Twin Cobra (NES) - Full Run ALL Clear (No Deaths/No Miss)
33Full No-Death run of Twin Cobra, also known as Kyukyoku Tiger (究極タイガー), for the NES/Famicom, created by Toaplan. This was played on a real NES with real cart.
Stage Listing:
00:00 - Start
00:11 - Stage 1
04:05 - Stage 2
07:59 - Stage 3
12:05 - Stage 4
16:26 - Stage 5
20:56 - Stage 6
25:09 - Stage 7
29:23 - Stage 8
33:45 - Stage 9
38:18 - Stage 10
41:24 - Final Boss + Ending
Twin Cobra is a vertically scrolling shooter developed by Toaplan (at least the arcade version was, not 100% sure about the NES port). It is considered to be the sequel to Tiger-Heli, and although it has a similar name, it is completely unrelated to Twin Eagle.
Despite supposedly being the sequel to Tiger-Heli, it seems like Twin Cobra has almost nothing in common with it except for the fact you play as a helicopter. No longer are you hindered with a slow moving chopper with a massive hitbox and checkpoints on death. This time around you are fast and agile and are equipped with weapons that can obliterate everything in your path. If you ever had the itch to play a Raiden-like game on the NES, I think that Twin Cobra would be a close as an experience as you can get.
There are 4 different weapon types that you can utilize, and these are picked up from items that rotate through 4 different colors. Like most games from this time-frame it seems like the spread shot (blue item) is just too powerful not to utilize. I also kind of like the semi-seeking weapon (brown item) although it sometimes can let you down with it's lack of forward firepower.
There are additional items that let you increase the power of your weapon, I think you can upgrade around 5 times. You can also pick up extra bombs which you can be stored up for a total of 9. If you die you lose all of you extra bombs and your weapon goes back to the basic, under-powered shot. Finally, there are point items you can pick up that factor into your end of stage bonus score, you get 3000 points for each one you picked up since the last time you died on that level.
The graphics and music are decent in Twin Cobra, but it does suffer from some framerate issues, especially when the screen starts filling up with enemies. The games starts to play kind of choppy which is a shame because this is pretty solid and fun game otherwise.
There are 10 levels, each of which has a boss (or 2) at the end of the stage. These guys can be kind of a pain if you aren't prepared, as they sometimes fire relentlessly in patterns that will will probably require you to drop a bomb or 2 if you are unprepared. The final boss is nothing more than a fortress with lots of turrets and guns, which I felt was kind of a let down after the mobile bosses you encounter in the earlier levels.
Still despite the flaws I was drawn to replaying this game a bunch of times attempting to get a no-death/no-miss run which I finally did after many failed attempts. I think the key is is to make sure that enemies don't get around to your sides, and if they do, bomb quickly. Also, you can easily get snipped by things on the edge of the screen that you can't see immediately, so be very careful of moving far left or right.
In conclusion I think Twin Cobra is a solid title for the NES, and a big improvement over Tiger-Heli. Also if you are a fan of games like Raiden I think you will like this one as well.
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