That was of course until the realisation came that it was not going to be the same characters I played with for months on end. Though the names are the same, they now have these gimmicky suits called accelerator suits that power them up, the GI Joes of my day could have taken on Cobra Commander and Zartan with some heavy artillery and an American flag, now they need performance enhancing suits.

 

 

 

EA's new game GI Joe: Rise of Cobra is of course based on the film of the same name. You join the Joes as they battle against a new foe who is trying to destroy the world with nanotechnology (are these things good for anything other than destruction). The game starts off with one of your team getting kidnapped by the Baroness and her goon’s right from under your noses, Duke and Scarlett then team up to save him, learning of a few plot points along the way.

 

The action is presented in a third person perspective with the camera quite far away from the action. As you run around shooting, the camera will follow you and try to offer the best view for the action, I say try as at points you are shooting at an unseen enemy whilst the camera focuses on something else. You can hold the trigger down for ever, allowing for a constant stream of bullets to spew out, occasionally pressing the B button for a special move or X for a up close mêlée attack on the shielded foes.

 

With the more kills you earn your special power meter will grow, when ready you can activate it with Y, donning your accelerator suit and granting temporary invincibility and even more firepower, when this kicks in you character will don their new suit and run around in such a laughable way it would make John Cleese proud. Each level you are assisted by another Joe, either AI controlled or co-op. In single player you can switch between the characters allowing you to utilize each of their strengths however don’t rely on them too much as they really don’t offer as much cover as a real player sitting beside you would.

 

 

There are a few locations to visit in the game, the environments are varied and offer plenty of cover, giving you a weak Gears of War feel with the running and cover action. Each level will also have items to locate and collect allowing you to unlock new characters to team up with. The roster available is impressive with plenty of favourites including Ripcord, Heavy Duty and of course everyone’s favourite Snake Eyes.

 

With all of the action and characters to play as you would have thought GI Joe would have been a great game but the constant pulling of the trigger and iffy camera makes it a bit boring.

 

GI Joe is a typical movie cash in, which in other words means that it is very disappointing. This is a shame as EA have been on fire as of late with some great titles released under their name, however just like the cartoon this game should come with a health warning at the end.