137 · Cobra Command

• TAKE TO THE SKIES ON A DARING RESCUE MISSION!
• Introductions
  • Data East
• Overview
  • Side-scroller in which the player flies a heavily armoured helicopter through six stages to destroy enemies and rescue all of the hostages.
  • Sounds a lot like Jackal
  • Also, throughout the game, the player's helicopter can be upgraded by landing in certain areas.
• Story
  • The setting of Indonesia/Thailand
  • You are General Steven Power
• Gameplay
  • Rescuing Hostages
  • Controlling your helicopter
    • The helicopter will tilt downward when moving forward and upward when moving backwards. This alters the direction in which your guns (and possibly missiles) will shoot.
  • Fire A and B at the same time
  • Damage
    • When Damage gets to one, the helicopter will catch on fire and slowly descend if left on its own. When damage gets to zero, the helicopter will engulf in flames and begin to crash –losing a life at that point is unavoidable.
    • Start being used for something other than pause. Turns helicopter around.
  • Upgrades
    • Gun
    • Missile
    • Armour
    • Engine
    • Rescue
• Development
  • The arcade version automatically scrolls. The NES version of course is locked
  • Stiffen Wolf title screen found in the code
• Sequels and Spinoffs
  • Choplifter is apparently what many think this game ripped off.mm
• EGL
• Next week - DR. CHAOS

Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.

00:00 Cobra Command, take to the skies on a daring rescue mission!

00:19 And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. And I'm Sean. And that's it. That's everybody. Because everyone else has abandoned us. Why have you forsaken me?

00:35 Not necessarily true. They'll probably be back in another episode, maybe even next episode. Who can say? But right now, you have the pleasure of listening to just me and Sean hash out the details of Cobra Command. It's always an intimate time if you listen to this with just a little bit of wine and candlelight. It's always a good time. Sean, I publish the episodes at eight in the morning on Fridays.

01:01 Well, if you black out the windows and you start early, you can still do that. All right. You know, we're talking about a Data East game here. Do you look for that label at all? Do you ever care about who made the game before you start playing these games on Nostalgia? Yeah. And I would say that Data East is one of those companies that I prefer not make my games.

01:23 Yeah. They don't have a great track record. Even I think I knew that even going into Nostalgia when we started doing this show. But it really has like stuck out as a name that like that. And I think just for some reason, Micronics comes to mind, too. It's just like a company I didn't like. I would say the same about both. Yeah. So when I see the logo for Data East, it's not welcoming. It doesn't make me think like I'm about to have a good experience.

01:52 Yeah. I'm trying to think of a good modern analog to that. And I know that there are many. I just can't really think of any. What's a good modern, terrible game? You know, I don't know if it's... Studio, sorry. Yeah. Studio. Right. Because I would say that like, you know, nowadays, nothing that I would purchase would line up with like data. You know, like we've trained ourselves to know at this age what kind of games we're going to like. Honestly, when was the last time you bought a game at full price and said, I hate this?

02:27 You know, it was probably Xbox and PS2 era, I think. Yeah. Because we were still young enough at that time that like you could be fooled by like a movie tie-in game or like, you know, the sports game of the year would fool you into thinking like, well, it's another year, so it's going to be better. And then they actually like remove features. Mm-hmm. So I think things like that happen. But I actually can't think about the last time I paid $60 for a game and had to like return it. Yeah. No, I'm on the same page there. But, you know, but we get to relive it with the data used.

03:02 Yeah. Now imagine you paid $60 for Cobra Command and you get to listen to us talk about it for an additional 30 to 40 minutes. That's a, this is a role-playing podcast. We like to put people in the zone.

03:17 Sean, what is Cobra Command? Cobra Command is a, it's, it's basically a, I guess it's a shmup with adventure elements. It's like, if you just removed all of the context and you were just watching something marked as like player character and it would almost look like a, it's just a helicopter adventure game, I guess. Yeah, it does have a feel of a shmup, but actually I, the more I played the game, I didn't put it there.

03:51 You know, like I thought it was a shmup going in, but it really is more of a action adventure game where you're like, you're saving hostages and you're shooting down enemies and yeah, it's like separated through stages, but it's not so like, it's not like area one, area two. Like it does, it does have like a seamless nature of storytelling to it. So I put it more in the action adventure column. I think I'd agree.

04:12 And, you know, a helicopter, that's something different. I think like the other helicopter games that we played were like Tiger Heli, which was a, which was definitely a shmup, but that was a, a vertical shmup where, you know, you, you didn't have to worry about, I think you could shoot on land and in the air. Yes. But you didn't have to worry about like anything other than just making it to the end of the stage. You could choose not to shoot anything.

04:38 Yeah. So we have that, which is a bit more like a, like an expected, like what you would think of as a helicopter game. And then we had one of my personal favorites right on bungeling Bay, which was a lot more technical and kind of abstractly helicopter-y. So why do you, what do you think about like the appeal of the helicopter? Like, is that an appealing thing for you to want to fly? Like, does that, is that different than like a spaceship or just a normal fighter jet? Like, are you excited by controlling a helicopter?

05:11 I guess like just in the canon of video games, I, I look forward to helicopters. I, but when I think about that, I just sort of think about like Vice City and Grand Theft Auto, like San Andreas, like I get the helicopter. You can do whatever you want with that.

05:29 But beyond that, I guess not really, but I guess I don't know what my answer is. Yeah. I just feel like, you know, in, in a war setting, a helicopter is one of the like lesser appealing things that I'd want to be flying.

05:46 But there's, I mean, it's, it's got novelty to it. Like it's not a, it's not a plane. You can, you can go in any direction you want. I kind of get, I kind of get where they're coming from. Yeah. I mean, you know, if you think about the fact that you're also rescuing hostages, a helicopter makes sense for that kind of mission, you know, you can just like stay stationary above the ground and drop a rope and then they come up and then you can, you know, there's room for them. I don't think that would be realistic in a fighter jet.

06:13 Yeah. You can't really just hang a rope from a fighter jet and hope they pick it up at like Mach five. Right. I think it was a game though, where we were in like a spaceship that rescued hostages, right? Wasn't that, uh, I mean, there's so many of these. I was going to mention that I have, I did not expect there to be this many games in the NES only a, like less than 200 games in, we've got like three or four games where there's a rescue hostage mechanic that they just sort of like file in. Like it's such a specific thing to see so often.

06:50 The 1973 Olympics are like fresh in people's minds at this time. So I think that's really just like what it came down to. Exactly. You know, I think, I think rescuing hostages was also a big thing in eighties movies. So that would explain, you know, cause video games at this time are leveraging a lot of the popularity of, you know, that action blockbuster genre that kind of started in 85 and is now like booming. Yeah. I can, I can buy that. Yeah. But what do you think about the setting of Indonesia and Thailand? Thailand. It's a, it's sort of unsettling that they've got such a specific, like usually these games have been trying to shy away from making them contextual.

07:36 Yeah. Political or contextual in the, in the real world at all. Like usually it's like some stand in for the United States against some stand in for the Soviet, uh, uh, for the USSR. Uh, but now that they're just going to say like, yeah, you're in Sumatra and Java and then South China sea.

07:54 Um, it's interesting at the very least. I don't think I can list many other games that take place in like Indonesia. No, no. You know, and I don't know, uh, enough about like this area to know if like there was a conflict going on or not. Uh, but it just seems like a, a very specific choice. Tie that with the helicopter thing. I'm just not sure like American kids were ready for this game. I guess it's just like, it's close enough to Vietnam while not being Vietnam. I mean, helicopters are big there too. This is now, uh, this is now hardcore history.

08:31 Uh, right, right. All right. Well, you know, to get away from hardcore history, you are General Steven Power in this game. It's a great name. Yeah. Great name, right? Does it matter? Do you care about like the names of made up characters in these NES games where the story is all told in the manual? This isn't a ridiculous enough name for me to care. If it's a super ridiculous name, then yes, hell yes. Right. Cause I, I, I read in the manual, you know, just the, the backstory in the Steven Power thing. And Steven Power first off reminds me of that, uh, when Homer becomes Max Power, uh, that's like, that would have been a better pun there.

09:09 But, uh, you know, I just don't think like, just say it's me. Just say like, I have to be in the helicopter doing all this crazy shit. That, that would make me feel better when I was, if I was a kid during this. Yeah. So we're talking about the helicopter a lot. Let's talk about how it actually controls in the game because there, there is an interesting mechanic of like, you know, it, it tries to simulate how you would be flying a helicopter in a side scrolling 2d fashion where as you're moving, the helicopter kind of leans forward or back depending on your momentum. And then that also controls like how you shoot because if the helicopter is leaning, you wouldn't be able to necessarily shoot a straight shot.

09:50 What'd you think of that? I kind of liked it. Uh, it, it made it feel a bit more dynamic and it definitely raises the skill ceiling. Um, because whenever I, I actually don't know. So, uh, yeah, in the, uh, Tiger Heli, I think he just fired straight ahead. And if you dropped a bomb, it would drop like five pixels ahead or something along those lines. Um, I, I kind of liked that there's a bit more to it than just, uh, it being a one-to-one relationship to like where your character is on the screen to where you're shooting.

10:26 It's weird at first, you know, like it takes some getting used to. And to be honest, I actually, I was not a big fan of it at first until I realized that, you know, if the motions of your helicopter like sway and they have like, uh, you know, you have to aim with that in mind, it, you have to like, you have to take the game slow.

10:46 You're a helicopter. You're not that fighter jet. So you can't be just like cruising through all the various enemies. You kind of have to like find your enemy, lock into them and take them down and then progress as, as you move on. Did you find that as well? Yeah. In the very beginning when I was getting used to it, it felt like, because the way the enemies spawn in this game, I think it's just based on like your position. And then if you move back and forth, that enemy will spawn again.

11:14 Um, but it felt like the timing of enemy spawns made it so that you had to literally crawl through the level. It was like every, uh, every like quarter second of scroll time, there'd be a new helicopter that you have to like stop, aim and fire at. So it kind of like, it's not great for pacing. Like I think if they, if they switched the, the spawn mechanics up a little bit, it would feel a little bit more fluid. But yeah, if you're going for this, uh, uh, a bit more like precise and not supposed to be going at this at a hundred miles an hour, then I guess they did the job.

11:53 Right. And I, I can't say whether that was actually like an improvement or not, you know, maybe it's a form of realism, but, uh, you know, to go back to your spawning thing, I found that to be a major problem because when I was playing the game fast, or even if I was getting tired of being slow for a minute and just kind of wanted to chug through the next section, I found it very hard to dodge things in this game.

12:16 So it sort of had two different, I had two different feelings, kind of exact opposite of each other. Uh, yeah, it's hard to do that, but there are also sections in this game where you could just ignore, you could just ignore enemies because enemies don't really linger. If, if you're, if you're going towards a, uh, another helicopter, they're just going to fly past you and it's not until the later levels that you get ones that are, uh, that are sort of trying to get in your way more. So in some instances it could feel way too easy if you just ignore everything, like in a lot of games that we've played. Uh, but, uh, yeah, it's just an uneven difficulty curve, I'd say.

12:57 Yeah. I always feel like a game that, um, that you can avoid, uh, enemies, even though that might be helpful to like a player who needs a break. I always see that as just a bad sign for a game in general, because it's kind of lazy game design philosophy to make it so that enemies don't necessarily matter. And they're just pre-programmed to spawn in specific spots, you know? Yeah. You're just sort of, uh, banking on the, uh, the behaviors that people that play games do, which is like, oh, I have to fight this thing. So I will, and not really realizing that like, oh, I could just go past them.

13:35 Right. And, and, you know, when you get damage, uh, to your helicopter, it's, it's, first off, it's nice that it's not just a one shot kill. We're so used to that in games, but the helicopter will actually gradually start to catch on fire and slowly descend if it's left alone.

13:54 I've never seen something like that before in one of these games. And I thought it was so cool that they, uh, that they decided to do that. I like that a lot too. Like the, there's a, I think there's like two stages to, uh, like visible damage. Like you can take a couple of shots and you'll still look the same, but then on the first one, if you just leave your controller alone, you will very slowly start to descend and you can kind of see fire or smoke and then another shot will make it so that no matter how hard you fight, you're, you're still going, you're like, you're very slowly crashing. And then the last one will blow you up.

14:31 Um, I, I really liked that too, just for, um, just for the, uh, immersion of it. Um, yeah, there's like a sense of dread in the, in that final one, because, you know, it is interesting that you're able to control while still being on fire and you feel like this pushback, but I think it's exactly when you hit like zero health. So you're technically already dead, but it lets you like, it lets that sink in. Yeah, for sure.

14:57 And I, I don't know how other games would have applied that so far. It's, it would be weird with like a, uh, a human protagonist to do something like that where they start like stumbling and then they fall to the ground or something like that would be, uh, maybe too creepy for an NES game. Yeah. But it's done really nicely here. And that kind of makes me wish that it also happened to enemies.

15:21 Oh yeah. Um, yeah, that, that does make sense. They just kind of vanish, right? They almost like evaporate when you hit them. Yeah. I don't even have like an explosion or anything. Yeah. It's all, it almost feels inconsequential whenever you do something to an enemy. It's just like, Oh, now it's gone. Um, but it's only because of the context of it happening to you that I guess it feels like that though. You can fire both, um, I guess like regular bullets and then, uh, missiles as well, uh, between A and B. Uh, you know, that's pretty basic. And I like that you can fire them at the same time because I find myself just like hitting both across my thumb. Like I just hold my thumb sideways instead and just spam it that way.

16:04 And I'm fine with that. Like, you know, whatever it's, it's, it's arcadey in a sense. And you know, the real meat and potatoes of this game is its upgrades. I mean, there's upgrades for the gun, the missile, the armor, the engine. Uh, you can even change how you rescue people switching from a rope to an eventually upgraded ladder. Yeah, I, that's another, I, I do, I love upgrade systems, especially when you can sort of customize which one you want to use at that time, as opposed to it just being a pickup that, uh, this is you now.

16:36 Um, so I think that allows a little bit more expression and, uh, how you want to play the game. Um, I, I guess I'll bring it up now. I really couldn't get that far in this game though, as much as I've been talking about it, cause I think I ran into a bug. Uh. What's the bug?

16:55 I, so, you know how you have to like blow the top off of these fortresses? Yes. To, which, which we also have to talk about because they're not, you know, maybe some of them are, but not all of them are very clearly like labeled of when you should be breaking into these things. I mean, it's, it's like, it's talked about in the manual, but the mechanics of it aren't really spoken about. Like there's like a little, like, uh, I forget what you would call it. Like the top piece. Yeah. Like there's the, the top piece, uh, that you have to blow up and that like destroys the bulk of the, uh, of the fortress.

17:29 Then you can go down and there's like a little section of underground helicoptering, which is interesting. Um, but the second one, like on the first level, I, I just unloaded on this thing and it wouldn't break. I don't know if I was shooting the wrong piece, if it wasn't like the very top piece, like the last one, but I spent like five lives, a couple of resets on this thing. I was just like, I don't know how to get past this. I don't know if it was a bug or if I'm just an idiot.

18:00 Uh, so most of my research on this game had to be through watching people play because I probably spent 45 to an hour, uh, just trying to get past that second, like keystone. Yeah. Was that the building one? Yeah. It's like pyramid looking, not pyramid, uh, but you know, made a, made of some kind of coliseum. Yeah.

18:23 Like if you, it's the first level and if you try to go past it, you can't go past it. That's the end of the level. So I, I don't know if I just didn't really understand the, like the, uh, the layout of the level or if, if the game was fucking with me, but I don't know. You, I, I mean, it seems like you didn't have that problem. Well, cause what I was going to say is, and this gets back to, cause I'm looking at it as an image now, and this gets back to what I was talking about earlier that these fortresses,

18:49 uh, you know, you would think like, oh, okay, well maybe I shoot down the door or maybe I have to blow the whole thing up. Like maybe I have to do a certain amount of damage for that one. And specifically you had to shoot, there was like a star on the top.

19:01 Yeah. That's what I was shooting at. Okay. No, I'm just making sure. I'm just making sure. Yeah. No, because yeah. Assuming that, you know, cause that's what I was able to do. I shot the star. Uh, I I'm assuming it's a star. It looks like a compass thing. It's a star-ish thing. Yeah.

19:16 And, uh, eventually like the whole building will collapse. Uh, so then you just go underground from there. But you know, that, that's like, for me, that's a problem. Cause I guess like the star one, at least it's a star. But other times it's just like a circle or a very specific. Yeah. Like, like a little outline on something. I didn't, I didn't, I wasn't a big fan of this idea that, uh, you couldn't just like fight a boss or something instead. And then that would just like move you on to the next thing.

19:47 Yeah. It, it, I, maybe, yeah. I don't know if I was just playing it wrong or if it's the game's fault. I'm going to err on the side of, I played it wrong, but it's very, it's a very odd situation for me to be like, to, to, to like have a game like stonewall me like that. I, I'm good at understanding games. Yeah. I bet you are. Yeah. So, uh, it was just weird that that happened to me. So. And you used missiles. I used both. Uh, I was doing the same thing you were. I was, I was just holding both buttons. Yeah. I was tapping both buttons.

20:25 All right. Well, you know, I cannot solve your mystery here, but, uh, maybe call the Nintendo Power hotline. I will. Get on the phone with them and, uh, see what they have to say. Yeah. All right. So pretend, pretend though, for a minute that we were, uh, cause we were talking about the upgrades when this whole thing started.

20:41 There, there's something about, uh, having this many upgrades. I didn't, I didn't count them beforehand, but it's gotta be over 20 plus upgrades in the game. And even though they are like basic ideas of things like, oh, you start out with, uh, you know, regular missiles and then you get two missiles and then it becomes a, a firebomb thing that like, it has an arc to it. Yeah. It has like an arc to it.

21:04 The fact that it, it doesn't just like go from missiles to like, you know, this thing explodes everything on the screen. The fact that there's actually progression throughout for each of your things too. We're talking about the guns, the missiles, the armor, like the fact that you have that across the game, I think actually gives some life, uh, where this game might've otherwise felt tired after like stage two or three.

21:28 Yeah. Um, I, I agree. Like that's sort of what I, uh, was getting at with the player expression thing. Like you can, like if you're not feeling shooting with the twin, you can, you can, uh, switch to like a different kind of, uh, uh, a different kind of missile. Uh, I'm always a fan of, uh, that kind of customization. And that menu layout screen for all that information is really nice.

21:53 Yeah. I like the design of it. I think that it's weird that, uh, your heads up display, like there's some information in not in that menu that should just always be available to you. Like the amount of, uh, hits you have left is buried in there, like in a sub menu of the sub menu. Okay. Yeah. That's a good point. Like that should just be in the bottom right corner. Like I think that's a, uh, uh, that is a trope of games that I don't, I don't know why they tried to, uh, move away from it. Maybe it was again for that, uh, that realism of not having a HUD, but that they're a little, they're like 30 years early for that kind of talk.

22:32 Right. I think they even have like, there's a score hidden on, on that menu too. Right. Like that. Yeah. Cause it's never on the screen otherwise. And to be honest, like that's a great compromise for everybody. Cause some people back then liked high scores. Other people could care less about them. I think like, you know, just imagine if you, after beating a game, it told you your score, but never while you were playing. Like, what do you think of that?

22:55 I mean, I, that kind of feels like, uh, like, doesn't the kind of resident evil and like the Capcom games kind of do that. They'll at the end of a level, at least will tell you like how good you, how good you did like, Oh, you got an A or you got. Oh yeah. Something like that. Right. So, I mean, I, I'm used to that, but it's interesting in a game like this to see that. Yeah. Cause again, that's what makes it like a hybrid shmup, uh, action adventure game.

23:53 The action adventure part of this, the rescuing the hostages and everything like that. I don't know. Now were you able to get to that part where you would rescue a hostage? Oh yeah. I rescued a good amount. Like in the, like there's that first, uh, uh, there's that first fortress that has the capstone. I was able to blow that one up and I was able to go down and, uh, rescue a bunch that sort of filed out of a underground building.

24:20 Um, and it, you know, it felt, it felt fine. Um. Yeah. It wasn't, it wasn't actually that satisfying. Yeah. You know, I, I think they could have done something more with that. Uh, especially with the fact that you have to like dangle this rope down and then they climb it. Like maybe I'm asking for too much, but it just, it should have had like even like a sound or something to it to make it feel like, you know, you saved this person's day or something like that. It does do a very low, uh, low bit rate. Um, thank you. Oh really? It's just like.

24:55 That's funny. Cause I was, yeah, I, I must've not have been having my volume up high enough cause I never, I never heard it, but. I mean, like it's not, it's not much. It's not much. I, I mean, my problems with it is I think there should have been a bit more risk reward. Like it was like, yeah, you gotta go and get them, but the level isn't designed in a way that like this is in a riskier part of the map or you'll have to deal with this enemy to safely extract this, uh, this hostage. It was just sort of a pickup.

25:26 Well, you know, I think that's because this, this hostage thing as like a, as like a requirement part of the game was added into the NES version. The arcade version, I can't say whether they had hostages or not, but it was definitely just like a score bonus and not something that like you had to do. I see. Yeah. Um, the arc, the arcade version actually like automatically scrolls. You have, it's an, it's an auto scroll. You have no choice, but to just keep moving forward. And I find that to be very bizarre and probably an entirely different game.

25:58 Yeah. That is weird that they decided to change that. Um, I mean, I guess it does make it a bit more unique that you can play this at your own pace. Um, I, it just, I, I guess I allowed them for changing up that kind of, uh, um, that kind of mechanic. I don't know. Yeah. And I don't know about you, but seeing the little hostage guys and having just played blaster master, it made me kind of wish that there were sections in this game where you like dock the helicopter and get out and have to do like some, you know, like, uh, uh, uh, Ikari Warriors style gameplay.

26:38 Yeah. That means, well, not all games can be blaster master, Mike. That's true. But it would have helped. It would have helped in, uh, Cobra commands case. And, uh, you know, I think, I mean, I'm sure some people want us to like go more in depth with the upgrades, but they're kind of like, they're just, uh, multipliers of, of the various things that you've already, uh, that you start out with. Right. Yeah. I mean, it has the same effect as like that, uh, increase in power as any other game that has them. I mean, it, it, it feels better than most, uh, but it, there's nothing really new to what they're doing with the upgrades. Yeah. And we have a stationary final boss in this game. I, I don't know how I like, that's not very intimidating.

27:26 Yeah. This is another thing that I haven't really liked in a lot of these games is, uh, when you just end up fighting fortresses or just like, yeah. Uh, what was the last game we played that it was like this? It was just like, you have to shoot the things at the blinking lights and there's no intimidation factor. There's no like, Oh wow, that's the boss. It's just, it's a thing and you have to blow up the thing.

27:49 Yep. Yeah. I, I don't, I, I don't, uh, and I think that was like the case for most of this game. Um, you know, I never beat these games, so I, I, I only have for reference, uh, you know, what I'm watching, but there's just something about like, I don't know the every, all of the normal enemies in this game you take on, they move, they have life, they're realistic. They're like, you know, tanks and helicopters just like you. And then all of a sudden there's just like, just like me. Yeah. They're just like you. But then like all of a sudden it just becomes about like these floated, these like heads that stick out of fortresses that like shoot beams at you. And I'm just like, what happened?

28:30 What happened to this game? It's realism, Mike. Yeah. It became a shell of itself, but maybe this is what happens in underground Thailand. Like maybe there are bears that shoot fireballs. Are there bears? There's bear statues. See bears would be cool. Bear statues? Meh. Take it or leave it.

28:50 You know, I don't, uh, I don't see the point in that. I think that this game should have ended with like a one-on-one helicopter showdown. That would have been really cool. I would be into it. The whole time you were fighting player two.

29:05 Yeah. That's another funny thing in the manual. It's like, it has it set up. It's like describing what the controllers do. It's like controller one controls player one controller two does not control anybody. There is no second player. It's like, just, it's scolding you for assuming there would be. I mean, it's like, I mean, I didn't, it didn't hurt my feelings that there wasn't a two player mode, but it's odd that there wasn't. Yeah. It kind of, uh, in a way it's acknowledging that it knows by now that two player games are standard, but they refuse to include it. You know, like we know you were expecting a two player game. So we did include a button layout for the second controller. Unfortunately, it does nothing.

29:49 Would you have liked this game more if it was called Stiffenwolf? I don't really know what you mean there. Uh, it apparently deep in the code for the game, there is another title screen that can be found called Stiffenwolf. Well, I, I, I guess, uh, it sounds pretty like German, I guess. Uh, it's, I mean, I guess it reminds me more of Steppenwolf. Yes, I think so.

30:17 It also sounds like maybe a, uh, like a naughty play on words there. Yeah. Stiffen the wolf. I don't know what that means, but. I don't know what that means either, but just like stiff, I guess, wouldn't, uh, necessarily fly with Nintendo. I, I just don't, you know, this game was never referred to as Stiffenwolf anywhere. So why have it in the game's code as like a fully designed title screen? Maybe it's a shout out to, uh, Dr. Steppenwolf, uh, who's an orthodontist in Munich, Germany. Oh, okay. I like that idea. I was thinking it was actually an Easter egg by, um, by Zack Snyder for the Snyder cut,

30:55 which features Steppenwolf. Yeah. The DC villain. Is that a DC villain? Yeah. I thought it was a band. It is. It's both. Oh, okay. There are so many villains in comic books that they can be anything. Yeah. You know? I mean, my favorite's always crazy quilt. Crazy quilt is up there.

31:13 Uh, you know, I, we're not going to list them all off right now because I literally just draw, drew a blank. Yeah. But instead, we're going to, uh, we're going to just talk about the essential games list, right? Yeah, about it. Yeah, let's just talk about it. It's a list where, uh, Sean, myself, uh, Joe, when he decides to come back to the show and Sam, when he, uh, also, I guess, decides to come back, that's where we vote on whether these games are essential. And you know what, Sean? Let's do it. We're going to do it right now. Let's do the essential games list.

31:52 Okay. Real fast from me. Here's the thing about a game like Cobra Command. I know for a fact after playing this game that this was a game that I really enjoyed reading the manual, reading about like all the different things that could potentially happen in this game, looking at the upgrades, like, you know, oh my gosh, there's all these different stages and it takes place in a unique setting. And you got to rescue these hostages. Like all of this sounds so great.

32:24 And it's not that the final product is bad, but if I describe this game to you, there is a almost 100% chance that you're going to be let down by the way I describe it versus how it actually plays out. There's just something about the, uh, you know, I'm going to call it the game design here. The way that the game plays and the way that the enemies are placed and the, the length of the levels and the fact that it's not satisfying, satisfying to rescue hostages. There's just something about all of that that puts together a very mediocre experience at the end of the day. And to be honest, I'd love to see another game try all the things that we talked about here, but that the final product actually plays well.

33:10 Uh, I, I felt at the end of my Cobra Command play session that I knew this was going to be a game later on in nostalgia where if somebody name dropped it, I would, I wouldn't even necessarily remember how the game played. And so for that reason, it can't be on the essential games list. Sean? And just like that, it is, uh, it cannot be on the essential games list, uh, since we have to have over 50%.

33:34 Um, but I will, uh, I'm going to echo that. I mean, if this is a game, I mean, I actually was, I was pleasantly surprised by how the game played from what I expected out of data East, uh, from what I expected out of the promotional material that I saw before I played the game. Um, it just seemed like it was going to be pretty blah. So I was actually like kind of into it until I either hit a bug or some rare instance where I was just lost in a game and couldn't read what it was trying to tell me. And I had to stop. So just, just by virtue of the fact that I couldn't progress means I can't put this on the essential games list at all.

34:17 Um, you know, like it's, it's, it's not even in. It's not even in the running for that. So I, I guess I'm just going to have to agree with you there. Yeah. Now a game called Cobra Commander. Now that has a shot.

34:30 Yeah. You know, a game where you command Cobras or maybe you're the leader of Cobra Kai or maybe you're the head villain, um, of the GI Joes, right? Isn't that? Yeah. Okay, good. Like if it was some kind of open world, uh, management game about like, yeah, running that dojo, I'd be really into that. Or just a, you know, like a 4X game where you're trying to get all the Cobras in the world to overtake the humans. I, you see what I, when I think about it, if it was in that context, it would probably just be like you pretending to play a flute and the Cobra would come out of the jar or the basket or something like that's what I would think. Well, plastic instruments need to make a comeback. So a plastic falude accessory would be great.

35:20 For sure. Now, a lot of people would want me to mention, and I waited until after the essential games list, that there is another game called Choplifter that apparently a lot of people think Cobra Command ripped off Choplifter, which was a very successful, uh, arcade game and had a lot of other ports on a bunch of different other systems.

35:41 And to be honest, all I, the only reason why I didn't really feel the need to talk about it earlier is because I, I checked that game out too, and it's about the same thing. Who cares if Cobra Command ripped it off if they're both virtually the same game? So that didn't come to NES? Uh, as far as I could tell, it did not come to the NES. Okay. Well, at least we won't have to play it again. Yeah, it went to the Sega Master System and the Apple II and the Commodore 64 and up, here it is, finally. It did come to the NES. We will play this bad boy at some point. Can't wait for the deja vu. Yeah, I don't even know when though, because it's not on my list right now. So we might be playing this game years from now. And we'll harken back to this. But you know what? We do have some important news. Next week, we are playing Dr. Chaos. I can't wait. You sound very excited.

36:38 It's just, it's one of those generically awesome sounding names that makes it not sound awesome. Let me just ask you though. So it's a video game, right? Dr. Chaos. Okay. If I told you it was a movie, would you be more inclined to watch that than to play the game called Dr. Chaos? Dr. Chaos? That's a good question. Or like, would you listen to the band Dr. Chaos more than you would, you know, like, which, like, thing would you rather, would you rather listen to the album Dr. Chaos, the video game Dr. Chaos, or watch a movie called Dr. Chaos? I would listen to the album.

37:15 Because I'm sure it would kind of sound like, like, ween or something. Oh, interesting. I was thinking like a Megadeth feel. Like, literally the guy on the Megadeth covers, you know, like that guy with a bald head scientist. It just sounds too hokey. I mean, Megadeth is hokey. Yeah, they're pretty hokey. But it just sounds more hokey, even more hokey than that. I don't know. Well, we're going to find out if the game is hokey or not next week. And I guarantee you, very few people in our audience have played Dr. Chaos. This one, just from reading the back of the box, seems like a bizarre one. So, if you haven't played it yet, definitely play it before next week. Because, apparently it's like the Goonies 2. So, go figure.

38:02 Yeah, we'll find out for sure next episode. But I'm Michael Esposito. You can find me at Esposito Film on Twitter. Some people might have asked why Sean doesn't give out his Twitter handle. Sean, can you tell people why you don't give out your Twitter handle? I don't have a Twitter. You heard it from the man himself. He has a secret Twitter account that he doesn't want people following. That is not true. It's not true. Who do you follow on your secret Twitter account?

38:30 Is it me? Mogwai the band. Do you follow me at least? No, no, no. Just Mogwai. Oh, okay. The band from Scotland. Mogwai the band and their first album, Dr. Chaos. Mr. Beast. There you go. All right. And this has been Nostalgia. You can find us on Twitter at at NostalgiaCast. We're posting cool stuff all the time. And we're posting brand new episodes every Friday at 8 in the morning. So bring your wine and close your curtains.

39:17 We'll see you next time.