Twin Cobra
System: NES
Release Date: January 1990
Developer: Micronics
Publisher: American Sammy
Genre: Shoot ‘em Up
Oh god… another Micronics game is up, this time it’s Twin Cobra. There isn’t much of a story to this one. You’re piloting the greatest chopper in the world and you have to kill a bunch of bad guys. What we have here is another uninspired, derivative, overhead, vertical scrolling shoot ‘em up. The 1942 imposter line is here in 1990.
Your chopper shoots its unlimited ammo with the B Button. You can upgrade your shot by collecting Supercharger powerups. This adds to the number of bullets that you shoot at once. Occasionally, you can pick up colored saucers. The Red Saucer is your default weapon, it shoots forward in multiple lines. The Blue Saucer is your spread gun, the higher the level, the wider the spread. The Green Saucer is a rapid shot that fires in front of you. The Brown Saucer shoots in multiple directions and curves toward enemies.
Bombs can be dropped with the A Button and are strong at wiping out the bad guys. Just keep shooting, avoid the bullets and find stars to pick up in order to increase your score. You’ve got ten levels to go through and they are all similar. New enemies very rarely appear, but there are always plenty of bullets. Everything moves pretty slowly, but so do you, so avoiding the bullets is difficult.
There are bosses at the end of each level. These throw out a flurry of bullets for you to avoid. You need to find the right pattern to attack while staying alive, because one hit and you’re dead. You gain an extra continue for every level you complete, and you’ll need them. The end is completely anti-climactic and you’ll be kicking yourself for suffering through.
Graphics: 1.5
Everything looks alright, but quite plain. There’s a lot of green and flickering.
Sound: 1.0
I wasn’t impressed by the music or the sound effects.
Gameplay: 1.0
There’s not a lot of variety and it’s slow and boring.
Difficulty: 2.0
There are a lot of bullets coming at you, avoiding them is your number one priority.
Fun Factor: 0.5
I wish I could say I had some fun, but I didn’t.
Overall Grade: 1.2
Twin Cobra earns a D+. Are there any Micronics games that I’ve liked? This certainly isn’t one of them.