G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

G.I. Joe was the kids toy to have in the early 80's. Originally a reinvention of the 1960's favorite Action Man series, G.I. Joe was an action figure line with a companion TV series targeted at a young male audience that many still believed had no interest in "playing with dolls". G.I. Joe and his so-patriotic-it-hurts "Real American Hero!" slogan had them queuing overnight to buy new toys.

Time, as they say, marches on - the franchise has been around almost the entire time but its relevance to the common child has been significantly reduced.

It seems that Hasbro are keen to reinvigorate their franchise, with a big budget movie helmed by the director of the Mummy movies slated for an August release. A big budget movie just wouldn't be the same without a tie-in game released alongside it, which is where our interest is piqued.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is coming to no less than seven different platforms, including the just-won't-die PlayStation 2. The premise is pretty straight forward - take on the role of one of the twelve heroes of the tale (with four unlockable Cobra characters to play as) and battle your enemies via third person (over the shoulder) action arcade gameplay.

Set after the (still mysterious) events of the film, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra draws on 45 years of G.I. Joe history to populate the game with enemies, storylines and characters that should be familiar to ardent G.I. Joe fans.

The Rise of Cobra (video game) is not aiming for Game of the Year accolades or being too ambitious, opting to go with an "updated retro gameplay" experience rather than a complicated action adventure or something too driven by narrative. Whether it's enough to stand as a full retail product in this age of downloadable arcade experiences remains to be seen.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is set for near simultaneous release with the film of the same name, due to hit NZ shores the first week of August.