Every once in a while a fan project comes along and pretty much destroys you.  It makes you question what you’ve been wasting your time on over the past several years while folks are toiling away at something far cooler than you could ever conceive of.

The G.I. Joe: Attack on Cobra Island video game is one of those projects.

Imagine for a minute that you travel back in time, and you’re playing the Coin-Op game “Final Fight”.  You know, that awesome side-scroller where you stroll through streets of enemies and smack the crap out of them?  Imagine, as a young G.I. Joe fan you take that experience and say “wow, it would be awesome if there was a G.I. Joe game like this”.  Then imagine you are Range Viper from HissTank.com and you don’t just imagine it, you freaking MAKE IT.

Yes, that’s right, someone has actually made an awesomely retro G.I. Joe side-scrolling game along the vein of Final Fight, and it looks awesome.  It’s still a week or two from general release, but they have posted a whopping 20 minute YouTube video showcasing a bunch of game play.  So.  Cool.  Check out the YouTube video below, and trust me, as soon as I know when this thing is released, I’ll let everyone else know.  A truly awesome project.

You can also check out a thread here and check out the Beta, though the Beta version does not have all of the features the full release game will.

Related posts:

1. Little preview from the upcoming comic that comes with the video game
2. Terrific blog entry on IGN by Dax Berg, Lead Designer for G.I. Joe video game
3. G.I. Joe: Retaliation video or mobile game coming in 2012?
4. New Rise of COBRA video game screenshots on WorthPlaying.com
5. GDC 2009 offers first look for G.I. Joe video game