Mission Cobra (NES) - Full Run with No Deaths (4 Loops)
14Today we have a full run of Mission Cobra (sometimes also called Sidewinder, 響尾蛇 in Chinese), which is one of the games developed by the infamous Sachen/Bunch Games/Thin Chen Enterprises/Joy Van. This was played with the real cartridge on a real NES.
Stage Listing:
00:00 - Start
00:18 - Stage 01
04:28 - Stage 02
08:44 - Stage 03
13:15 - Stage 04 (Loop 2, Stage 1)
17:23 - Stage 05 (Loop 2, Stage 2)
21:34 - Stage 06 (Loop 2, Stage 3)
25:53 - Stage 07 (Loop 3, Stage 1)
30:03 - Stage 08 (Loop 3, Stage 2)
34:16 - Stage 09 (Loop 3, Stage 3)
38:36 - Stage 10 (Loop 4, Stage 1)
42:50 - Stage 11 (Loop 4, Stage 2)
47:00 - Stage 12 (Loop 4, Stage 3)
51:19 - Stage 13 (Loop 5, Stage 1) - Stopped playing, game over.
Yes, this is one of the few "unlicensed" shoot em up games that graced the NES back in the day. Unlicensed games certainly have a reputation as being trash, so the question is, does Mission Cobra also fall under that group? The answer is "kind of". Make no mistake, this is a barebones game with not a lot to it, but is it truly awful?
In some ways it functions as a poor man's 1943, since you also need to collect energy/fuel items to keep yourself alive. You can also upgrade your weapon by picking up the same type of powerup multiple times. There are also items that make you invincible for a limited time, and multiple types of fuel pickups.
The game only has 3 levels, and they loop endlessly without much, if any increase in difficulty. This is probably one of the easiest shmups on the NES, and also one of the shortest if you only play a single loop. I decided after 4 loops of the game that I had enough, so I just let myself get taken out by the enemies and forced a game over.
The bosses are extremely lame and the enemies, backgrounds, and the "music" (if you want to even call it that) are repetitive, so there isn't a whole lot interesting things going on. For the good parts, the controls are actually pretty good and the game is playable for what it is. And that's pretty much it, it's a short, forgettable game with not much to it.