---
---
|
|
Updates:
Saturdays
Updates:
Whenever
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cobra Triangle
-
1988 Rare - NES
One year after Rare releases their, now classic, RC Pro-Am Racing they release Cobra Triangle. There are quite a few similarities between the games. The graphics, the controls, and, foremost, the high gameplay value. There are slight differences, of course, such as the fact that this game takes place on water and that the main focus of it is not racing. But shut up, they are still simialr.
In my eyes, this game should be counted as one of Rare's many classics.
Storyline
I don't think this game holds much of a story to it. You take on various difficult missions with your armed boat, and that's about it. I guess every course has a storyline of its own. Sometimes you have to clear out minefields, while other times you save people from drowning or kill gigantic sea monsters. But eh. . .whatever lies behind it all is unknown to me.
Gameplay
Even back in the '80s, Rare had a known reputation of making games with high class gameplay and precise controls (a "known reputation" being the reputation they had with me, personally). This game is no exception. The stages are all very well designed, the controls are excellent, and there is a great diversity among the missions. And there are indeed a lot of missions.
In the first stage, all you have to do is to reach the end of the river. Racing besides you are a bunch of blue boats that often get in the way (damn blue boats), but thanks to your boat's heavy guns you can just blast them away with a couple of well aimed shots (which would be very convenient when boating in Mälaren). Along the river you can also collect various power-ups which can be used to make your boat more powerful. There are five steps in the "power-up ladder." The more power-ups you collect, the higher in the ladder you get. When you've reached a feature you would like for your boat, all you have to do is press Select (same mechanich as games such as Life Force and Gradius). There are also some bonus stages in the game where the main mission is to collect as many power-ups as possible. And I can guarantee that they will be needed, 'cause beating this game is far from easy.
Your boat has an energy-metre that shows how much damage you can take before you sink or blow up. When you eventually do sink or blow up, you lose a life. But you immediately get to continue playing from the position where you died, until you've ran out of lives. When the lives are out, then you have a small amount of continues to use. When using a continue you get to start over from the beginning of the stage in which you died. The standard stuff, really.
After playing through a couple of missions you will face a boss. There are several of them in the game, and they all have in common that they're huge and hard to beat. But they're extremely cool and fun to fight. So I would say that the high difficulty of this game is nothing but positive.
Graphics
The graphics in Cobra Triangle reminds an awful lot about the ones in RC Pro-Am Racing. You view the game from a diagonal angle (ISOMETRICISH) above the boat as you rush through the rivers. The surroundings are all clear and so are the animations. The animations are, as a matter of fact, amazingly clear. They hardly ever start "flashing" as so many animated sections of the old NES-games used to do.
The layout of the stages and the design of the enemies are also very impressive. The stages are always fun to play and they just get better thanks to the cool bosses that you face throughout the game.
A big plus goes for the amazing start menu-image. Cool as hell.
Sound
The music of this game is perfect for a game like this. It adds to the adrenaline and adds a great feeling to the gameplay. Good sound effects, as well. Nothing to complain about here.
Replayability
Next to the gameplay value this my favourite part of the game. It's extremely fun to play, and it doesn't really matter how many times you've done it. You will keep playing over and over again until you've beaten it. Then some time will pass, and after a while you're back in your seat, playing again.
Originality
High. I've never really played a game like this, not in my sixteen years (2003) of video gaming. This game was released in 1988 and it was easier to produce an original game back then, but even if this had been released today this rate would still have been extremely high.
Overall
A great game that goes directly into my archive of video game classics ("what archive?!"). Everyone should try this game, no matter what taste you have in video games. It's always worth a try. This game has everything you could wish for in an 8-bit video game. Fantastic controls and stage layout, clear graphics, good music, and a high replay value.
Ratings
Storyline: -
Gameplay: 8/10
Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 6/10
Replayability: 7/10
Originality: 7/10
Overall: 7/10
Screenshots
//Benny
|
|
|
|
|
|
Staff Comments of Awesomeness
|
|
|
|
-
August 4, 2011 - 07:25 BST - Nate
It's time to end this somewhat hiatus and start writing video game reviews for no one again. Funny that after all of these months of college and unemployment I start wasting time with video games and shitty reviews once I finally get a job.
Also, maybe I'll start reviewing games that have been released within the past six months for once thanks to my new disposable (heavy emphasis on this word) income. Maybe.
June 12, 2010 - 15:30 GMT - Benny
I got an urge to collect crap for my chao in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. I had quite a lot of fun until I realised that I already had a chao with 99 in all stats. That took a bit of the fun away but I have another 16 chao I can level up. But now I'm in a mood to play Zelda instead.May 31, 2010 - 15:53 GMT - Benny
I'm quite glad I went through with this The Green Shell idea. Combined with Hair, I've managed to build up a little backlog of updates that could last me at least a week. Although I have a feeling I'll put out a few of them at a time, which means I'll run out sooner. But yeah, while it's not necessarily easy to come up with shitty ideas for it, I have been looking around at a lot of random video game stuff over the last 12 hours and it's quite fun. I also need to play some more Star Ocean; I've got reptile aliens to kill and annoying girls to ignore! My hatred for Welch has gone down a lot since I got Lymle into my party. That annoying fuck pisses me off, 'kay.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
