HIGH Ricocheting through the last 20% of “Weave” with sparks flying en route to a record time.

LOW The overly technical and slow “Palm” track.

WTF It is insanely goofy that the sharpest turns are the easiest.

The simplest kind of racing comes in the form of the slot car. There’s no drafting, no steering, no brakes — just a grooved track and a way to go faster. Little Laps leans into this simplicity. There’s no story, no characters, and little customization, just 18 tracks (all accessible immediately) and 15 cars (unlocked by getting achievements) run by two buttons, one to go faster and the other to restart.

Most of those tracks are attractive, if somewhat lacking in background detail. The colors occasionally grate on the eyes, however, especially in the track labeled “Night”. The various cars amount to being just skins, as there are no differences in handling — it’s a slot racer — or acceleration, which is universally sluggish.

The key quirk of Little Laps is that velocity entering the curve doesn’t matter. As my parents know well, a slot car will take off into the air if it hits a hairpin too fast, but in Little Laps any curve can be passed safely as long as the accelerator isn’t touched while the car is turning.

An amusing consequence of this feature is that it inverts expectations about handling. Gentler curves become dangerous places where it’s easy to keep the accelerator down a fraction of a second too long. Hairpins become prime opportunities to gain speed, since they can tolerate the pedal hitting the metal almost up to the last instant.

When this gets going it looks great. Cars throw off sparks as they drift through absurdly sharp corners and weave automatically through wild S-curves with their tires squealing. An available “best time” shadow provided a yardstick against my own performance and global leaderboards let me see my progress against other gamers.

I enjoyed playing Little Laps in small bites, and it’s well-suited to the rhythm of making a few quick attempts at a record time, possibly shaving a few tenths of a second off this lap. In case of a wipeout, I can just hit the reset button and get right back in it.

Or, that’s what one would hope.

The sluggish acceleration rate has another consequence, in that the key to a record lap is entering it with momentum. The first lap, starting from a dead stop, will never produce a record time after the first attempt. As I continued to optimize play, I sometimes found that I needed a second lap to get up enough entry speed to have a chance at a record.

This means that a player isn’t really right back in the action after a wreck. Each restart entails a sluggish first lap before there’s any chance at improving time. Sometimes that lap helped me calm down after a stupid mistake, but mostly it felt like a waste.

Worse, that slow initial run doesn’t offer the opportunity to learn anything about timing acceleration for record-lap tries. As I played, I often noticed myself being more conservative than was reasonable (even when I was trying for a record) simply because I wanted to avoid those wasted laps.

That dead start ends up being a real drag on the whole experience, which is a shame. Little Laps is a charming and zippy single-button racer, but in a stripped-down, minimalist experience everything has to be just right and here a major element isn’t.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Conradical Games. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on a home built Windows 11 PC with a single GeForce RTX 5080 graphics card, a Ryzen 7 processor, and 64 GB of RAM. Approximately 6 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There is no multiplayer mode.

Parents: As of press time this game has not been rated by the ESRB. It contains nothing worse than a car flying off a racetrack (with no visible wreck damage) and should logically be rated E.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game has no dialogue or story text. I found that the sound of tire squeals was helpful in judging when to let go of the accelerator, and accordingly found it somewhat more difficult to improve my times when I turned off sound.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. By default the space bar serves as the accelerator and R resets the race. Menus require the mouse. On an Xbox controller the A button is the accelerator and Y resets. Note: I found that when using a controller to move through the menus the cursor sometimes got “lost” and I had to back out with the B button.

The post Little Laps Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

In my continuing effort to watch every episode of cartoons that I loved as a kid, the next one on my agenda was G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero — specifically, the Sunbow Productions run starting with the first installment of the original limited series, all the way through the regular episodes and finishing with G.I. Joe: The Movie.

(The series continued in a different run produced by DIC Entertainment for 44 more episodes.)

*

For those who aren’t familiar, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (shortened to ARAH in toy circles) was one of the most popular kids’ cartoons in the ’80s, running from 1983-1986 for a total of 95 episodes, beginning with a limited series, and then being greenlit for a full daily series. The premise is that G.I. Joe is an elite quick-response military team comprised of various specialists, all banding together to fight Cobra, a terrorist organization bent on world domination.

As a kid of the ’80s myself, my first exposure to the show was watching it whenever I caught it after coming home from school. However, as was the case with every TV show back then, you inevitably missed some episodes because you weren’t sitting in front of the TV at exactly the right time, or because one of your parents commandeered the set to watch something else — and if you did manage to catch the show, there was a good chance it would be a re-run, as it was common for episodes to be shown out of order, or simply repeated. So, thanks to modern streaming technology and being a grownup with my own TV set, it’s easier than it ever has been to watch the entire run of G.I. Joe in the correct order and on my own timeline — and that’s exactly what I did. It became a fun daily ritual for my wife and I to make coffee, grab a blanket for the couch and play an episode or two in the morning before we started our day.

I can’t lie, hearing the heroic theme song and seeing the blood-pumping intro sequence after so many years brought back all the feels, and it was great to see the action and adventure I remember from back in the day — Duke! Spirit! Snake Eyes and the rest of the heroic Joes! Cobra Commander, Major Bludd and legions of evil Cobra troops! Lasers! Cool vehicles! Explosions! Everything a kid in the ’80s could want!

…However, it wasn’t long before reality set in.

I’ve revisited a fair number of shows like this from the ’80s, and across the board I’m struck with the sense that we didn’t know how to structure TV shows back then. Kids’ programming rarely delivered quality storylines and well-written characters. If you’re as old as I am and saw G.I. Joe when it originally aired on TV like I did, it’s a good bet that you have positive feelings and nostalgia for it — I know I do! But during this watch of the complete series, it was hard to get past the untapped potential.

One of the most notable things is how thinly the characters are written. Only a few faces get enough airtime to stand out, primarily Shipwreck and Lady Jaye, but there were dozens of Joes altogether. Sadly, they seldom had any defining qualities beyond an accent and what their costume looked like.

I’m sure this can be attributed to a lack of production sense back then, but also to the show’s primary purpose of selling toys. Why spend several episodes on building up a character if they’re not on store shelves for kids to buy later? This approach also meant that it was common for your favorite character to suddenly disappear for no reason, only to be unceremoniously replaced with whoever the newest figure in stores was. Were you a fan of Dusty or Quick Kick? Too bad, they’re gone. Hope you like Blowtorch and Recondo, now available at retailers near you!

There was also a notable lack of continuity and no overarching story arcs once we got past the initial limited series — some elements persisted or were referred to in later episodes, but there was no narrative throughline like we have with many modern cartoons. Of course part of this is due to the fact that there was often no easy way for people to catch up on episodes they might have missed. As such, many programs (not just cartoons) leaned into stand-alone episodes for ease of viewing, but the ’80s were also a time when the toy companies footing the animation bill had absolutely no idea how powerful and lasting the connection could be between emotionally-invested kids and the characters they bonded with. It was unintentional, but these shows turned kids into lifelong customers.

Case in point: the vast majority of toys these days are purchased by adults, and sales of big ’80s IPs like ThunderCats, Masters of the Universe and yes, G.I. Joe, are almost entirely driven by fans who grew up with these programs forty years ago.

However, despite the fact that animation houses weren’t focused on building strong shows that could stand on their own, they often came close as writers returned to certain characters more often than others. It may not have been what the toy companies wanted, but it seems to me like the folks pushing pencils and pens were doing their best to add quality wherever and whenever they could.

On the Joe side, it was largely Shipwreck who brought personality as a sassy seagoing slacker. Alpine and Bazooka were a comedy duo (later replaced by bickering buddies Leatherneck and Wetsuit) and anyone who’s watched the show for any length of time knows that the real star of the show wasn’t Duke or Flint or Snake Eyes — it was Lady Jaye. She’s in more episodes than literally any other Joe, and she had no trouble getting things done on every mission. She was the real backbone of the team!

However, even stronger than the Joes were the Cobra troops. Almost all of the named characters had larger-than-life personalities and easily-recognizable quirks that made them endearing to kids. Cobra Commander’s mirror-masked face and shrieking voice made him one of the most iconic villains of the entire decade, but Destro’s sense of honor, deep baritone and silver head also made a strong impression. The Baroness is not only an all-time baddie thanks to her prowess in combat and subterfuge, but she’s always near the top of any ‘hottest’ list and the seed of domme fantasies cropping up later in a fan’s life. The finish-each-other’s-sentence twins Tomax and Xamot were never far from the fore, and Zartan’s penchant for disguise kept us guessing. Anytime a random civilian or scientist showed up, there was at least a 50% chance it would turn out to be Zartan!

With this core cast established, the writers dabbled in creating touchstones which could have been leveraged into meatier content — Several episodes referenced the secret Cobra base located in Springfield, we learned that Shipwreck was adopted and Scarlett came from a large family of martial arts experts, the renegade Zarana secretly pined for humble PC tech Mainframe, and so on. These rare glimpses of the Joes as people with histories, interests and lives off the battlefield were some of G.I. Joe‘s best moments of character elevation.

Unfortunately, one of the biggest missed character opportunities was late in the series when a new toy push from Hasbro began. The majority of established Joe characters were swapped out with unknown people overnight, and it was a huge surprise to see so many new faces arrive with no introduction, while all the old favorites just… went away? An obvious move would have been to write in a more formalized ‘changing of the guard’ or to give some pretense of soldiers being reassigned, but we didn’t get one.

Another huge miss was when one of these new characters, Serpentor, showed up and displaced Cobra Commander as supreme leader. It caused huge strife in the Cobra ranks, and in a few episodes we see Cobra Commander actively undermining this usurper, to the point that he was sabotaging Serpentor’s campaigns and leaving him unguarded in the hopes that G.I. Joe would either capture or kill him. This inter-agency conflict could have been an entire seasonal arc shown from Cobra’s perspective, but this incredibly juicy concept is barely touched on.

Despite the fact that G.I. Joe never reached its full dramatic potential, it was still a fun ride. Beyond straight-up nostalgia, there were plenty of absolutely crazy episodes — and for my money, the best Joe stories are the ones when something totally off-the-wall happens, like seeing Shipwreck get brainwashed into believing he woke up from a coma and is now married with a daughter, or when Lady Jaye goes to Destro’s ancestral mansion and finds a Cthulhu-type monster in the basement. Let’s not forget the town with giant plants running amok, or that time Shipwreck fell in love with a mermaid. And, one of the all-timers is surely when the Joes read a bedtime story to orphans and it turned the whole episode into a fractured version of Grimm’s fairy tales to score many genuine laugh-out-loud moments.

Unfortunately, the Sunbow run ends with a random episode that doesn’t act as any kind of coda, nor does it cap anything off or tie anything up. I have to assume it’s because Hasbro knew they would be transferring the series to DIC, so it was kind of a non-event. However, we semi-transition between animation houses with G.I. Joe: the Movie, and after having just rewatched it, I was impressed with how well it stands up after all this time.

The movie is somewhat divisive because some fans feel it veers away from standard military action by incorporating fantasy, sci-fi and body horror elements. However, I would counter that taking even a cursory look at a list of episode synopses reveals that G.I. Joe has a huge number of fantastical episodes — in fact, they probably do more fantasy and sci-fi than realistic military action overall, so folks who think the movie goes too far might want to reconsider.

Also, it must be said that the musical intro sequence to the film is utterly badass.

If nothing else, the movie serves as a good stopping point for the Sunbow series by bringing back many fan favorite characters that had been phased out of episodic content with the big Hasbro push, while also adding a huge amount of new lore and story elements for longtime fans to chew on — namely, the hidden, bioengineered history of a secret society called Cobra-La and how it relates to Cobra itself. Was it a retcon? Of course it was, but it was an easy one to believe in, and as far as I’m concerned, it was terribly cool.

And the icing on the movie’s cake? We got backstory on Cobra Commander himself, including why he wears his iconic mask and we even get to see what he looks like underneath it! That very issue was something that provided endless debate on the playground, so to get it settled definitively was incredible. Also, Cobra Commander’s story ends in the film via a genuinely tragic sequence of events, bringing a level of gravitas that we rarely got in this IP.

Speaking of gravitas, it was widely reported that Hasbro was planning to kill G.I. Joe leader Duke during the movie in an effort to ‘reboot’ the toy line, similar to the way they killed Optimus Prime in Transformers: the Movie, but after the huge backlash TF:tM received, they decided to change course at the last minute and re-recorded voice lines in order to suggest that Duke survives. When you watch the film it’s pretty clear that he wasn’t meant to live, but even with this awkward fix, it was ultimately the correct choice and ends the Sunbow era on the right note.

Despite all the typically-’80s things that might be wrong with the series in hindsight, it was still great to to go back into this cartoon and revisit characters and stories that I hadn’t seen in so long. There’s genuine fun to be had here, as long as one remembers that the show is a product of its time.

I’m also happy to report that the spirit of G.I. Joe has lived on past the ’80s.

First, for folks who want to see more, there are there two excellent and highly recommended follow-ups – G.I. Joe: Resolute and G.I. Joe: Renegades. Even though they’re not direct continuations of the original source material, they’re both outstanding spinoffs that have a lot to offer Joe fans. Also, folks who get the itch and would like to track down toys inspired by the ’80s vintage action figures can check into G.I. Joe: Classified, a series of figures and vehicles which revive the plastic spirit of the Joes, but also update them with modern designs, better materials and superior articulation.

I’m quite glad that I went back and rewatched this landmark series from so many years ago. It’s far from perfect and seeing it through rose-colored glasses certainly papered over some of the rough patches I didn’t notice much as a kid, but even when seen from a clear-eyed modern-day perspective, it’s easy to know why G.I. Joe made such a lasting impression and remains a popular property, even to this day.

…And knowing is half the battle!

The post CARTOON TIME: G.I. Joe, 42 Years Later appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH An actual story mode and some solid arcade racing.

LOW Why can’t I just buy a specific car whenever I want?

WTF Checking Amazon for a Hot Wheels model of a Toyota Supra. 

Back in 2021, I reviewed Hot Wheels Unleashed and enjoyed it. I was a bit cold on some minor things — namely the way it dished out car unlocks and a lackluster “story” mode — but even with those flaws, the act of racing as the titular die-cast cars across different toy-inspired courses showed promise. Unleashed set a solid foundation, and as an arcade racing fan, I couldn’t wait to see what its successor would do to iron out the rough spots. 

Fast forward two years and developer Milestone drops Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged. This sequel is an arcade racer played from a third-person perspective, in which players control a wide-range of vehicles from Mattel’s Hot Wheels toy line and compete in different races and events. Options range from standard cars based on real-world manufacturers like Dodge or Chevrolet, all the way to some truly bizarre designs that resemble toasters, dragons and rocket ships. New to the mix are motorcycles and off-road vehicles, like ATVs and rally cars. 

The variety in the garage at launch is impressive and distinct, as vehicles are now broken up into six different categories — Rocket, Balanced, Swift, Drifter, Off-Road, and Heavy Duty. Each has different strengths in various races, such as the “rocket” class being effective in straight lines while the “heavy duty” vehicles can overtake other cars easily and won’t be troubled by roadblocks. 

Like the previous Hot Wheels, the attention to detail in the cars is incredible. Committing to the idea that these are toy cars, every vehicle is modeled exactly like their die-cast counterparts. For example, there are no drivers in the cars, while stickers, smudges and different material types are all rendered with care. Going into the photo mode highlights these touches, and I appreciated how the undercarriage of every car kept the copyright text that’s etched into every one of the real-world toys.

Keeping with the toy theme, players will race in different environments that seem giant, thanks to the fact that these are supposed to be tiny cars. Locations range from an arcade that’s filled to the brim with games like air hockey and a nice bar, to a family’s backyard littered with children’s toys. While much of this is consistent with the last installment, one of the biggest changes is the way cars are acquired.

While the in-game story still offers a rotating selection of cars that can be bought with in-game currency (coins), the loot boxes of the first game are gone completely. This is a great change, as nothing bummed me out more than getting loot crates that awarded duplicates of cars I already had. Although I would’ve preferred a more static and stable store to pick out any car I wanted, I have to admit that there’s a special feeling in browsing the store and stumbling upon a beautifully-rendered 2023 Nissan Z. Also, I’m glad to say that the cars are also affordable and coins are generously dished out after completing races, so grind is nonexistent. 

There are also some great gameplay tweaks and additions that make this a much better package than the last. The main mode is a story called Creature Rampage, now with actual cutscenes and context for why players are racing. It’s a simple tale about young racers and a scientist trying to stop classic Hot Wheels playset monsters from taking over a city, but I appreciated how much it added to the experience. Sure, the cutscenes are just animated stills and some of the dialogue is corny, but I liked how it felt like a Saturday morning cartoon or toy commercial, and it fits the vibe here.  

New race and event types have also been added, like a drift challenge that sees players trying to achieve a set score while drifting around corners. Also new are the elimination races, which required me to move up in position during a race to avoid getting eliminated. The variety here is a nice touch, and it’s all complemented by excellent driving mechanics — every vehicle type feels distinct enough to have its strengths and weaknesses in every event and track. Also included is an upgrade system that allows players to add attributes such as improved handling, better boost and even resistance to track hazards. 

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged is the right way to follow up on a good idea. Expanding on the great things the first one did, this sequel adds more vehicles, more events and a story to make it one of the most unique arcade racers on the market. For those who haven’t had enough of toy-based racing this year, they should look no further than this one. 

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is published and developed by Milestone. It is available on PS4/5, XBO/S/X, Switch and PC. This copy was obtained via publisher and was reviewed on PS5. Approximately 10 hours were spent in single-player and the game was not completed (still playing). No time was spent in the game’s multiplayer. 

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E. The official description reads: This is a racing game in which players drive toy vehicles through classic Hot Wheels tracks. Players can drift and boost their way around opponents, looping various tracks and whimsical obstacles. 

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are not present in the options menu.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gamers: Cutscene subtitle size cannot be adjusted. During my time with it, I did not find that any audio cues were necessary for successful play. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: The controls can be remapped and there is a diagram.

The post Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH A solid and accessible arcade racer.

LOW Bizarre unlock system for new cars.  

WTF The look on my partner’s face as I peruse the Hot Wheels section at my local Target. 

Very rarely have I played a licensed game and thought “Wow, this genuinely feels like I’m in the world of the existing property.”

It’s hard to capture that feeling if a game is trying to adapt a TV show or movie, but toys are more reliable when it comes to transporting players to their world. In this way, Hot Wheels Unleashed offers one of the better licensed experiences I’ve had thanks to capturing the spirit of what made its titular die-cast vehicles a hallmark of my family’s Christmases.

This arcade racer is, of course, based on Mattel’s Hot Wheels brand of car toys and sees players driving different vehicles around a variety of tracks in a third-person perspective. What struck me about this was the attention to detail in making things as authentic as possible.

For example, the rendering of the material that makes up the ‘toy’ cars is similar to their real-life counterparts, even down to different types of plastic and metals. There are also no drivers in the seats, further suggesting that the concept is kids racing toy cars. The courses are made of the iconic plastic orange tracks that came in the building kits. The authenticity and presentation here are nostalgically incredible.

The environments are varied, ranging from a college dorm room to a skyscraper under construction, and of course, each level does an incredible job of showing just how small the player cars are supposed to be in relation to the ‘real’ world they’re in — it’s a rarity for a title to successfully instill this sense of scale.

The racing itself is enjoyable thanks to some pleasantly loose handling and a great sense of speed. I also appreciated how accessible it felt due to the ease with which players can perform drifts around tight corners. Every drift also fills a boost meter that gives a burst of acceleration. While it’s nowhere near as complex as a racing sim, it does what it does well. It was fast, and dare I say, a bit furious?

In the single-player mode, City Rumble, players select different events on what looks like the rug of a child’s bedroom. Each one is straightforward — race here, get the best time there, and beat a boss to unlock certain items. Ultimately, each event boils down to a standard race, which is fine because the core gameplay is solid.

Certain events on the map (like boss races) trigger a dialogue box that offers a small bit of story. It’s laughably bad and feels tacked-on, as if the devs really needed to give narrative motivation for a game about racing die-cast cars. From what I gathered, players are trying to save Hot Wheels City from supernatural forces like giant plastic spiders or dinosaurs, though it never feels significant.

Naturally, the story isn’t the reason to play through the singleplayer mode. No, it’s really about the rewards that unlock after each race, like gold coins to buy cars, gears to upgrade them, and the occasional blind box that offers new rides. Unlocking vehicles can be done in one of two ways — buying them via in-game store that offers a rotating mix available for a limited time, or acquiring loot boxes. players getting duplicate cars have the option to sell for upgrade parts or gold.

While this is a fairly common setup, I did find the inability to purchase whatever car I want to be a bit upsetting. A game like Hot Wheels Unleashed should be the ultimate car collection title, considering its origins in real toys. The publishers have promised free (and paid) DLC down the road based on existing properties like DC Comics, Street Fighter, and even Peanuts and I’m excited to see what’s in store, but the fact that the collection aspect incentivizes grinding and/or buying a season pass kind of bums me out.

At least there’s the track creator, which made me feel like I was crafting my own incredible and personalized toy room. Parts can be unlocked through singleplayer, such as giant plastic monsters that act as stage hazards. Tracks can be shared and raced online, as well as locally in split-screen. Players can also add cool designs to each car with elements they either unlock racing or buy with coins. The sense of creativity and community does a great job of recreating the Hot Wheels experience.

Overall, I can look past the grind of obtaining new cars thanks to everything else Hot Wheels Unleashed does. I loved its commitment to the memory of racing around my bedroom floor, and for those looking for an accessible arcade-style racer full of personality and flair, look no further.

Disclosures: This game is published by and developed by Milestone. It is available on PS4/5, XBX/S/O, Switch, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the XBS. Approximately 10 hours were spent in the single-player and the game was not completed. No time was spent in the multiplayer.

Parents: According to the ESRB this game is rated E. It’s just racing. Nothing objectionable for young kids here.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available. 

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Subtitles and on-screen instructions cannot be adjusted but audio is not needed to enjoy this game, thanks to the abundance of visual cues. This game is fully accessible. 

Remappable Controls: Yes, the controls are remappable.

The post Hot Wheels Unleashed Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH It’s like getting to rifle through a box of action figures.

LOW Repetitive maps. Enemy AI is as clever as an action figure.

WTF Why is Storm Shadow using guns???

GI Joe: Operation Blackout should press all of my nostalgia buttons.  It features classic GI Joe characters, an over-the-top, nonsensical plot where Cobra tries for world domination, and lots of stuff blows up.  Unfortunately, despite some enjoyable moments and being able to blast ‘bots with my youngest child in local co-op, the overall experience is as empty as a blister pack with its figure removed.

The setup here is that Cobra Commander has managed to get his scaly hands on a satellite that knocks out communications around the world. At the same time, he launches a strike against the Joes’ iconic aircraft carrier, the USS Flagg. After this terrible defeat, the Joes are isolated and scattered around the globe while Cobra consolidates power. It’s somewhat convoluted yet pretty basic, and no worse than anything we came up with as kids playing with our figures. 

Puzzlingly, Blackout doesn’t seem to know what its target audience is. I’d suggest that it should be aimed at older players like myself who spent time with the toys and iconic TV show in my childhood. However, it instead opts for kid-friendly vibrant colors and comic-style cutscenes along with sanitized violence in the form of exploding robots and characters that miraculously escape harm when defeated in combat.

Blackout plays like every third-person shooter out there.  Controlling one’s character from an over-the-shoulder, players run and shoot their way through enormous maps, occasionally pressing buttons to to unlock doors or operate machinery.  Players will also assault locations to destroy a key piece of equipment or a boss, or defending a position from waves of enemies. 

During the early going, the combat can be fairly exciting. It’s great to try out Scarlett’s incredible crossbow, and who doesn’t want to play as Snake Eyes?  Unfortunately, the monotony begins to creep in, and after facing legion after legion of cookie-cutter robots, GI Joe became less about enjoying time with a nostalgic property and more about slogging through to the end so I could write this review and move on to my next game. The issue isn’t that Blackout does anything particularly badly — it simply does nothing particularly well. 

The maps are vibrant and detailed, but they’re also linear and largely empty apart from limited exploration to find collectibles. 

Players get to experience both sides of the conflict between the Joes and Cobra, but characters on each team are basically palette swaps of one another.  Duke and the Baroness are both Solider-class fighters using the same machine-gun… er… laser, for example.

There’s a melee mechanic, but it’s almost impossible to use accurately or effectively, limiting the effectiveness of Storm Shadow’s trademarked blade. 

Each character class has an impressively-animated special move that can be used after a lengthy cooldown, but they’re almost all laughably easy to avoid — even the brainless AI can run past most of them. 

Boss battles allow one to relive countless action figure matchups from childhood, but they mainly involve sniping at opponents from long distance and avoiding swarms of robots. 

If there’s a saving grace to Operation Blackout, it’s that the local co-op mode was enjoyable in short spurts with my seven-year-old.  He’s young enough not to be bothered by the repetition, and he enjoyed learning about the characters and trying to foil Cobra’s dastardly schemes. 

Co-op does make the game a bit easier — if a teammate falls, it’s not an immediate game over as long as the other can survive long enough for a respawn timer to count down.  We also loved cooperatively driving tanks, with me behind the wheel and him blasting our enemies.  We tried some of the versus modes, but found the maps too large for our fights to be particularly interesting, as it took forever for us to find one another.

GI Joe: Operation Blackout could have been something special, but it doesn’t capitalize on its nostalgia effectively, and has too many shortcomings to stand out in any meaningful way against the countless action games already available on every platform. It might be worthwhile as co-op fodder with a younger player, but everyone else might want to give this a pass.

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by GameMill Entertainment.  It is currently available on PS4, Nintendo Switch,and Xbox One.  This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS4.  Approximately 12 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed.  About 3 hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Mild Blood and Violence.  The official description reads as follows: This is a third-person shooter in which players assume the role of elite members of either Cobra or G.I. Joe forces through military missions. Players use firearms, laser blasters, and explosives to battle enemies (e.g., robotic troopers, battle androids) in frenetic combat. Battles are accompanied by large explosions and realistic gunfire; enemy robots explode into pieces when destroyed. A handful of missions allow players to operate vehicles with mounted turrets/cannons to destroy vehicles (e.g., airplanes, ground-based robots). A gallery image of comic-book covers depicts a character holding two bloody swords.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers:  All in game text is subtitled, and the game is fully playable without sound.  There is a slight audio cue when an enemy robot is damaged which isn’t obviously detected visually, but a player will most often know when an enemy has been hit.

Remappable Controls: This game offers four controller presets, but no option to remap individual buttons or controls.

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