Yo Joe! If that means anything to you then as a kid you must have had a G.I. Joe at your disposal and attempted to be a 'Real American Hero!' You may be aware of the recent transition to the big screen starring Sienna Miller in a cat suit, I'll leave that one to your imagination. The real question that needs to be answered is whether G.I. Joe carries on the age old tradition of poor games made from movies or maybe this can be the exception and rise above the usual movie tie-in dross.

Wherever there is trouble, you can always rely on G.I. Joe to be there. G.I. Joe is the world's frontline special operations team, regarded as the best of the best. Operating out of the G.I. Joe Pit Mobil Headquarters, they are the world's first defence and best offence against any threat to peace and freedom. G.I. Joe has just countered such a threat, defeating the Cobra forces. Cobra is a ruthless and evil corporation who want to take over the world. The cataclysmic nanomite plot devised by the Cobra Commander was stopped at the last moment and the Baroness (played by a certain Sienna Miller), one of his top lieutenants, is now locked up within the G.I. Joe Pit Mobil Headquarters. But as G.I. Joe turns its attention to disbanding a splinter group led by the Cobra weapons supplier M.A.R.S. Industries, Cobra Commander puts his next plan into motion.

Played from an almost birds eye/top down viewpoint, you as a G.I. Joe (you see there are more than one to choose from) have to travel across a variety of maps completing various objectives and eliminating a huge number of Cobra soldiers. With help from the rest of the team based at G.I. Joe Pit Mobil Headquarters, you are guided towards your target. The likes of General Hawk, Breaker and Wild Bill communicate with you via a set of digitised still pictures which have been taken from the film. The end game for G.I. Joe is to ensure Cobra Commander does not take over the world. You don't need the stylus for this one as everything is achieved via the D-pad and buttons.

In total there are six G.I. Joes to choose from, they include; Conrad 'Duke' Hauser, Snake Eyes, Shana 'Scarlett' O'Hara, Heavy Duty, Wallace 'Ripcord' Weems and Shipwreck. Each character has their own individual action styles and weapons. Duke is the all rounder in possession of an assault rifle backed up by a grenade launcher. Heavy Duty is much slower than the rest of his comrades but his weapon of choice is the very powerful automatic chain gun which decimates foes with ease, his secondary weapon allows him to drop landmines for unsuspecting enemies to walk on. Snake Eyes is a ninja master who carries an assault pistol but his secondary weapon is the Katana which charges up a lot quicker than everyone else's secondary weapon. Most Cobra soldiers drop tokens when they are eliminated from the battlefield. These tokens fill up a 'Special Abilities' meter, again each G.I. Joe has one of four special abilities. Duke's the 'Nerves of Steel' grants him invulnerability for a short period, Scarlett's ability is 'Combat Focus' which turns her Crossbow into a one shot kill weapon. 'Devastation' is Heavy Duty's special ability which enables an aerial bombardment that hits everything on screen. Finally there is 'Overwhelming Firepower' which gives Ripcord's assault rifle infinite ammo and an increased rate of fire.

Before each level you choose your G.I. Joe, luckily you have up to nine lives on each level so if you die you can choose a different character if you think your original choice isn't working. Unfortunately you have no idea what a mission is going to be like, so it's best to start with an all rounder like Duke or Ripcord, as starting off with Snake Eyes on a map which involves blowing up lots of buildings is going to be nigh on impossible with his little pistol and hand to hand specific secondary attack. As you progress your characters will level up increasing weapon power and life points whilst for all you fashionistas you also get to choose a different uniform!

If you watched the movie you would have a much better idea with what's going on but it's a fairly straightforward script that helps add to the uncomplicated action. However the constant interruptions from your peers appearing on the lower screen as you're taking on Cobra soldiers can at times hinder your progress as it becomes difficult to read the text whilst shooting. Its fine telling the story when there is no action on screen but when the screen is literally full of Cobra lieutenants trying to take you down then you don't need the distraction. The missions are quite varied considering it just a basic shoot-em up. Sometimes you just need to stand your ground until Breaker opens a door or brings down a force field for you. Most of the time you just need to get from one side of a map to the other which usually involves you blowing up radars or fuel lines. You also get the chance to man turrets or drive tanks which increase the destruction by the bucket load. The Boss fights are fairly innovative, a change from the all out war you would have experienced leading up to the bosses. They require a change of tactics like utilising the scenery more, or just defending yourself until you get a chance to unload back.

Moving across the map for the most part is done so with relative ease, however due to the 3D terrain being populated by sprites the collision detection will become quite annoying. There are moments when you will get stuck behind a turret or inanimate object which is very frustrating when you're trying to blitz your way across the battlefield. This collision detection problem will also work against you as one of the enemy gets trapped behind a bunker, and you can't manoeuvre into an area to shoot them, but maybe that's why you have a grenade launcher in your arsenal. Sometimes as you're playing it from a top down perspective it is quite hard to differentiate between different levels of land, even if you check the map it doesn't detail clearly whether a route goes up in altitude or not. Not so much a problem when you're fighting within the confines of a base, but confusing when traversing across a mountain range.

Graphically this is a throwback to the 80's, sure you can tell your G.I. Joe from the enemy but the sprites are so clunky and pixel looking maybe that's why they get trapped behinds objects. The maps are at least varied enough to keep you interested, at the start you're fighting within the G.I. Joe Pit Mobil Headquarters then you're travelling across snow, desert and forest ending up at the Cobra command base. The explosions and pyrotechnics help add to the all action atmosphere, it brings back memories of old school shoot-em ups. The Cobra soldiers come in a variety of shapes and colours, you have your usual grunts for target practice, then there are harder more durable soldiers who are able to throw grenades, also don't forget the ninjas who cloak themselves. The cheap looking digitised actors add to the charm of G.I. Joe but the text dialogue can be a little hard to read at times. The musical score in the background is very energetic getting you into the mood for blowing up baddies, very similar to the music associated with second rate action movies. All the explosions are satisfactory loud enhancing the experience. There is no spoken dialogue which would have undoubtedly have improved the authenticity of G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra.

The multi player allows you to play as G.I. Joe or Cobra which is quite fun with various death match maps, unfortunately no online functionally but there's still enough there to share with friends. Once you've completed all G.I. Joe missions, you can play as Cobra, however it's only for one mission which is a shame as Cobra Commander's secondary weapon is quite cool, it's like a poison cloud that spreads across the level. There are also some clever and reasonably funny exchanges between your characters even if it's just text dialogue. There is no use for the stylus in this game, but it would have been interesting had the developers implemented some kind of use for it. As shown by Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, mini games could have been used to unlock doors or access other areas.

G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra is a fun action orientated game that lacks a lot of technical detail but is at least worth a try. Sure the graphics are quite poor and the general presentation isn't great but sometimes just being able to blow up a few things without being interrupted can be enjoyable. Whilst G.I. Joe will never make it as a General it will be remembered for its charm and explosions! Yo Joe!

Reviewed by Christopher McNally for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).