Super Cobra

Super CobraThe Game: You’re piloting a heavily armed helicopter straight into a heap o’ trouble. Ground and air defenses have been mounted in this enemy installation to stop you at any costs. Missiles, anti-aircraft turrets, and even other vehicles will do anything to knock you out of the sky – and given the chunky terrain, the odds are in favor of the house. Your only saving grace is that you’re armed to the teeth. But, as you may have guessed by now, even that may not be enough to save you. (Supposedly, according to Konami, Super Cobra was their sequel to the minor arcade hit Scramble.) (Parker Brothers, 1983)

Memories: Alas, Konami’s Super Cobra didn’t fare quite as well on the Odyssey2 as Q*Bert did. At times, it’s almost comical – a few seconds of fast and furious on-screen action are followed by a tedious scroll to the left as the playing field is filled with the next round of extremely inhospitable terrain!

Super CobraThat said, though, Super Cobra is fun, but frustrating fun. The enemy outnumbers your helicopter about a half-dozen to one on any given screen, and yet on the other hand it’s almost impossible for you to do any wrong when bombing their installations from the air. (Bet the military would love to get their hands on that technology!) Due to memory and graphics limitations, your own helicopter can’t even explode all at once – the cabin blows up while the tail patiently hovers in mid air, and then the tail blows a second or so later. Super CobraNeat trick!

3 quartersSuper Cobra is another of the four exceedingly rare Parker Brothers arcade adaptations for the Odyssey2, distributed mostly in Europe for the Odyssey-compatible Videopac console.

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