Review: G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra is a Decent But Unremarkable Brawler

We’re in a minor renaissance for 2D brawlers. Once a dead genre left in the 1990s, we now have a full resurgence thanks to games like Streets of Rage 4, River City Girls and TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge. G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra is the latest classic franchise brought back in brawler form, as Hasbro’s action figure line takes center stage.

G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra has a simple premise. COBRA has unleashed an army of clones to attack the world’s monuments, you have to stop them. That’s it. Now go punch some guys. At the start of the game you can play as four characters, all from the 1980s G.I. Joe team: Duke, Scarlett, Snake Eyes and Roadblock.

If you’ve played any other game in this genre, you already know how gameplay operates. You’re on a 2D plane moving from left to right, although there is some movement up and down the screen too. You fight off armies of enemies that attempt to crowd around you and punch you in the face, so you have to punch them first. There are two attack buttons, and these attacks change when dashing, along with an aerial move. There’s also a special move you can activate once you’ve filled up an energy bar. The specifics of these moves change between characters, although the general control scheme stays the same.

However, while other modern brawlers have done interesting things with their mechanics, G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra feels comparatively basic. While Streets of Rage 4 offered creative use of special moves and Shredder’s Revenge offered some superb movement mechanics, Wrath of Cobra…has guns. Various firearms drop throughout the levels and can be used to blast enemies from across the stage. It’s not the most interesting addition, but there is some satisfaction to be found in blasting enemies from across the stage for a moment. Sadly, they can turn those guns on you too, which is much less satisfying to deal with.

G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra is old school to a fault here. It’s missing most of its contemporaries’ quality-of-life improvements, instead feeling like it stumbled straight out of 1992. Defensive and movement options are limited. Some enemies are tedious damage sponges. Getting surrounded happens often and can be brutal. All these elements were present in classic Streets of Rages and Double Dragons, which I still consider to be great games. However, while it’s easy to accept all this in games from the NES and Genesis eras, it’s less forgivable in 2024 when so many games have moved the genre forward in recent years.

On top of this, movement is sluggish and occasionally unresponsive. This is notable in turning, which was either so fast I broke into an unintentional run or it simply didn’t register that I wanted to turn around. Turning in mid-air was also a dice roll, as the game simply decided on a whim whether or not it was possible to do.

Character balance is also significantly messy. I tried out each of the initial four characters and it’s impressive how much character choice affects the experience. If you’re playing as Snake Eyes, you can bump this review’s score up a point. He’s ludicrously fast, his attacks have brilliant range, he can dish out endless combos and, most importantly, his special summons a wolf. Playing as Snake Eyes felt like a power fantasy and much more in line with what I was expecting.

Then we have the rest of the cast. Duke is decent, but he’s also where most of my complaints about the game’s sluggishness came from. He’s the most generic brawler character imaginable, with decent moves that don’t stand out much. He does have a cool dash move quirk where he’ll slide himself behind an enemy but other than this, he’s average in every way.

And then we have Scarlett and Roadblock. The latter is a powerhouse with his attacks, but good luck getting them out because he’s so slow you’ll likely be hit before your animation barely begins. Scarlett has the opposite problem, with excellent speed but weak attacks. She should have one of the best attacks in the game, as she drops a miniature bomb for her aerial, but the explosive range is poor and it’s next to impossible to aim effectively. One of her dash moves inexplicably leaves her vulnerable for a full second too, a decision seemingly based on nothing more than trolling the player.

Presentation is serviceable. The sprite work is excellent but it’s hard to shake the feeling that it’s all pretty standard. I know I keep making comparisons to other recent brawlers Wrath of Cobra feels noticeably bland compared to the likes of Streets of Rage 4. That said, I did like how much of the military equipment was so obviously based on the toy line where the sight of every dirt bike and van led me to hearing “playsets sold separately” in my head. The goofy plastic feel of everything adds a lot to the setting, and I wish they’d leaned into it further to give the game a more unique identity.

The intro animations are severely lacking though. The character designs are bland and the voice acting is terrible. However, I’m willing to give it some credit if this was an intentional choice to replicate the stiff, limited animations of many 80s cartoons. Sadly, this is still better than how the rest of the story is delivered. You get text on the most boring loading screens in existence and nothing more. Obviously, story isn’t a huge draw for games of this type, but it did feel cheap.

The soundtrack was good, but I couldn’t help but feel like Tee Lopes was phoning it in. There’s still some catchy tunes here but it doesn’t quite reach the heights of his previous work in Sonic Mania or Shredder’s Revenge. That said, the opening theme song was a bop, mostly enhanced by the presence of Crush 40’s Johnny Gioeli. It’s an original composition rather than a recreation of the 80s theme song, but I feel it was a significant improvement. Gioeli is roaring “the all-American hero” with the same energy he sings about hedgehogs and “hell yes” is the only possible response.

However, it would be nice if the game’s technical issues didn’t get in the way of my enjoyment of that opening theme. Both animated sequences at the start of the game suffered problems in my copy. The opening animation just cut off halfway through while the opening story animation crashed the game entirely. While I rarely had issues in actual gameplay, those two glitches left a bad first impression.

On the whole, I found a decent amount of enjoyment in G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra. For the most part, it’s a standard brawler which is a fun time for a few hours, and I imagine is enhanced with friends. However, the inexperience of the dev team shows throughout, and I was left imagining how much better this would have been in the hands of Dotemu or WayForward.

G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra ends up being a decent if unremarkable entry into the retro brawler genre. However, unbalanced characters, technical issues and bland presentation make it hard to recommend over more polished games from recent years.

G.I Joe: Wrath of Cobra is out now for PC, Nintendo Switch, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.