It should be noted in the photo below as well that there appears to be a different COBRA Trooper, one with tan webgear and a red facemask.  It would appear that this version might be the Sideshow Exclusive version of their Trooper that has yet to be revealed.

Keep in mind also that items like the Attack on COBRA Island 7-Packs are a direct result of Hasbro’s interaction with the fans and a strong desire on their part to give us at least some of what we’re asking for.  I know it’s easy to write off Hasbro as having no fan loyalty, not caring what we want, etc…  but can that really be true?  The retailers are all moving on.  They’re prepping for the movie line and they want to move forward, and Hasbro has to move forward with them.  But instead of just writing off the items they promised us, they found us a way to get them.

The marketing folks who answer the Q & A’s went out on a limb a few months ago.  They didn’t have to tell us about Mindbender, Recondo, Chuckles, or any of that.  But they did.  They valued collectors enough that they went ahead and made a commitment to us that they were going to give us characters that we wanted and figures that filled holes in our collection before moving on.  But things happen, and sometimes plans change.  Sometimes it’s the retailers, sometimes it’s the direction of the line, and sometimes it’s even the global economy, but whatever the reason, plans sometimes change, and plans DID change, and like it or not, the next phase of G.I. Joe is “Rise of COBRA”.  Hasbro could have easily moved on, shoved the Anniversary in the background and focused all attention on the remainder of 2009.

Instead, they honored their commitment.  Instead of devoting 100% of resources to 2009, they dug back into 1989, ’88, ’87, ’86…all the way back to 1984 and pulled out some winners that they knew the fandom was clamoring for and the fandom would appreciate.  They know retailers won’t attach themselves to these retro figures, so they’re making them online exclusives.  They know costs prohibit single-carding these figures and selling them individually at a high price point, so they’re multi-packing them and getting them to us at a more affordible cost.  Let’s face it, single-carded figures these days are retailing for eight bucks.  The Hostile Environment 7-Packs were $25.  So instead of potentially coughing up well over a hundred bucks for these fourteen figures, we’ll be able to get them for more affordible prices…and let’s face it, they’re almost all characters we’ve been demanding anyway.

These photos weren’t very flattering…there’s a lot of gear missing, and the figures are somewhat roughed up, but the final releases will impress EVERYone.  Trust me when I say these guys will get the gear you want and every one of them will fill a necessarily hole in your vintage collection.  And they’re a very good way to “close the door” at least temporarilly, on the Anniversary line and the vintage homages, because let’s face it, in order to survive, G.I. Joe has to move forward, not be stuck in the past.

It’s time.  It’s time to move on, at least for a year.  It’s time to turn the page.  You never know, you might even like the next chapter better than you thought.

• Movie and Classic Themed Bobbleheads
• High-Res Rise of COBRA posters

• Battle takes place in the 3rd person, though there will be alternate gameplay through certain levels.  In some cases in tight quarters, the camera will pull in very tight on the player almost enough to approximate a first-person shooter.
• There are 12 playable characters (wit more potential unlockables), and of those 12, we saw Duke, Scarlett, Snake Eyes, and Heavy Duty.
• They intend to pull elements from all G.I. Joe mythologies, including the movie, cartoon, toyline, and comic
• Wanted the game to be “accessible”.  Base gameplay could be done using only the joystick and trigger, but obviously for more advanced techniques and power moves, you need more coordination.
• The idea was to make it a “Contra” for the next gen systems.  Very arcade-like.
• Each player has a weapon that fires, or a melee, and weapons/abilities vary based on what type of character you’re using.  If you have a “Commando” character you will be quick, but less powerful than if you have a “Heavy” character, who packs more punch, but is slower.
• Different character “classes” also have the ability to access different bonus portions of the levels, so you may have to play through levels twice if you want to get all of the secrets unlocked.
• Designed and conceived as a two-player Co-Op game, but even if the second player drops out, one player can control either character and hop back and forth between the two.
• You can collect “battle points” throughout the game allowing you to unlock and open hidden bonus content by purchasing it with the battle points.
• There are also 75 hidden “filecards” throughout the game.
• There appear to be 5 “segments” with several different components to each, adding up to over twenty levels of game play in many different environments.
• We should expect to see about a dozen different vehicles, some of them based strongly on familiar classics.  In fact during the gameplay, Snake Eyes and Heavy Duty went head-to-head with the “Serpent Power Armor” which bore a striking resemblance to the SNAKE armor.  It was obviously an homage to that design (only a bit larger, more bulky, and darker in color).
• During vehicle combat, one person can drive while the other operates the weapons.
• Lots of classic homages throughout the game and through unlockable content.
• The game was strongly inspired by the old Konami arcade game, both in play style, and in functionality.  You can swap out characters almost at will (as if you put another quarter in to continue).
• Other game play types involve an overhead view where you can call in a satellite strike using overhead targetting reticules.
• There will very likely be unlockable COBRA characters who are playable.
• Different characters we saw while playing the game (though they are not all playable characters) consisted of: Stalker, Helix, a Joe rookie, Dataframe, and Wild Bill, who performs an Air Strike upon request.  Stalker and Dataframe both just appeared on the comm, as well as Dial Tone, who appeared as a female as she does in the IDW comic book  series.
• It is not ported to PC
• It does not look like there will be any X-Box Live component, it was designed as co-op arcade-like game with two buddies sitting on the couch.

Overall, it had a definite arcade style, the graphics were crisp and clean, and the action was pretty frenetic.  Animation worked fine and looked relatively fluid, the weapons upgrades were pretty arcade-like, and I actually really liked the looks of the updated SNAKE armor homage.  Environments were pretty generic, the character modelling was functional, though not impressive, and all in all, it looked like a fine sit-down-and kill 2 hours arcade game.  As long as folks aren’t looking to get too involved in a story or wrapped up in something deep and meaningful, I think the game has promise to be a shallow, fun, time-killer, but probably not much more than that.