THE OLD SHMUP TESTAMENT (PART II: MORE THAN A COBRA)
Continuing with the exploration of the old testament of shmups, it's the turn of Super Cobra.
Same routine, different rules.
Super Cobra at first seems to be a cheap edit of Scramble since the gameplay mechanics and the main objective are the same: Reach the end of the base while picking fuel from destroyed containers only this time you're a helicopter instead of a rocket. But actually there are more changes than just aesthetic ones. To begin with, the enemy behavior has changed. Missiles are now more unpredictable. While in Scramble, any missile that remained on stand by and were outrunned by the scrolling screen won't fire, now they will and they will probably hit you from behind in a suprise attack. The layout was also improved, making it much harder than that from Scramble. Now there's more instances of going up to avoid high obstacles in the first levels. The stage length was also improvised too. Instead of five segments, this game splits the checkpointed long stage into small levels divided in 1000's of kilometers for a total of 10 levels with the Base stage at the end for a total of 11 stages.
Introducing UFO Attacks, a new threat in this cargo heist scenario.
Super Cobra not just introduces a different layout, but also new enemies, such as the UFO's which are much trickier than those from Scramble. Caverns now have dropping enemies on the ceilings and there's mobile turrets that will dodge your bombs, forcing you to drop altitude and shoot them with your guns. The asteroids from Scramble are back, but this time they're no longer immune to your weaponry, so you can take them down by hitting them multiple times with your Vulcan or with 1 bomb drop. The old UFO's from Scramble are back and now they fire more often.
Thought you'll make your way through their base with ease?
Think again, they're prepared this time.
The base segments retain the original difficulty based on tight spot navigation and screen tall climb/dropping, but this time the game adds a new element of challenge by sending enemies to your position like missiles, for newcomers this will be the last thing they will see as if the base wasn't difficult enough.
The Cobra Super Heist
After reaching the base, the goal here is to pick the booty and get the hell out of the area, and you have to pick the cargo if you want to complete the level, otherwise you'll be starting that level from the beginning. This rule is pretty similar to the Base level of Scramble. Speaking of starting over, this is the very first game to feature the Continue option. Once you lose all your lives you can drop a quarter and continue your gameplay, but since it was at the beginning of its execution, it sends you back to the first sector rather than going back to the point where you were killed. Thus, the Continue mechanic felt like if it didn't had it and you started a whole new game right from scratch. Also, you can continue 4 times before you effectively get a game over.
The mission of homeporting the arcade at home.
Like Scramble, Super Cobra had its good amount of ports. The Atari 2600 version by Parker Brothers is clearly a testimony of "This was too much for the Atari". Blocky graphics aside, the flaw is the gameplay itself. You have to tap the button twice to drop a bomb, also you can only have one bomb on screen, tapping the button again will make the bomb disappear in mid-air so the other can take its place. While the Atari 5200 version has more "recognizable" graphics, the difficulty is far more unfair than the arcade. Being the tank/turret's microscopic bullets the worst part of the game because you wouldn't see them coming until its too late. The Atari 8-Bit version is pretty much the same as the 5200. In contrast, the Colecovision version might look simple, but improves in some aspects such as the falling speed of your bombs as they fall much faster than the Arcade version, making high altitude bombing much easier. It simplifies the graphics and ditches the level clear music by repeating the intro tune from Scramble. The Mattel Electronics Intellivision version looks much more simplified and that simplicity delivers a hit to the gameplay, as the bombs no longer drop from "forward-to-downwards" like the Arcade and they're dropped completely vertical. Another anomaly of gaming here is that the HUD scrolls as if it was part of the stage. ¿Have you ever see that in any other home port? Of course not. The MSX version has a slow scrolling combined with faster enemies. Strangefully, the booty is picked after the fourth stage rather than the 10th. This port was released on the PlayStation as part of the Konami Antiques: MSX Collection Vol 2 compilation. The Magnavox Odyssey 2/Phillips Videopac G7000 version is the worst of all. To advance you have to move your Super Cobra helicopter from one side of the screen to the other, then the screen will scroll. With this oversimplified scrolling, you can increase or decrease the helicopter's speed on screen. Believe it or not, there was a port for the Entex Adventure Vision. While it had a faithful speed in game movement and shooting mechanics, the graphics were damn awful. It was very clear that Super Cobra was too much for this "Portable Arcade" system, and not to mention that red and black will hurt your eyes and cause you a headache, predating the infamous Nintendo Virtual Boy. The Sord M5 version by Konami and Takara (Takara-Tomy nowadays) is very similar to the MSX port just with a few graphic improvements, and finally there's the Casio PV-1000 version which is a mixed bag. While the background scrolls a bit "choppy", the sprites have smooth movements despite looking smaller and minimalist unlike the arcade, but it still plays fine for the PV-1000's standards.
Aside from home computer/console ports, Super Cobra was ported on handheld electronic games like the Tabletop version from Entex, which is even more simplified than the Adventure Vision release. The first "Arcade Perfect" port was on the PlayStation as part of Konami Arcade Classics and while the graphics, controls and sounds are virtually identical to the arcade, the HUD was moved to one side in order to cover the full TV screen. The latest port of Super Cobra was on the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch as part of Arcade Archives, which utilizes the japanese Konami version, ditching the Stern release for North America. The only difference was that one of the buildings in the base segment says "STERN" instead of "OSAKA" aside from that, the game's are virtually identical.
Graphically feels very identical to Scramble, but it was good to see more intrincated "geology" in the natural ground areas while the buildings are more detailed than before. Like Scramble, the game cycles the color layouts to add variety to the scenery, and that includes the space background that changes from black to dark blue. The most notorious difference was the player's aircraft which was changed from a rocket to a helicopter, and this change was carried on the sound department which retains most of Scramble's sounds, replacing the UFO-like sound for a helicopter blade like one- The game start fanfare was also improved, as the game adds a new short tune before the original one.
TRIVIA COBRA
- Apparently, this game (and the ship) are named after the Bell AH-1 SuperCobra helicopter.
- Stern's promotional flyer claims that Super Cobra is the first arcade game with a continue function. This is in fact true since it was released on March in 1981, while Namco's Bosconian had a November-December release.
- The continue limit of this game was later carried to other arcade games like Haunted Castle, Contra and Super Contra.
- This is the first Konami title whose name starts with "Super" and a the second word with "C", being seconded by Super Contra/Super C.
- The name Super Cobra was used for the player 2 ship in Salamander 2.
It was a tricky cargo heist, but in the end, we survived.
Super Cobra might be a more than 40 year old arcade shooter but the fact that Konami still cared about this to re-release it on Arcade Archives proves its testimony as an arcade classic that retains the challenge that became part of the DNA and mystic of Gradius and overall shooting.
Oldie but still Eda approved.