchise but that is only half of equation, okay one third when considering story. Brawlers can incorporate all three easily.
The looks of GI Joe: Wrath of Cobra, the official name of this game, we are going to be using fisticuffs far more than guns. That is fine with me as the personal interaction in the show was always more interesting to me, while the shooting portions were probably cheaper to produce.
“G.I. Joe is one the most iconic brands from the 80s and it was the golden era of arcade games. To celebrate the growing popularity of retro themed games we’re thrilled to partner with Maple Powered Games and Freedom Games to bring G.I. Joe fans our first ever Hasbro Retro Arcade experience in this exciting interpretation of a classic 2D beat ‘em up” said Eugene Evans, SVP Digital Strategy and Licensing at Hasbro.
Sure, Cobra has a few flying and laser powered pieces of equipment, they are the bad guys, they gotta cheat whenever possible. Plus, you are infiltrating their bases here so of course they would have additional hardware you didn’t plan for. Poor Joes… Lack of planning will be your downfall, while overplanning is the downfall of Cobra.
Thankfully it looks like Maple Powered Games (developer) and Freedom Games (publisher) are putting some time and effort into this. I wish more companies would do this with licenses rather than depending on the license to carry a mediocre, at best, game.
“G.I. Joe is an absolute classic franchise with one of the best fanbases. Working on this game is a dream come true and it’s been a blast creating the game I’ve always wanted to see for G.I. Joe,” said Kerry Vandenberg, co-founder of Maple Powered Games. “We’re honored to give G.I. Joe fans the video game they deserve with the most authentic experience possible.”
There are a few concerns I have such as how they will handle repetition – a problem with brawlers. Make levels too long and they get boring quick, make them too short and you risk making players mad. Cobra is like the Foot Clan, a lot of their minions wear similar clothing so get ready for repetitious enemies – same for almost every brawler really.
If you are not a fan of the genre then maybe the license will be enough to bring you in. For me, as a fan of both, I am willing to jump in day one to help show support in hopes we get more licensed games like this, in other genres as well.
GI Joe: Wrath of Cobra by Freedom Games
Developer – Maple Powered Games
Number of players – Up to 4, local and online
Genre – Brawler, 80’s nostalgia set to 12
Rated – Unknown at time of writing, probably E 10 due to violence (TMNT Shredder’s Revenge was rated this)
Release – Q1 2024
Platforms – Nintendo Switch, Epic Games Store, GoG, and Steam
