G.I. Joe
Reviewed by Sparky
Every once in a while, some smaller name company puts out a great
product, and hardly anyone knows about it. But those that do are very
grateful, and have a little edge on other consumers. G.I. Joe is truly one
of those games. It was released by Taxan (So small, I had to find the
game and look at the distributor because I couldn't remember it). I
rented this game because of the theme, and because I grew up with
G.I. Joe. Within time I rented it again, and really started to love this
game. I eventually bought it, and still play it when I'm looking for a
good way to spend a couple of hours.
Graphics 8 out of 10
Considering the guys who did this game, the year it was made (1990),
the system it was made for, this game has amazing graphics. Each
character has distinct features, as do the enemies. The faces aren't
really there, but do you really need to see how happy a guy is when he's
firing his gun? The graphics will not play any tricks on you, everything
is cut and dry. Also watch for when some of the enemies turn blue as they die.
Music and Sound 9 out of 10
This game was very well organized in terms of music. There are 5 main
levels, and a sixth final level. The first five are split into three sections.
The way the music was organized was that the first and third subsection
of any individual level was the same. Further, the second subsections of
the five levels are the same. I really like the music in the second section,
it's kind of a riff-rock deal with a cool beat and melody. The only drawback
is the checkmark sound that interrupts, but then you get the riff again.
The first and third subsections have different music across the levels,
well the first four are good, they're nothing special though. I base this on
the fact that it doesn't irritate me. Level five has questionable music,
with an archaic arcade style melody that manages to find its way in every
now and again. Level 6 is also decent.
Enemies blowing up don't really make the sound you would hope they
would, but at least it's better than some of the alternatives.
Game Challenge 10 out of 10
This game takes a couple of tries to get good. I initially found that level 2
was pretty hard to finish, but it really helps to be good at using the buzz
boar found at the... wait that's for the tips section!
As well level 5 is quite difficult, when I first made it to the boss, I
determined he was too hard to find with just one guy, heck even with two
guys. So if I lost any of the three guys on the way to the boss, I just died
until I got the password, and continued until I won. That doesn't work folks,
build up your guns, and demolish Destro.
Level 6 is also quite difficult, you have to go looking for a bunch of
checkmarks in a reasonably difficult maze, then you have to go against
the boss, and that also gets challenging with a moving floor containing
an electric current and a bottomless hole in the floor.
Well you've made it this far, but guess what, there is a second and a third
quest where you get one less Joe to work with, and the checkmarks are in
new places, some hidden. Road Pig gets insanely hard if you're fighting
him wrong.
Game Play-Fun 10 out of 10
This game is challenging, and you may get into a tail-spin of frustration,
but this is a game where you just keep plugging away, you know if your
methods work or not, every enemy can be killed by punching, grenades or
guns, so you have different ways of playing the game, which is always good.
I guess when you have played it as many times as I have, you just assume
that it has to be fun, otherwise you wouldn't be playing it, you would quit
after beating the first quest, you would leave it in the rental store, etc.
The cool thing about this game is that you can work with the different
characters to get different things. Each one of the Joes has something
special, Snake-Eyes jumps high, doesn't use any ammo, and wicked fast
grenades, Grid-Iron has a hard punch, Rock and Roll has a killer gun, Duke has
lots of health, Blizzard, well he's like second best in a lot of categories, a
good overall guy to have. Oh yeah level 6, if you've never been there, you get
to be someone else who exceeds everyone in all categories, except grenade
throwing, definitely experiment with this guy.
Another fun aspect is that you can climb into Cobra vehicles, and use them
against Cobra. You can get a Pogo, a Buzz Boar or a chopper. The Buzz Boar is
the hardest to use, but you can get far quickly in any of these. You can also
fight a boss with one of these vehicles, if you can find it.
Frustration
If you die on a boss, try with someone else, if all guys die, you can continue,
but your guys lose all their gun power-ups, so they'll be back at 1a again.
For someone like Metal-Head, fighting him with weak weapons stink, and
you're gonna die over and over again. Better to restart the game and build
up the weapons, and take him out first try. Same thing for other bosses
where it's probable you will be hit, if you can't take him out first try, and
lose all your weapons start over.
This is the reason why this game gets frustrating, with a weak gun, the
fights take forever, and usually end when you die.
Another reason why this game gets frustrating is the checkmark levels.
Some checkmarks are in weird spots, out of the way spots, and next to
impossible to find spots.
Replayability 10 out of 10
Lots of characters, lots of levels, you can do something new every time. It's
good for a shoot 'em up game, time to do to Cobra what they've been doing to
the Joes all these years. As well, I like to play it to get to the second and
third quests, where it gets really tough.
Lots of combinations of characters, lots of challenge, quite satisfying to
beat over and over again.
Game Value 10 out of 10
I bought this game off of a friend for 5 bucks. Or wait... I don't know how
much I bought it for, but it was definitely used and 20 bucks or less. I've
played a good 80 bucks worth of this game at least, and will continue to play
it until my system or game no longer works, and if the game no longer works,
then I would find the ROM or find it at some place that sells used games. Worth
every penny new, and worth waaaaaaaaay much more used.
Overall 9.5 out of 10
This is a spectacular game. I only have 15 games, this is one of them, and its
one of the top three that I like to play. I like it better than some of the
classics like Metroid, Castlevania, Super Mario 3, Mega Man 2, and Dragon Warrior.
This game is almost ten years old, and I still play it a lot. Too much to
be healthy really.
Like I said before it's a great game, and hardly anyone knows it.