NOTE: I originally posted this review in issue number 3 of 2.5D
G.I. Joe on the Nes is one of my all time favorite games for Nintendo's original grey box. While it doesn't do anything remarkably new, it's action gaming
at it's most refined. You start out the game with a nice pep talk from
General Hawk, and are then thrust into the action from there. Your team
consists of popular characters from the show including Duke, Blizzard,
Rock n' Roll, Captain Gridiron, and everyone's favorite purple Ninja,
Snake Eyes. Each Joe has his own unique abilities, and is in charge of
his own level. Whichever team member is the leader is automatically
chosen for you at the beginning of each level, however, you get the
choice of who the other two members (party of three each) that are
taken along.
Each of the game's levels a taken in three areas. Area one is just a
simple run from right to left killing or dodging every enemy that comes
your way and collecting power-up and ammo. In the second part of each
level, you have to search an area to find little check marks painted on
the walls for you to place C-4 detonators on. The third and final part
of each stage is the escape after you plant the explosives and the
final boss fight of the level. It sounds simple enough, but there are a
plethora of, nasty baddies, bosses, and mid-bosses along the way, and
each is all dead set on stopping you. Also, the levels themselves get
more challenging, and the check mark locations harder to find as well.
Throughout the game you level up your weapons via powerups positioned
throughout the stages in sometimes obvious sometimes hidden places.
However, the addition of guns doesn't make this Contra. Your ammo has a
limit. You can collect more via powerups, but for the most part it's
better to use you character's punches (or in the case of blizzard and
Snake Eyes, knife, and sword) throughout the level then to go gung-ho
(Hey that was a G.I. Joe too) and run out of ammo before you hit one of
the bosses. There's also a number of vehicles your Joes can use along
the way.
Bottom Line: As I said before, the core gameplay has been done before, and since. It's nothing revolutionary, but the game has perfect balance. It's about as refined as games of this type get. In fact, I can't really think of one complaint about the game. It all melds perfectly. The controls are perfect, and the music is great for an Nes game. It's just one of those all around great games.