G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra Review For the Nintendo DS

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is a simple, pick up and play video game with challenging gun fights and entertaining boss fights. This Nintendo DS title isn't going to complete with the Xbox or Playstation versions, or even the Wii version, but it is good enough to relieve a few minutes of boredom. Gamers who loved Commando and Ikari Warrior will find this video game familiar and satisfying to play. Casual gamers will be able to just pick up this title and play it without having a steep learning curve to overcome.

If you like combat and action in thirty second stints that are constantly interrupted by boring and unsatisfying dialogue that makes you want to tell the game to shut up, then you'll like playing G.I Joe: The Rise of Cobra on the Nintendo DS. The dialogue interruptions are also terribly written and destroy any pace and timing the game does have.

The collision detection of this video game is overly sensitive and makes moving around in cluttered environments almost impossible. All the characters and objects in the environments have an invisible layer of padding around them that makes crowded environments difficult to manoeuvre in.

Nintendo DS video games haven't been known for outstanding graphical presentation over the years and the DS version of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra keeps the trend going. The visual presentation of this video game contains lots of unattractive jungle, desert, and snow covered environments with dull colors. The animations are pretty basic and you'll be constantly getting stuck on buildings, girders, walls and even your opponents as you move around the environments.

The sound track is very basic entertainment but it still sounds pretty good despite its low production values. You'll be listening to softer sounding electronic music that beeps and bumps its way to the end. The dialogue is in written script on the screen, so you don't have to worry about listening to bad voice acting. The basic sound effects of the combat only serve as an indication that you're fighting somebody and they sound as dull as the color palette of this video game looks.

The game play of the Nintendo DS version of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is simple, yet useful and satisfying for the casual gamer and even a hardcore gamer who likes a simple top-down shooter. The missions and game play are challenging enough to keep you immersed in the action for brief periods of entertaining game play, but if you want to spend hour upon hour with a video game you should try a different and deeper experience. You get to choose from one of six Joe's before each mission, each with different attacks and weapons. Generally you'll have a standard ranged weapon, a supply of grenades or other explosives, and a limited use special attack. The d-pad and face button controls work well but there's no moving and firing simultaneously and the d-pad does limit your aiming to 8 directions. The cover mechanics are a little chunky and imprecise at times, and it actually gets in the way of the fun occasionally.

This video game does include a local multiplayer option that allows you to leave the stumbling narrative of the single player experience behind. In this mode all the players will need their own copy of the game and you'll still have to deal with the cover system and collision detection problems that exist in the single player mode. If you want to play another movie inspired action video game check out Terminator Salvation.

The Nintendo DS version of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is a simple video game with a few small problems, but nothing game ending. The casual gamer and hardcore gamer will enjoy playing this title for at least a few minutes of the train or plane ride and in a pinch they might even play right through to the end.