Quick Look: G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout

Was once a maaaaannn!

Wow the rare Vinny + Jason combo, this quick look is a collector's edition.

The hand drawn art and the fonts make me want to play Renegade Ops...

Was GI Joe a thing outside of America? I never saw it and I'm the same age as Ben.

I had the same thought as Jason, that this is real 360-era throwback game.

@alistercat: Was never a thing for me at least, and I'm slightly older than Ben. Kinda vaguely remember having heard about it at some point, but the actual first exposure to it would really be the movie as it was in the cinemas here. But the cartoon and comic was never a thing at least (in Norway)

@thebeardedfellow: Totally thought the same! Unfortunately, this game looks nowhere near the level of quality of Renegade Ops. And the voice acting is pretty, um, "yikes".

@alistercat: It's obviously a much larger property in the US, but I know a few folks who are not American that liked it as a child. It was pretty big in my childhood, and I'm around Ben's age. But, I'm also from the US. So, that doesn't really help your question.

I'm from Canada and I'm in my mid-late 30s and I definitely watched a bunch of GI JOE growing up. Was always way more into Transformers though

I never watched it, but I lived in Trinidad as a kid and it'd be a part of American/Canadian run-off, alongside stuff like Beast Wars, MASK, DBZ etc. Plus there was cable, which I'd guess is pretty similar across much of the English-speaking world, at least in the Western hemisphere.

I feel like GI Joe would work so much better as a Turn-based strategy game/TRPG with its broad cast of characters with varied powers.

But it's the game industry, so they make a shooter.

It was totally a thing here in the late 80's early 90's. Together with the Transformers and Mask. Just got my H.I.S.S tank from the recent released Retro collection. I was surprised i could order one over here in Europe. XD My first G.I Joe toys since i was 6.

At the officer's academy, they tell you about the new robots they've developed for grunt work, and in basic training they warn you don't get shot by Cobra lasers because your fancy exo-suit will fuckin explode and melt

Hasbro's official Youtube channel plays G.I. Joe 24/7 on an infinite loop, which probably makes it the best Youtube channel ever. It's like Giant Bomb Infinite, but with way more lasers, and is quite good at making you love America again, if even for a moment.

love renegade ops. still crack it out for couch co-op with my buds.

This game is so weird to me. Like, it is definitely a 360 ish game. But also, love that they were into the concept enough to put effort into the story? I just, man, Vinny is right... I JUST WANT A GOOD ONE OF THESE.

And 40 bucks??

@alistercat: Though GI Joe soldiers on to this day I don't think it ever really broke through in a significant way after the 80's cartoon. So you're probably too young for it to have been a sure thing. Though there was definitely stuff at the time aiming for your age group... it just didnt do well.

There's a reason Vinnie is the lead on this one after all :D

Anyways this PS2 game does *just enough* to make me sad they've never done a good GI Joe game. The potential is there, it's such a videogame friendly ip.

I think of High Moons War for Cybertron games and I think that'd be the right tact and scope to take. If it did well (And Activision didn't force you to tie the third one into a movie series...) then you could start getting ambitious. But to start? A nice third person action game, with a decent budget, in a wholly original take on the setting that doesn't overly tie it to either nostalgia or a current iteration.

Basically the thing Arkham and Spider-Man did that everyone always points to as "the thing you should do with a license". Except it's GI Joe so you also don't take for granted people will buy it.

But yeah a stand alone GI Joe game that was allowed to just be a videogame sounds good to me. Kind of like this. But better.

G.I. Joebots

That Samurai Jack game had the right idea with making a 360 era game in the year 2020

I don't know, but I'm a year older than Dan and It was a big thing for my older brother, and I had all the toys myself but didn't get into the show as much as he did. GI Joe was more a toy franchise for me, Ninja turtles took over in my generation. I think you probably just missed the gen by a bit, especially being outside the states.

Is it just me, or does Duke's design here sorta look like a modern day white nationalist?

G.I. Joe was absolutely shown on TV in the mid to late 80's here in the Netherlands, although it wasn't re-run nearly as much as transformers and M.A.S.K. I had a buddy in primary school who had a lot of the giant vehicles like the f14 and the like (he was an only child and spoiled rotten).

This game though... From what I can tell it feels like a multiplayer game with the multiplayer taken out and replaced by bots.

I get it's a licensed game and Hasbro probably didn't want to break the bank but looking at this compared to Transformers Devastation theres a clear step down in quality

This just barely looks better than something you might get as a promotional deal on a box of cereal. Send in eight box tops and $5 shipping to enjoy a free video game!

No Brad "Once A Maaaannnn" Snakemaker?

Was this designed by scientists to be the most boring game possible?

This game looks very bad. The official G.I Joe arcade game by Konami was way better and that came out in the 90s.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars for the 3DS. Like X-com, with characters clearly based on G.I.JOE. The leader of the squad is even named "Duke!"

It's a really good game.

Also, for those asking if G.I.Joe existed outside the US, yes...yes it did. In the UK it was known as "Action Force."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYBtWsQxUv0

Good game, but unfortunately they included the DIC theme "Got To Get Tough" which didn't exist in many Joe fan's dojo (IT ENDED IN COBRA-LA!), and didn't give Snake-Eyes his most popular attire.

Maybe it’s just my nostalgia tricking me, but I’ve always felt that both G.I. Joe games released for NES were pretty great, and extremely underrated. But I was a fanboy back in the early 90’s, and I loved the concept of building my team, and slowly increasing their skills via power-ups. I could never beat Golobulus though.

@alistercat: Outside of the US it was known by different names. The most known to me was Action Force.

Well, at least it’s not a re-skinned “God Mode”/“R.I.P.D.”

I'm slightly older than Ben and live in Canada, and if we'll approximately say I watched kid TV channels from like '92 forward, I don't recall GI Joe being on TV anymore at all, and I have no idea who any of the characters are which makes me assume they weren't making merchandise anymore either. Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were still in reruns/syndication where I can recall watching them as a child, despite those episodes being years and years old, but no one my age in my region of Canada has any real attachment to GI Joe.

It helps that Transformers, TMNT, etc. continue to be ongoing franchises that have made new toy lines and animated/live action shows and movies, whereas GI Joe...is almost dead as a media franchise?

Wait G.I Joe is not a dude?

I thought it was the american counterpart to Action Man. Joe the soldier.

That female character Vinny played as, has a real slab of hair laying on her back. And why does every bossbattle end up with the baddy running away before the fight is over? :D And it's probably fits the cartoony style, but i absolutely despise those thick black lines around all the objects.

The cell-shading (or whatever it is) looks alright in still images, but man, does every single edge of every surface seem to shimmer when the game is in motion. It's actually kind of hard to watch this.

Capture the Flagg?

No. NO!! I refuse.

theres some high pitch beep that occurs in this game that makes it VERY hard to listen to. it was like someone was slowly trying to parallel park a car with worn out rotors outside my window or something for 35 minutes straight.