269 · Twin Cobra

• You are the pilot of the worlds fastest attack helicopter
• NES Longplay
• Introductions
  • On the cover art for Twin Cobra, there is a helicopter with a shark design on it. Fans will remember our Sky Shark episode. We also talked about the shark design. Anything else to add?
  • Also important to note, Twin Eagle which this game only shares the SHUMP genre and 1 similar word with had only 1 Eagle on the box and we beat it up for that. But this game has NO Cobras on the box.
• Micronics developed the NES port
  • They brought us Arcade SHMUP ports such as: 1942, Tiger Heli, and Thundercade
  • Moreover, every port from Micronics that we’ve played with the exception of Ghost N Goblins has been considered a skip it on our NEStalgicast.com website
• Overview
  • Vertical Helicopter Shmup, shoot and bomb your way through levels taking down the enemy as a member of the SAMMY Assault Force
    • SAMMY is the publisher, I like little touches like that
• Gameplay
  • BUT IT IS JUST A VERTICAL HELICOPTER SHMUP. Now even the helicopter part isn’t unique. So going by the laws of the SHMUPS, we can evaluate it on 3 merits
    • Controls
      • This is an ugly game and the oscillation while generating the area feels strange
    • Power-Ups
      • Supercharger changes the rate of fire up to 6x
      • The color circles change the type of fire
        • Red - Missiles
        • Blue - Radial
        • Green - Two Lines
        • Brown - Four directions
    • Enemies
      • Pretty spaced out, projectiles are a little more forgiving
      • When you defeat a boss the projectiles he is shooting don’t disappear, but the autoscroll restarts so there’s a chance to be forced into a bullet
  • The manual lists out all enemy resistant values which is kinda funny. Imagine if you had to use the manual in an RPG to determine the Resistance Values of all enemies and bosses
  • When you die you restart right where you died, do we agree this is better than starting back at the beginning or are you losing a chance to build power ups
• Sequels and Spinoffs
  • A sequel, Twin Cobra II, was originally under development by Toaplan but the studio closed down in 1994 until Taito allowed Toaplan offshoot Takumi Corporation to complete it
  • So Arcades and Sega Saturn got Twin Cobra 2 and a PLUS version of the game was released in Japan only.
  • Twin Cobra and Tiger Heli can both be played on an expensive Japanese Switch cart known as Toaplan Arcade Garage: Tiger-Heli
• EGL
• Next week - Batman: The Video Game
• NEStalgia Byte - Chaos World

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

00:00 Twin Cobra, you are the pilot of the world's fastest attack helicopter!

00:20 And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. And I'm Joe. On the cover art for Twin Cobra, there is a helicopter with a shark design on it. And fans will remember in our Sky Shark episode, we also talked about this shark design on aircrafts. I know you guys don't remember what we said in that episode, but anything else to add here about like sharks on aircrafts? Like they're supposed to be in the water. It's like snakes on a plane, but it's sharks on a helicopter, which is ironic because this is called Twin Cobra, so there should be snakes.

01:05 Yeah, I guess I don't remember that talk about sharks on planes, but I agree with Joe on that one. Just a cosmetic discussion, really, but now you're bringing up better points. You know, we have really evolved as a podcast where we're starting to think logistically instead of just artistically. Right. Also, I'm curious about what alternate universe this is in where battle helicopters, this is the fastest battle helicopter because it's a very slow helicopter. Yeah, do we measure even like the speeds of helicopters against like what? Like fastest helicopter in relation to like what? Slowest plane? Like can a helicopter ever move as fast as a plane? I don't think so.

01:49 I think like a helicopter, you know, it's just like it's tilt based. Tilt based speed won't like, you know, ever compare to a jet engine. Yeah, like the idea is not to go. I mean, like the I feel like the selling point of the helicopter is being able to stop and go slow. Yeah. So this is actually a bad helicopter. The world's worst helicopter. Yeah. Well, there's a helicopter with a, you know, an identity crisis. First off, it's a shark. It wants to be a cobra. And then second off, it wants to be a plane, not a helicopter. Right. You know, I'll say this. The helicopter turns and changes directions on a dime. And maybe that's what it means. It's like it's the fastest like maneuverability of a helicopter.

02:35 I appreciate you giving them the benefit of the doubt. It's also important to note that in our Twin Eagle episode, which this game only shares the shmup genre and one similar word with. On the Twin Eagle game, that only had one eagle on the box. And we really beat it up for that. You know, it was supposed to have two eagles, but there was only one. But this game has no cobras on the box at all. Does it even because I didn't read the manual for this, but does it even reference cobras? Does it reference snakes or reptiles?

03:11 No references to reptiles whatsoever. But I'm sure, you know, like for those that are angry right now, I'm sure that, you know, yes, we are all aware that like the twin cobra is the helicopter or whatever. But I think it's worth pointing out that.

03:26 You can't just, you know, you can't just name things twin animal and just make them a shmup and have it be a given. Is it because the default, it sounds like I'm joking, but I'm not joking. Is it because the default weapon is like a twin, well, is like a twin barrel gun sort of thing? I'm going to say I doubt it, but you're the king of giving the benefit of the doubt. So let's do that. King of doubt. There is obviously helicopters that use the name cobra. I don't know if they're twin cobras. I don't know where the twin part comes from. So, Joe, I do appreciate your insight there.

04:06 But the Bell AH-1 Super Cobra is a twin engine attack helicopter. So maybe the twin. Well, then there it is. Right. The twin comes from the fact that it has two engines. You hid this information from us, Mike. Like, what are you doing? People come here for the speculation because obviously we're not a history podcast. We're not here to lay down the information of helicopters or Nintendo as they were. Instead, we're taking them at face value as they are right now. Wild guesses is our bread and butter.

04:41 I also knew that about the twin engines, too. I was just part of it. I was in on it. So I'm the only one that didn't know. Well, Sean, did you know that Micronix is the developer of this game? I didn't. Well. Thank you. Yep. You now know that as well. Micronix developed the NES port. They brought us other arcade shmups that got ported to the NES. That's like a funny thing where, like, they don't make the arcade games that these are known for. Twin Cobra was first an arcade game.

05:10 1942, Tiger Heli, Thundercade, all arcade games. And then Micronix focused on the NES ports. Moreover, every port from Micronix that we've played, with the exception of Ghosts and Goblins, has been considered a skip it on NostalgiaCast.com. So that's, like, not a great sign for a developer, right? That Micronix is basically one for nine and the one isn't even essential.

05:37 Yeah, I remember the, I kind of lumped them in with developers that I could kind of expect something from after the Ghosts game. But you're right. Like, if you actually look at the record, they don't have a good one. Yeah, I feel like it's a lot of, like, either, at the very best, unmemorable games. Right, right. Like, for some reason, Micronix is a developer we talk about more often than not. We just apparently don't think of them very fondly when it gets to the end of the episode.

06:15 That said, if you're just taking a quick look at the developer breakdown that's also on NostalgiaCast.com, it looks like, right now, obviously Nintendo, Konami, Rare, Tosei, Capcom, Hudson Soft, the kind of people you expect, the ones we talk about often a lot, they are the ones that we have received mostly good games from. But then occasionally you just get, like, you know, Victikai, Taito, Technos, Japan. Like, these guys have play-its and essential games on the list. They just don't produce the kind of quantity that some of the other developers have.

06:54 And so Micronix and Data East are both coming in at nine games each, and yet only, between the 18 games, just one play-it between the two of them. Well, I mean, Data East, you gotta, like, that is the one that is famously bad, where I guess Micronix has just been obscurely mediocre. True, but what does it say about these, you know, the Micronix ability to take great arcade games and just not port them well?

07:27 Should they just revoke their NES license, be like, you guys tried, you know, like, these are too far away from the success of the arcade game? Or, they're probably just selling, like, hotcakes back then, because they're just riding off the success of the arcade game. It's like, wow, now instead of paying 25 cents every time, I can just own it forever. Yeah, well, I mean, I don't remember the specifics on a lot of these other games, but is it, like, is it usually, does it seem like it's, this worked in the arcade because it was designed for arcades and it just doesn't work on the NES? Or does it seem like Micronix is, like, actually doing,

08:01 making it worse in their porting of it? You know, that's a tough question, Joe. I would argue that we're still in that time where arcade technology is just, you know, it's too far ahead of the NES. So, obviously, like, at the end of the day, the gameplay is the gameplay, and it's not like Twin Cobra at the arcade is a completely different experience, but it does control smoother, it does, you know, it has much nicer graphics. I think that's what you're getting. Now, are you saying that this is a, so what did you think of this game? Like, I had never played Twin Cobra on an arcade,

08:40 so I don't have that comparison. Did you feel like because you had played the arcade game, this was lesser? No, because still, it is just a, it's a vertical helicopter shmup, and as crazy as that sounds, it's not even our first one on this podcast. So, similar to the issue that we had a few weeks ago with Road Blasters, now we have an issue where, with Twin Cobra, it's really like we have to try to figure out what's new. We can't just talk about how cool it is to be a helicopter shmup, or how cool it is to be a shmup, because we've seen so many of those. So, going by the laws of the shmups, we can really only evaluate it on the three merits that we evaluate all shmups, and that is the controls, the power-ups, and the enemies.

09:30 If we're talking about the controls, this is a, you know, this is an ugly game, in my opinion. I do think that the graphic work is pretty mediocre for 1990s NES. I feel like in 1987 I would have given this a pass, but not now. It's an ugly game, and that oscillation while generating the areas as you're, you know, moving right to left, because it's not just, you're not just locked to the screen, you can kind of scroll a little bit.

09:54 But that oscillation while generating the area, it just feels very strange. It had, like, a weird look to it on my playthrough, and I couldn't get over that idea, because when you're playing the arcade one, obviously everything is so much nicer, and the presentation is so much better, that it actually helps the feel of the control of the helicopter,

10:14 whereas in the NES port, I felt like it was a little, not stiff, right? Like, you still get to move around and everything, but it just felt weird as everything was generating. Yeah. I didn't, I wasn't, like, super bothered by the actual, like, movement of the way the screen kind of, like, shifts side to side, but, and in fact, at one point, I welcomed this,

10:37 but as I, like, looked back on my experience, I do feel like I was able to use the oscillation to sort of, like, cheese the game a little bit. You can just, you can just move away where, like, some battleship is just off screen, and it just will stop shooting at you until you're past it, because you can't see it. So, like, for me, my issue with it was more, like, a functionality issue rather than, like, before I noticed I could do that, I really wasn't even noticing that oscillation personally.

11:05 Yeah. Um, first off, I would just like to, uh, add on to that take on shmups that, because I don't even know how many we've played. I know that we've commented on playing a lot in the past, but now at this point, I feel like we're kind of, like, expert, like, if you, if you go on to, like, CNET, or a wire cutter, like, some, like, we're reviewing, like, AV equipment, and it's really just, like, there's nothing, like, they're all trying to do the same thing, and it's, like, does this one have all the bells and whistles? And that's sort of how we have to take on shmups now.

11:43 Um, but, you know, that being said, in terms of your criticisms, I also didn't really have a problem with the, uh, with the horizontal scrolling, in addition to the standard, like, vertical, always moving forward. And I did also notice that you could kind of cheese it by despawning things offscreen, but I think that that's kind of countered by the fact that this is actually, like, closer to bullet hell than not, as you keep progressing. So it really doesn't have that much of a, of, it doesn't make the game easy by a long shot. Right, that's a great point, because you would expect, with more space, uh, to have, like, more freedom of your movement and being able to dodge those bullets, but I would agree that, um,

12:35 you don't necessarily know, as you're, as you're, uh, moving horizontally, you don't know what's on those opposite sides, and sometimes what's, what you're getting away from could be worse on the opposite side, especially in later levels. It was nice to have more freedom of movement than we're used to, but I do think there's a reason that shmups mostly stick to this, like, what you see on screen is what you deal with. Yeah. And, but when it comes to

13:03 your criticism of, like, the, the feel, because I don't, I don't really think there's, this is pretty tightly controlling, um, it's just the relative speed that sort of makes it feel more sticky. Like, you, you have all this space, and when you get to the edge of a screen, you still have more space to go, because it's gonna scroll with you for a bit. So it makes you feel a bit more sluggish, even though, like, one-to-one, the input is, like, just as, it's just as sharp as we're used to in these shmups. So I think that might have something to do with it.

13:57 On the enemies front, uh, because now you are dealing with a larger screen, and that you have the option to avoid enemies, like you guys both mentioned, uh, I would also say that the projectiles, um, a little more spaced out, but also maybe a little more forgiving. I feel like I'm used to a bigger hitbox on these projectiles, and maybe it's just the shape of the projectile, or whatever, but I felt like sometimes in other, in other games, like 1942,

14:23 it's less forgiving, whereas this one, like, the projectile needs to actually be on the same, like, sprite tile as the helicopter for it to contact a, uh, a collision. Otherwise, you know, you, you still kind of free it, and I, I found that nice for, um, my own survivability in this game, because otherwise, uh, let's say if it was a game where the projectiles are near you, this is a game where you will see,

14:48 you know, 12, 15 red balls at a time if enough enemies are on screen. There's not really, like, a, a sprite limit there, so to have at least a little bit of freedom in, uh, in that hitbox was, uh, a small nice touch. Yeah, I noticed that too, and I, I'll say, I think that this game is definitely hard, especially for me, you're not a shmup guy, I'm not good at it, but I did feel that I had, like, a little more,

15:13 uh, like, ability to survive and get through some of these really dense parts than I feel like in a lot of shmups where, like, I get overwhelmed, so, and, but it, like, and I was, like, it was almost like I was superficially impressed with myself, because I'm like, oh my god, look how crazy this screen looks. I do think that there's, like, maybe the, the projectiles are a little slower than, a lot of other games, but I definitely noticed times where I'm like, okay, that, that sprite did literally make contact with me, but I guess, like, my hitbox is just, like, my, my center of gravity or something. I think it's just the cab. Like, it, it can hit

15:50 under where your, like, rotors are. It's like the nose. It can get past. I, I think it's just that center, uh, where, like, the, the rotor is actually spinning in the middle. So, there were a few times where I died because I thought I had died, and I stopped, and I was like, oh shit, I was alive, but then I died because I had, so then I just learned to just keep going, and there were a lot of times where I was like, wow, I'm, I'm done for, and I got through it,

16:15 uh, and, and it made me feel like I was, like, super skilled, but I think really more it is that the game is, uh, forgiving. I mean, trust me though, you're, you know, if you're not, like, you still die a lot in this game, but there were just a lot of those moments where I thought I was going to, and I didn't. When you die, you restart right where you died. Do we agree that this is better than starting back at the beginning of the area, or are you losing a chance to build, you know, your power-ups up to this area again?

16:45 I think in a game like this, it's totally fine, and I think it's a frustration reliever, um, I know that you need, you need to sort of, uh, cultivate the power-ups again, but I wouldn't want to just go back and do it all over again.

17:03 Yeah, it's interesting, because there's kind of a couple of, like, levels of that, like, what happens when, when you die, I mean, first of all, yeah, when you, when you get hit, and you explode, your helicopter just reappears on screen, but then, if you lose, like, all three or four of your lives, or whatever, then it's like, quote-unquote game over, and you have a continue, and then you start back at the beginning of the stage, right? And then,

17:30 if you lose all your continues, then you start back at the beginning of the game. So it's like, like, I think they got it right at some element, and they balanced it, like, decently, but then, like, I, I just, I'm never a fan of, like, okay, but you only have so many of those, and then you start the whole game over. I get that's an arcade thing. No, yeah, exactly, that's what I was gonna say, is that continues feel like a, a monetization thing, and in, in the game that you paid for, you probably could lose the continues thing, but still have the lives system, like, unlimited continues, but you still only have X amount of lives.

18:05 Yeah, I don't think, I don't fault a game like this for it anymore, like, it's just, it's just the nature of the genre, because otherwise you could just brute force through the game, and you wouldn't have really learned anything. That's a good point, Sean, that, like, shmups in general,

18:21 are relatively short, it's just the skill level involved, to, like, you know, we've never seen a shmup that's, like, 50 levels of, of increasing difficulty. No, I know, it's true, but, like, most shmups really are just, what, five to seven levels, that you just have to, and, you know, the skill level, really, that ceiling gets hit fast for most players, and they never experience those later levels, which is a problem in itself, but, if you did have unlimited continues, or unlimited incentive not to just keep dying, and keep pushing forward,

18:52 there's not, like, there's not really, like, a story, or a, a reward, for experiencing the later stuff, it really is, the, uh, excitement that you did survive, to that point, right? So, for the player, the, the achievement is how far you got, not necessarily beating the game.

19:12 And, I, I get that element of, like, seeing, okay, we're gonna boot it up again, see how far I can get booted up again, I mean, I had that same kind of experience with, uh, to the earth, which obviously is not a shmup, but, like, where I was just like, I'm just gonna see how far I can get this time, see how far I can get this time, but I think I would agree more,

19:28 that, like, about you brute forcing it, because you have, like, unlimited continues, if this game didn't give you three lives, and then you start the level over. So, it's like, yeah, unlimited continues to start that level, but you have to beat that level from beginning to end, in order to move on. And I think that's the, like, that's the case in a lot of games now, where it's like,

19:50 yeah, you don't have to start the whole game over, but we're not gonna just put you back at the end of this level, you've gotta start the level over. Like, I think that that is a good balance, where it's like, yeah, you don't just get to keep going, keep going, exactly from where you left off. If you die too much, you're gonna start this level over, and try and do the whole level again. Starting the whole game over,

20:09 I totally get the side of it, where it's like, oh, I just wanna see how far I can get, but for me, starting the whole game over is too much. The manual lists out all of the enemy resistant values, that's their words, not mine, just think of that, like HP, which is kind of funny. I mean, you know, the, in RPGs, that's like a skill that you have to like, either have the correct party member, or you have to learn that, or you have to toggle it with something, like, the HP value on a, on an RPG enemy is something that, is very useful information. I don't think anybody's out here calculating,

20:44 like, you know, the resistance value of the regular, uh, attack enemy helicopters, versus the, uh, larger planes, or the turrets, or something like that, but the manual goes through the trouble, of giving them all resistance values, so, uh, I feel like, just to go back to the RPGs thing, that's something that if you really, in certain games, you need to actually just buy the strategy guide, to find out their resistant values, right? Like, they didn't give that information out for free.

21:09 Well, I mean, this is a lot more explicit, and giving you, like, a numerical value, but I don't think it's out of the ordinary, to, like, for a manual to say, like, this is a high armor enemy, or like, this guy's got a lot of health, like, it's, it's just giving you a, more, yeah, explicit description. Yeah, are these,

21:29 values, like, on a scale of 1 to 10, or is it like, oh, he has 328 HP, and you're like, okay, I don't know what that means. Well, it doesn't, it's not 1 to 10, I know that, but it's, and I'll pull up the manual, if it helps, but, it is telling you, like, what your damage does, and then what its resistance value is, so theoretically, like, you could calculate it out. Right, you can just play this game, on pen and paper, with a calculator. Right, use the game FAQs, like, description of where the enemies are, draw it all out on graph paper. Make it turn based.

22:04 Yeah. Yeah, so the way the resistance value works, is that it's working off of, like, your, your base value, of, let's say, you know, if you have no power ups at all, right, no super chargers, or no, no, upgraded missiles, then your, the small chopper, is a resistance value of 1. So, one hit, one kill. But, if you have the, like, combat barge, then it's 28. And it's like, do people time out, like, okay, 28 shots, like, here we go, like, I don't think that helps at a shmup.

22:41 Yeah, I mean, at a certain point, I guess it's really just, like, here's where your power up should be, because, this game, more than, the ones I can recall, which aren't many, but, uh, your power ups, like, scale, pretty aggressively. Um, you can end up shooting, like, 20 projectiles, with one button press, with some of these, uh, my favorite being, the, like, that missile one, that, like, halfway up the screen, it sort of speeds up. Uh, so, while, each individual, uh, projectile may only, do one damage, or HP, whatever you want to call it, uh, when you're throwing barrages, at these guys, like, it almost doesn't matter, how many hits it takes.

23:33 Yeah, I didn't really think of that. I was thinking a minute ago, like, the one way it could be useful, is if you're stuck, kind of like, a boss, every time you get there, you keep dying, like, some big ship, or something, and you're like, okay, I, at least I know what I have to do, but, but yeah, I forgot that these power-ups are like, it's just, yeah, it's just a mess of bullets on the screen, so it's not, you're counting those.

23:54 Yeah, and the bosses have crazy resistance values, at least for this game, like, 64, 104, 136, so, they definitely scale. To get back to what Sean was saying about the power-ups, yeah, it's interesting because there's, like, two different things of collecting for power-ups. There's the, the supercharger, or the bomb, or the one-up, or the, the, the P-stars,

24:18 those are like, one form of thing that you collect, and so, for instance, the supercharger, this lets you, uh, increase the cobra's, like, firing rate, and there are six levels of firing power, so you can keep collecting superchargers to keep shooting your projectiles faster, but that's regardless of whether you have an actual power-up or not. If you just have the base thing, like, yeah, that shoots out faster, but there's these,

24:43 uh, they call them saucers, that, uh, if you hit an enemy, a, uh, a bullseye, it was really what it looks like, will float around the screen, and I actually thought it was one of those power-ups that worked, uh, a little bit like some other shmups we saw, where you, if you shoot at it, it changes, but it's just time-based, uh, you can, you can shoot at it, it doesn't actually change, I, I'm not sure quite why I thought that, but, it, it switches between red, blue, green, brown, so if you don't like the power-up you're seeing, you can just kind of wait it out, um, I'm assuming it won't disappear off screen, and just collect the next one,

25:16 and those power-ups, yeah, like, they're, they're offering different, uh, sprays, right, or different types, so like, the red saucer is missiles, and, uh, the blue saucer, uh, is like a radial spray, but, cosmetically, like, we've seen shmups handle this a lot better, and so I'm not arguing that these are like, bad power-ups, or whatever, but they really are just, taking the, the projectile that you were already seeing,

25:45 probably with a great supercharger rate too, because you get those pretty often, and now they're just shooting in different directions, so it doesn't quite feel as powerful as other shmups, even if it is just as powerful. They all have, like, different graphics associated with them, it's not, some of them are just shapes, but they're, like, different colors, some of them have more detail, like, that, that missile one, uh, but yeah, that, like, purple circle thing is just, like, a nondescript purple circle, but I think, like, the, the combination of, like, the fire pattern, because they all have, they're, they could do that radial thing, the, the missiles sort of, go, go out into, like, an arrow,

26:29 um, the, I forget which color, I think it's, the green is just a very penetrating column of fire, uh, with each button press, sending out, like, eight or nine of these things, um, I think they all have their own different feel, like, yeah, they don't, they don't have, like, a high, I guess, like, sprite count, but I wouldn't say that they don't feel powerful. Yeah, I noticed that when I was getting powered up, mostly with the, with the missiles on, like, that, that kind of widespread shotgun type, um, fire rate,

27:05 I would, I mean, I, I would definitely feel a huge difference in, in my power level, where, like, suddenly I'm, like, I'm keeping this whole screen at bay, like, nothing's really even getting near me, because I'm just kind of using that to, to kind of keep everyone away from me, um, so I, I, I noticed the difference when I would get killed, and have no power up, but really, maybe it's just the way that I played the game, but, uh, I didn't get the other power ups that often, I really mostly just got the, like, missiles that spread out in that, like, arrow formation, which was fine with me.

27:36 Yeah, it was the one I preferred, yeah. It is one of those games where, if you collect any other kind of power up, you lose the, the, you know, the power up that you had, so you, I don't know if this is what you were saying, but if you only ever, like, collected the missiles, maybe that was the one you preferred, or whatever, because you don't want to, like, once you catch the one that you want, you don't want to collect any more, it's not like the superchargers, where they keep getting, uh, stronger. I think it keeps, like, the, the strength, like, the relative strength between,

28:08 uh, pickups, though. Yeah, no, that it does, but it just changes, like, so, for instance, if you really liked the missiles, right, like, you wouldn't, you wouldn't want to switch that off, especially if you knew that an enemy was coming up. Yeah. And, and, I agree with what you were saying, Sean, about, like, feeling powerful, and I did use the wrong words there, I think I just meant, like, presentationally and conceptually,

28:32 other shmups have, have handled power-ups in, like, a way that, because power-ups are, like, the cell of shmups, right, a shmup without power-ups is weird, and it's not weird that this one, uh, you know, like, they handled the, the way that they make you feel stronger is great, but I don't know, we've had shmups where, like, one of the power-ups just, is a bolt of lightning that strikes down and kills all the enemies on screen, and, like, that is presentationally cool, or, you have, like, Life Force, which adds additional, uh, versions of you, like, little, uh, versions that also shoot, and then you feel powerful that way, like, this is just,

29:06 yes, it is achieving the, uh, the satisfaction of killing a lot of enemies on screen and everything, and, it's a helicopter, so I'm not, I'm not asking it to do anything that, like, an alien spaceship would do, it just felt like it was more, just, more bullets being fired, and not a, not necessarily anything cool.

29:24 No, absolutely, and I think, I feel like we've started three or four shmup reviews with, like, oh, this is, like, you know, for, for the hardcore, and it's like, there's, no, there's no frills, it's just, the, it's just really solid shmup gameplay, and it's like, if that many of them have this little personality, then why are there that many of them? And, I agree, like, this is, this doesn't have, this doesn't take a lot of creative license, it doesn't do a lot with style, it's very utilitarian, and I don't know how I feel about that, because, I mean, like, it does,

30:01 it gets the basics right, but, how much of an achievement is that? Yeah, I, I agree, I think I'm definitely one to have, like, hardcore said that plenty of times about other shmup games, and I was feeling that about this game too, and I remember thinking this time, like, that just means at this point that I'm just gonna, it's gonna be completely forgettable, because so many shmup games are just like, oh yeah, they're functioning shmups, like, I feel like that's why, because I'm not a big fan of shmups, I feel like that's what I end up reviewing, like, yeah, this works, it's a shmup, it works, it's a shmup, but,

30:30 I will say that one thing I think that they did do with the power-ups that I don't remember really seeing in other games, is that the way that you pick up the power-up, it sort of, like, makes it a challenge to pick up the power-up, like, the thing, like, zips around the screen,

30:45 and it's a kind of simple little animation, but it really did make me kind of balance this risk-reward, and put myself into danger, because I was playing pretty conservatively, staying towards the back, and, like, really watching every projectile coming at me, and then suddenly this power-up's on screen, and it's, like, taunting you, and it's moving around really fast, and I know how much more powerful I am with the power-ups, so it makes me kind of go,

31:07 like, throw caution to the winds into danger, to try and get it, and sometimes it gets me killed, and other times it pays off, but I kind of actually think that was a decent, like, I don't know if that was the reason they did that, but if they, if it was, that was a good decision. I'd say it's pretty intentional, because, like, in a lot of games, it'll sort of stay in its place, in reference to, like, the background, and if you, if you end up passing by the,

31:35 it, like, it, it will be passed by, over time, whereas these power-ups, will sort of, do like a square pattern, in the center of the screen, no matter, like, in no regard to how you're actually moving, so I'd say, that that, uh, whole challenge thing, is very much by design.

31:54 Former essential game, Stinger, had a system, uh, that was really interesting for the power-ups, where you had to shoot them, to increase the power-up, right, like, you had to continue to shoot at it, while dealing with the enemies on screen, but it also bobbled it back up, so this way, if you, uh, you know, if you were shooting at it, it kept staying on the screen, but if you were, suddenly, tasked with dealing with the enemies, you might miss it, um, that felt like, kind of, what was going on here too, with the, with this power-up, of not just coming directly towards you, or staying in place, is something that you have to chase after, or you might chase after it, and as a result, not notice that a bullet, was also coming in your direction.

32:43 For a lot of these shmups, that aren't just essential games, where they control so tightly, that we have to give it to them, it really does come down to the, the theme, right, uh, for instance, 1942 and 1943, are games for people, who want to play in like, a World War II style shmup, or, Gun.Smoke is like, it's a, it's a western shmup, or even, uh, crazy people might want to play, The Adventures of Dino Reiki, and that's a caveman shmup, right, like, there has to be a fun theme for it, how fun, is this like,

33:16 you know, the idea that you're a helicopter, like, forget that the, um, you know, it's just, otherwise, it's just kind of a, a generic setting, with no real, uh, no real world enemy, or even like, you know, a name for an organization, I know you're given that you're part of like, the Sammy Assault Force, which is fun, because, uh, American Sammy were the publishers of the game, so they kind of, inserted themselves in there, but otherwise, the, the hook of this game, right, isn't that you're, uh, fighting in the Pacific, or that you're, uh, taking down these giant carriers, it's that you're a helicopter, but how much fun is that? I mean, it's just a,

33:55 there's no, it doesn't tie in to the gameplay at all, like, this controls, like any other shmup, but, a little slower, and maybe you could say that that is, supposed to reflect, the handling of a helicopter, but I don't buy that, um, yeah, I mean, it's just modern, nondescript, military shooter, which, you know, I'm, I'm used to from my childhood, I mean, I guess because this is 1990, it could still be,

34:26 like, uh, you, we're not gonna tell you, but it's the USSR, like, it's always the USSR, but, it's not, there's, I mean, maybe it is, but, there's no personality to it, that the whole thing is that you are a helicopter, it's really just leaning on its, uh, core gameplay, and, I'd say it's, it's, it's good, it's good gameplay, but, in terms of personality, this game has none. Yeah, I mean, I don't have too much more to add to that, it does feel, just,

34:57 generic, you know, it's, so many other games that take this, like, military, um, style, some of them do them really well, and it's like, oh, this is cool, and some of them are just like this, it's just like, it's just a backdrop for our game, like, we have a game where, uh, a group of pixels shoots other pixels, and we wanted to make it look like something you've seen in real life.

35:18 On the sequels and spinoff side, a sequel, Twin Cobra 2, was originally under development by Toplin, but the studio closed down in 1994, and then Taito allowed Toplin offshoot Takumi Corporation to complete it, so, arcades, and, uh, eventually a Sega Saturn, uh, port came for Twin Cobra 2, and then a plus version, Twin Cobra 2 Plus, was released, uh, on Sega Saturn, in Japan only.

35:46 Uh, Twin Cobra 2, as far as I look, it's basically, you know, even if, forget anything they might have added, I think, it still has the, the problem that, uh, Sean and Joe both just discussed with, like, if the hook is that you're a helicopter, like, the game still isn't quite achieving that part of, it's not, um,

36:06 signing off to its end of the bargain. And then, Twin Cobra and Tiger Heli, which was another game that we reviewed on the NES, uh, those can both be played on a very expensive Japanese Switch cart, known as Toplin Arcade Garage, uh, Tiger Heli. And I'm wondering why Tiger Heli is in the name, but not Twin Cobra. Did Tiger Heli sell gangbusters? I, I mean, I guess that, that must be the more popular game. But this is a game that was released on Switch?

36:35 Yeah, you know, the Switch thing, it's like, every, Nintendo has no, uh, quality control when it comes to releasing stuff on Switch anymore. So, basically, it looks like Toplin, um, or Taito, uh, whoever's, yeah, Toplin's not around anymore. So Taito just smelled money and was like, yeah, we can put these old emulated games on a Switch cartridge, and people will buy it. And then when it goes out of print, collectors will buy it. Ah, there it is. Yep. Well, that, they don't get that collector money.

37:08 No. Unless they're the ones buying the cards. Wow, it's a conspiracy. I think that might be it. Who do you think is selling all those copies of, uh, Super Mario 3D All-Stars? It's Nintendo. They're the ones selling them on eBay. I was gonna say, some of it is, some of it is us. Remember? Well, most of it, yeah. But the rest are Nintendo. We bought all the games. Right, right. The other thing that is us, and it's been us, for 268 episodes, uh, 269 maybe. I don't know. I don't know where we are. Doesn't matter. Well, I actually do know where we are. We're in the part of the show where we do the essential games list. You didn't need a second segue for that. You were already in the middle of a segue.

37:53 And I don't really, I almost started the show again. Did you see that? And... I'm not sure where I'm going with this, um, for my vote for Twin Cobra, what else I can say here. You know, really, I guess I could just turn it into a funny vote, and say that I'm really disappointed that they couldn't be bothered to put two Cobras anywhere on the box. Because I'm sure, in one of these levels,

38:14 you play on somewhere, where, potentially, there could have been Cobras on the ground. Right? Like, obviously, you wouldn't be fighting any Cobras. You're kind of a Cobra. Just give me some respect and put two Cobras on the box. Two Cobras on the box, and I might have considered it for the essential games list. But as it stands right now, I just can't do it. Sean? Now, if all they did was, in the manual, have, like, some art of what the,

38:42 the pilot is supposed to look like, I mean, I imagine it's just like a, maybe it's just a self-insert, um, and it won't give art for that, but if it was like this guy, with like, spiked up hair and sunglasses, and rolled up sleeves, and he had like, two Cobras, as tattoos, like, that'd be pretty cool. But also, that might be the case, because I didn't read the manual. Um, but I did play the game, and again, I do think it's solid. Like, it is a solid, uh, you know, budget pick, to, like, round out your house with this purchase. Uh, um, it's got all the features you're looking for, uh, aside from, uh, ER, 4K, um,

39:27 uh, HDR equivalencies, but, uh, if you're looking for an AV system, I'm sorry, if you're looking for a shmup, that'll just like, do the job of a shmup, this is the game for you, but it's not essential. And I would just like to add that, we can kind of see, it's, keep in mind, it's Twin Cobra, so two people are piloting it. We can kind of see them, we can't see any tattoos, because they're wearing their bomber jackets, but, remember, it's like a shark, on the helicopter, which is never seen, in the game. They could have at least, shown like some, some cool eyes, or the mouth, or something, somehow, in the game, but you don't even get to see that part. Well, sharks are sometimes called, the cobras of the sea, so that might be it.

40:15 Joe, you're clearing your throat, so, I'm clearing my throat, I'm anticipating, that's my vote. I am actually going to say, probably the thing, the exact thing, that Sean mentioned earlier, that we say about a lot of shmups, which is that, yeah, the shmup functions fine, it works, it does its job, as just being a basic shmup, and if you're a core, a fan of like, core shmup gameplay, this probably won't let you down.

40:42 But I guess I'll amend, I'll take what Sean said, in his essential game, but I'll amend it for mine, to say that if you are a fan, of just pure shmups, this is a game for you. I wouldn't even say, it's the game for you, because it's just, there's a dozen others, that can scratch the same itch. So, in that sense, not essential, but not bad. But also not good.

41:02 Also not good. I would like to add that, since Sean mentioned that, he didn't read the manual, he failed the essential safety precautions, laid out by the American Sammy Corporation, where, Did he vote those safety precautions, onto the essential list? We haven't yet, but they have them, listed out, and they said, please take the time, to read the important instructions, in this booklet. Observing the step-by-step instructions, and complying with warnings, will be your personal guarantee,

41:31 to greater game satisfaction, over a long period of time. And so maybe, your game satisfaction, would have been higher, had you have read the manual, Sean. Well, what were the steps? Well, the steps are weird, because like, so you would think that the steps, are then going to be like, how to play the game, and like things, uh, like hints, and tips and tricks, and stuff, but the steps, Don't sit on it? Yeah, the steps are like, avoid subjecting, this high precision game pack, to extreme temperatures, or, avoid touching the connectors, store the game pack, in its protective storage case,

42:07 use of, this is pretty, like this is unique, I haven't seen this anywhere. Yeah. Well, I'll say that over time, like over long periods of time, of me not putting any of my games, in the oven, I've really enjoyed my time, playing those games, so like, it does pay off, if you're just patient. Well, you gotta get a little bit of a seer, on the edges, otherwise, you're not really playing the game. I'm telling you, I know it sounds crazy, but just try, just try not doing it. And here comes another crazy one, pause for 10 to 15 minutes, after two hours of, or more of continuous game playing, now that is something, that you would see,

42:37 later on, in like the Nintendo Wii, where like Nintendo would say like, hey, you should take a break, right? Like they put those in their games, which is crazy to think about, right? They're actually telling people like, hey, stop playing our games, take your time, like don't buy another one of our games, after you complete this one, because it's gonna take you so long, to complete it. But that's not what they're saying here, they're saying, take the break, because it will extend the life, of your cartridge. Now, I don't think that's true.

43:03 I could have swore, that it was just so that, like really weird parents, wouldn't sue them, for having to buy their kids glasses, after five to six years, but, um, I mean, I guess I buy it. I mean, if, you know, if you don't use something, for a while, it stays the same. It's funny, because like, you know, most of these cartridges, I assume, still work today,

43:27 so like, it must not have been played. Well, I'm just saying, you're extending, you're extending the life, like 15 minutes worth of break, like, it's just like, probably, a negligible, amount, but, technically, I'm sure it does extend the life, like, instead of, lasting until, you know, April of, 2090, it'll last until, you know, June of, 2090, or something. Please note, that this game has been programmed, to take advantage, of the full screen. Some older models, have rounded screens, and may block out, a portion of the image, which is really funny, because in just,

44:03 15 years really, from the release of this game, they did no longer, were they able to take advantage, of the full screen, that they promise. Not a future proof. I'm, I'm really glad, that we took the time, to talk about these things, because there's nothing, I hate more, than a 40 minute episode, like, I prefer, like 45, hell, even 50 minute episodes, can we, do we think we can get there? I don't think we can get to 50, uh, I've been looking at the analytics, and other than the fact, that most of our listeners, are from Australia,

44:33 uh, the biggest thing, that I can, uh, tell, is that they kind of, wane off, at the 46, 12 mark. 46, 12, all right. We can get there. I think we can get there, so if we just kind of, say, you don't want to plug anything, the Patreon, the website. We can count it down, we're coming up. Oh, okay. I don't, don't count it down, that's silly. Uh, I do have one thing, that I want to pitch, and it's actually something, that I created. Time's up.

45:05 By the way, By the way,! By Thank you.