Hello, ladies and gentlemen. This is Kenneth$2.   Today I will do a review about Twin Cobra for the NES (the port of the Arcade version of Twin Cobra).   This version was developed by Micronics and published by American Sammy.

However, I want to explain about Micronics.

Micronics is a game developer studio thingy that did a LOT of early arcade-to-NES/Famicom ports (Capcom's and SNK's early ports, to be specific) like Exed Exes, Son Son, 1942, Athena and the like.  Micronics is infamous for making MOST of those ports terrible with REALLY choppy scrolling, bad/terrible graphics, terrible music, glitches and bad/terrible controls.    While I think 1942 and Son Son are decent enough ports, the rest of their ports are mediocre to terrible because of the bad/terrible graphics, choppy scrolling, bad/terrible controls, terrible music and the glitches...except for one.   What is this port that manages to be a cut above the rest of Micronics's Arcade-to-NES/Famicom ports?  Read the review and find out.

Graphics - 7

Okay, the graphics aren't too bad considering that Micronics developed the NES port of Twin Cobra.  I mean, the graphics of Twin Cobra on the NES are a little on the bland side, but otherwise the graphics are not too bad....considering.  I will say that when I first played this game, I thought this was a food-themed shooter (like I thought that the helicopter was shooting out BLUE blueberry spread shots, RED hot-dog missiles, GREEN green bean machine gun shots and my personal laughingstock.....the BROWN homing waste weapon.   (Yes, I have an active imagination).   For some reason, when I look up play-through videos on YouTube, I still think that Twin Cobra is a food-themed shooter (probably because of the bland, but decent graphics).   I also thought the enemies shot "meatball" bullets (that are red, no less).   (Again, blame my active imagination for that).     Stage 1 is a base, Stage 2 is mostly over water (with a few battleships), Stage 3 is a factory water place, Stage 4 is a mountain place and Stage 5 is a desert place.  Stages 6-10 are just repeats of Stages 1-5.  

Sound - 3

Yikes!   The sound is pretty bad (though this IS Micronics we are dealing with, so it's not a surprise at all).  It's not AS bad as Exed Exes for the Famicom's terrible sound quality, but it can be borderline ear-bleeding at times.  There's 5 stage themes, the stage clear theme, the ending theme and continue theme.....and they all sound at least very bad and MAYBE borderline ear-bleeding.   If you do decide to play this game, mute the sound on your TV or computer, because it might hurt your ears or replace the soundtrack with Twin Cobra for the Arcade's soundtrack.   

Story - 5

You are supposed to bomb enemy strongholds and stop the enemies from taking over the nation/world/whatever it is called in the game.  It's just like any other generic story on the NES.

Depth - 8

The depth in Twin Cobra for the NES is surprising, to say the least (well, for a Micronics Arcade-to-NES/Famicom port, that is).   The things (or weapon changers, whatever they are called) in Twin Cobra for the NES provide you with quite a bit of depth.  The weapon changers act EXACTLY like the weapon changers in the Raiden games on various systems - they cycle through red, blue, green and brown.   Now, those Chinook-looking helicopters that appear shortly after you start the game drop the "B" power-up (which are bombs - those bombs look like drill bombs to me, so I'll call them drill bombs - they block the red shots), the "S" power-up (which increases your firepower) and the weapon changers which I said up above in the second sentence, in this paragraph.   The regular white stars are bonus points that are collected at the end of every stage and the red stars are invincibility stars (which make you invincible for at least 20 seconds or so).    The 1UPs that appear whenever you shoot/bomb the battleships's turrets are shown (either green or red) when your bomb counter is at 9 (which is the max in this game).   Also, every certain amount of points, you will be awarded an extra life (which you need).   

As I said up above in the previous paragraph, the weapon changers cycle through red, blue, green and brown - which is exactly like the Raiden games on various systems - this game is very similar to Raiden Trad or whatever Raiden game you've played on various system, because of that feature.   The first (and default) weapon I will talk about is the RED hot-dog missile weapon, which is pretty decent and can cover a good amount of the playing field when it's powered up fully (which is 6 levels).   Second is the BLUE blueberry spread shot weapon, which (in my opinion) is the best weapon in the game (when it's decently powered up to fully powered up), because it spreads (yes, like the Spread Gun in Contra for the NES) and takes out normal enemies like files - it would be hard for the enemies to get anywhere near you because of a fully powered up BLUE blueberry spread shot weapon.    Third is the GREEN green bean machine gun weapon, which does a LOT of damage to enemies and bosses when fully powered up - it doesn't cover the whole screen, though, so watch out for enemies.   The fourth (and final) weapon I will be talking about is the BROWN homing waste weapon - this thing stinks!  Yes, it may home in enemies and it does fire in 4 directions when it's powered up to level 4 and above, but the funny thing is, NO enemies appear behind you (yes, some of the enemies can turn around when you pass them and fire at you while you're ahead of them, but NO enemies appear behind you).  Also, it's power is the weakest of the 4 weapons.   Do not grab the BROWN homing waste weapon unless you want to die or are looking for an artificial challenge (not that this game lacks any challenge, but I stand by the fact that the BROWN homing waste weapon sucks).   

Some of the enemies in this game are helicopters (of course).  The big Chinook-looking helicopters are the ones that drop the "B" and "S" power-ups and the weapon changers and shoot in a 3-shot spread shot.  The green, blue and red helicopters shoot only one shot, but they can turn around and be right behind you and can be a real nuisance in large numbers.  The turrets on the battleships shoot periodically and can be destroyed by a simple shot from your weapon or a drill bomb.   

The bosses are tanks and emplacements.  Stage 1's and 6's tanks just shoot in a very predictable pattern (downwards and somewhat diagonally downwards).  You can take it out by exploiting it's large hit box or by having a level 3 blue spread shot at your disposal.   Stage 2's and 7's tanks fire in a circle pattern (which you can avoid).   Take it out by dodging and then firing every so often (or use a drill bomb).
Stage 3's and 8's emplacements just move left or right and fire periodically just like the battleships's turrets.  Stage 4's and 9's tanks are a bit tough to dodge it's bullets - they fire like crazy.  Use whatever drill bombs you have left to block their red shots/bullets.   Stage 5's and 10's tanks are the toughest of all the bosses to take out - they fire in a random circle pattern!  Again, use whatever drill bombs you have to take them out.

Difficulty - 8

Ooh boy.....you want a challenging shooter?  You got it with the NES port of Twin Cobra.  Now, this game's not THAT bad, but it is certainly challenging enough for a person who likes challenging shooters.   The later stages have LOTS of helicopters that can turn around and fire right behind you and some stages have as many as 3 or 4 of the Chinook-looking helicopters.   Now, the controls are fine (the helicopters moves at a reasonably fast pace, hit detection is decent and there's no glitches (that I know of) UNLIKE the early ports of Micronics's Arcade-to-NES/Famicom's ports.   You do re-spawn right where you died (unless you use a continue, of course, in which case, you re-spawn at a checkpoint).   However, you lose all the upgrades you had and you go back to the default red weapon.  So keep the blue spread shot weapon as much as possible or the default red weapon as much as possible and fully level up.  Also, like I said in the previous three paragraphs up above, your max level is 6 (the Arcade version and the Genesis version of Twin Cobra had 10 levels to level up and the 10th level of your weapon is the max you can go in those versions).   So yeah, while the NES version of Twin Cobra is downgraded, it's not THAT downgraded in terms of game-play, graphics and sound.    You also have 5 continues at the start of the game and will earn an extra continue for every stage you clear, so you have 14 continues to go through this game and 3 lives per continue (plus the opportunity to earn more lives).   Oh, and I BARELY managed to beat this game (with 1 life and 0 continues remaining).     

Addictiveness - 8

I don't know EXACTLY what makes me like this game and make me play this game over and over and over again, but it's probably the weapon changers that remind of the Raiden games on various systems.  It's also the stages and the enemies that probably inspire me to play this game multiple times.  Whatever it is, it always makes me want to play Twin Cobra on the NES multiple times (though it's hard for me to get tired of playing the same game 300 or so times, so I suppose I have more patience than most people).  Another thing I forgot to tell you in the previous paragraphs is that the game can scroll from left to right manually (although this can be a detriment as well as an a advantage to you, so be careful).   

Overall - 8

Yes, I'm a fairly lenient person towards video games (most of the time, that is), so I suppose a score of 8 in the overall category might be a bit high for most people (towards Twin Cobra for the NES).  However, the fact that Micronics managed to make a port that's their best port ON the NES and managed to make it fun is a pretty high mark for them, considering that MOST of Micronics's Arcade-to-NES/Famicom ports are garbage.  Yes, the sound is a bit bad/repetitive/maybe slightly ear-bleeding at certain points, but the graphics aren't too bad and the game-play (though it IS a bit downgraded compared to the Genesis version of Twin Cobra) in the NES version of Twin Cobra is actually pretty good despite the somewhat weak sound.  I suppose that some people may not like the music - that's entirely fine, because they can mute the music or replace the soundtrack with their own soundtrack or the Arcade's/Genesis's versions of Twin Cobra's soundtracks (which I actually RECOMMEND you do so unless you want your ears to hurt or unless you do like the music in this game), but the game-play is definitely there along with the decent graphics (although, like I said in the graphics paragraph up above, the later stages (stages 6-10) are at least VERY similar to stages 1-5).   Then again, I'm one of those people who prefer game-play over graphics, so I will play a game with bad or bland graphics if it means that the game-play is actually reasonably good.   

Should you buy this game?  If it is reasonably cheap (like MY copy was, since I bought Twin Cobra for the NES at 2 dollars and 95 cents (or something like that) at Game X Change), then yes, you can buy it.  If the copy is ridiculously expensive....then you can emulate it (by going on Vizzed).  I'm not telling you to buy this game (because I'm not a pushy gamer or anything like that - I'm actually the opposite of pushy, actually).   If you have to emulate it, do so.  You can play this game and if you don't like it, that's fine too.   

This is Kenneth$2, signing off.  Later.