 Let's keep the momentum going with the NES in case you missed it yesterday I posted a let's play of Dusty Diamonds all-star softball where I play against my friend, Trav, who you might know as NESFRIEND. And if you like that, there's an LP over on NESFRIEND's channel as well. So go check those out if you haven't already. But in the meantime here's Cobra Triangle made by Rare in July 1989 And this is right around the time where the head honchos at Nintendo We're really starting to notice the great work the stamper brothers at Rare we're doing because Nintendo decided to give this one the ultimate mark of approval for an NES game and publish this one themselves. In case you're unfamiliar, the Stamper Brothers were also the folks behind games like RC Pro-Am, Donkey Kong Country, and Killer Instinct. And in addition to those two folks, Rare also leaned on the talents of David Wise, who of course you'll know from Donkey Kong Country, but that guy also wrote a ton of great NES music as well. There's not a lot of music in Cobra Triangle, but what's here is good, and it's distinctly David Wise. I should mention quickly that Cobra Triangle is part of the 2015 Rare Replay compilation, so if you want to play this one today, that collection is a possibility for you. So what the heck is this game, RC Pro-Am on boats? Eh, that's pretty much what it looks like, but it's got a bit more going for it. Cobra Triangle is a combat racer with 25 total levels, and each of them have varying objectives. Sometimes it's as simple as winning a race, but you also have to save people from drowning, diffuse bombs, or fight a boss. It's this kind of variety that vaults the game from just a mere combat racer to something a little more interesting. The first level simply has you race to the finish, just to help you get used to the controls. Then after that, you have to drag mines from one place to another while dodging enemy fire. Then you're protecting this crowd of people, apparently not from your own boat though, you can just plow over these people and they don't seem to care. After that mission is completed, you fight a huge frickin' dragon, you gotta love that. There's split paths in this game, so you could approach these missions in a few different set orders, and that helps add a bit of replay value to this one. It's not all just mindless shooting, however, there is a Gradius-style power-up system. You collect these pod things, and you can put them toward your rate of fire, a burst of turbo speed, a missile upgrade, or 8 seconds of invincibility. Just press the select button when you've collected the appropriate number of pods for what you want to upgrade. A weapons upgrade mechanic like this is always a welcome addition to a combat racer, at least for me. I actually prefer it to collecting money and having a shop where you upgrade stuff that way. And so goes Cobra Triangle. It pretty much just takes RC Pro-M, adds combat and a mission structure with a Gradius power-up system, and you can't really go wrong with that combination. But there is a caveat to all this praise. And that's the way this game controls. Most rare games of this era are not pick-up-and-play. Games like Battletoads, Snake Rattle and Roll, and Cobra Triangle play more like pick-up-and-practice, learn the controls, learn the levels, and die a million times. Once you get past that learning curve, this game is pretty dang fun. I know sometimes it's easy to dismiss games with wonky controls, and here the boat can feel kinda drifty at times, especially when you're trying to dodge stuff, and at first you just end up aimlessly spinning. This can be especially problematic when you have to race to the finish, and any time you bump into the wall, you take damage. I'm just saying, this game is worth the practice, even if it is stupidly difficult, just like every other game Rare made back then. A special shout-out to these annoying waterfall levels, ugh. So yeah, to sum up real quickly, I normally don't like recommending something by saying, oh, it gets really good after you spend 20 minutes getting used to the controls, but when it comes to NES games made by Rare, I think that can be a fair assessment, they have earned the benefit of the doubt there. Rare are always ambitious, their games are just a bit different than others of the era, so yeah, there's a bit of a difficulty curve in Cobra Triangle, but it's worth putting the time into. The combat is satisfying, and the level variety here is what makes this one especially fun and worth going back to. It's a very good game, it's aged really well, and it's maybe a top 30 game on the NES. Alright, I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.