 I know I've talked about Konami's 1992 G.I. Joe Arcade game a little bit in a past video, but I saw the trailer for G.I. Joe Operation Blackout, which is set to be released in October, and it infected me with the G.I. Joe bug. Besides, this game is fun enough that it definitely warrants more attention, including its own video on this channel. It's a third-person rail shooter, as you can see, and there's two big things the G.I. Joe Arcade game has going for it. Number one is that it's up to four player-compatible. I mean, just look at the carnage here. This is absolutely nuts. I love it. And number two is that this game nearly seamlessly runs together as one long, nonstop play-through. They did a great job transitioning one level to the next in a way that shows your characters infiltrating Cobra headquarters. You start out in a chemical plant, then an airstrip, then Cobra's weapons base before finally getting a break. For what it's worth, this game also does a fantastic job representing the source material, and as someone that grew up with G.I. Joe, I appreciate that big time. You can play as Hawk, Scarlet, Roblox, and Snake Eyes, and one token gives you one life with a health bar to get through two missions separated by three levels each. And yeah, as you can see, everyone looks just like they do from the cartoon and the comic, including the bosses like the Crimson Twins, Metalhead, Destro, Major Blood, and of course, Cobra Commander. The exception here is Baroness, who is wearing more of a bright purple cat suit instead of black? Oh well. There are character portraits at the bottom of the screen, and there's lots of Cobra logos and paraphernalia throughout the game, so this game always feels like your smack dab in the middle of the G.I. Joe universe. The sound effects help, too. I love this laser sound. This is the kind of game where you don't just make stuff go boom, you make everything go boom. It's insane. You start out at a chemical plant, which is evidently owned by Purina Dog Food? What's with that? Apparently, the Crimson Twins run this black market dog food racket, and once you beat them, they lie there lifelessly. Wow, that is unusually dark. From there, you segue straight into the airstrip level, and things get even faster and more chaotic. Seriously, you're taking on an entire friggin' army. You've got like 20 enemies on screen at once, and they're all going for one target, and that's you. With games like this, the temptation is to try and shoot everything, but that's seriously impossible to do here. So you're better off just keeping an eye on your own character and dodging stuff while pounding the fire button. It helps that these purple dudes are content to just lightly jog in your direction, hoping to mildly inconvenience you and to slightly veering into another direction, I guess. I should mention, however, that the boss fights throughout this game are really tough. That's when you remember, oh yeah, this is an arcade game, so deaths are super cheap. The boss fights are spectacular looking, like this fight against Baraness at the end of the third level where she's jumping around in this massive plane, but damn, it can take a long while to get through. Level 4 has you driving through the jungle while trees fall on you. You defeat Major Blood, who's surprisingly easy, and then the Cobra base behind you explodes? Nope, another base rises beneath it with this mega-powered weapon, while planes try and gun you down from the sky. You make that base explode by firing a bunch of bullets into it, but is it over? Of course not. The real base is underground. Well, of course it is. The level 5 boss is Destro. You beat him, and then you thought the real base was underground? Well no. It's really an underground hangar to house the real, real Cobra base, which is a giant airship. God, I love G.I. Joe. All these contrivances make a James Bond movie look like my dinner with Andre. Unfortunately, this game does have its fair share of flaws, number one being that all four characters are basically the same, their differences are entirely cosmetic. And I get that. This game was made for fans of the show, after all, but still, it would have been nice to have one character be a little quicker, one be a little more powerful. You get the idea. There's also no jump button here, which is really frustrating. You're either standing still, moving from left to right, or the game shuffles you forward. You also have to be continuously pressing the fire button, unless you grab these R icons, which allow you to hold the button down for a brief period. I should also mention that you get missiles that aren't quite strong enough for it to be a clear screen attack, but they do look cool as hell when you use them. I should also mention the story, or at least how it's told here, because it says, and I quote, Cobra army finishes up the heavy bomber and attacks the big cities. Then, Cobra spreads mass destruction and chaos. Cobra commander declares, at last, we completely comma rule the world. Unfortunately, he has not yet learned how to rule proper grammar or how to spell, like the first area here, chemical plants. Geez, who's under the hood here, Lloyd Christmas? But yeah, despite this game's shortcomings, I still really enjoy the hell out of G.I. Joe the arcade game. If nothing else, the game does a great job making you feel like you're part of the G.I. Joe universe, right down to the fact that you're running in a straight frickin' line right to the front door of every enemy base in true G.I. Joe fashion. Yeah, screw strategy, tactics, and planning. Just keep running forward and shooting anything that moves. This game never received any kind of home console release, so if you haven't played this one yet, well, now you know, and knowing is half the battle. All right, I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day. Pork chop sandwiches.