If you give a Person a Blockbuster Movie they’d like a Game to go with it. Or it least that’s how it seems these days. With every Blockbuster Movie there is some sort of Game tie in. Well I say “Yo Joe” as I dive into the Video Game version of the recent GI Joe Movie.

The Gameplay is essentially a 3Dish version of Assault Heros with a hint of Contra. It’s more or less a angled view of your character and your team mate as you blow through various Cobra Bases. Each Character has their own individual class that effects the style they play in. For Example Heavy Duty is well a Heavy :) Slower moving then Duke but packs a Punch. The game also features the Accelerator Suits that acts as your super. The thing that makes the Accelerator Suit so much fun to pull off is the Theme Song that goes with it. Yes it’s the old GI Joe theme song just with a Blockbuster Edge to it. Any child of the 80’s within 30 ft of the song will instantly get pumped up. (I actually witnessed it at my local Electronics Store) Here’s hoping that Track will eventually get released. As you progress through the game there are various amounts of unlockables from Concept Art to Characters. While the game is certainly fun it stills has issues. One area that made things difficult was the aiming. Unlike other shooters your Right Stick doesn’t control the direction of your shooting. You essentially start shooting and then use the Right Stick to lock onto a Target. It felt counter productive and at times became a little difficult to tell what I was aiming at. Then there’s the camera which seems so fixed on your character that at times you can’t see all the baddies around you. There was a cover feature though which made things a little easier to deal with when lots of baddies are on the screen.

As for the Graphics I was a little surprised. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this game but the graphics certainly looked nice. Especially the opening with Duke and Scarlet. I thought their character models looked pretty good. The Graphics do change up a bit at times but overall it presented a nice looking game. I especially liked the Weapons Effects.

The Sound was another area that I was pretty impressed by. Most games have “surround sound” but this game actually did it well. More then once I forgot about a Mine only to hear it’s warning go off on my right side. Which was a great indicator to duck and shot :) As mentioned before the GI Joe theme found in the game is fantastic.

The Game style is certainly an interesting choice for the Movie. It fits rather well while exploring a more in depth Back Story then one would expect. Though I do wonder why it wasn’t just released over the PSN or XBLA. While the game is fun to play, it lacks a certain depth that you would expect out of a Next Gen Console Game.

Tags: g.i. joe, video game review, Video Games, xbox 360