When I picked up my iPod today, I discovered that the world has been in a state of chaos thanks to a group of terrorists. Without a force for good, anything can happen, so I decided to join cobra command. The task force is comprised of elite helicopter pilots and a network of necessary support staff and is the focus of the video game, Cobra Command. Originally released as an arcade game in 1984, it was developed by Data East and thanks to Revolutionary Concepts, it’s playable on iOS devices.

Cobra Command is a combination of Saturday morning cartoons and action-based video games. Instead of graphics composed of pixels or polygons, the game is an animated cartoon. Like the Saturday morning cartoons from the 1980s, some of the drawing, animation, and transitions are imprecise. However, the fact that it’s hand drawn is impressive and this style sets it apart from other games.

The terrorist’s primary weapons are also helicopters and shooting them down requires pinpoint accuracy and swift timing. As my helicopter flew on its predetermined path, I would wait for an indicator to pop up on my foes, at which point I would shoot them and hope I destroyed them before a timer ran out. If I didn’t, I’d have to restart from the previous checkpoint.

I found the game to be very hard at first, but when I turned the difficulty down to easy, I blew through Cobra Command. On easy, I didn’t have to manually take sharp turns by utilizing my iPod’s accelerometer as much as before, and the timing required to shoot down my foes seemed more lenient. Still, deaths often felt cheap and to succeed I had to rely heavily on memorization and quick reflexes.

Games like Cobra Command don’t get made often anymore and for good reason. Building a game around a cartoon or any predetermined video limits how a player can interact, and developer’s implementations almost always rely heavily on memorization and quick reflexes. These aren’t negative traits, but they can lead to frustration quickly. Unless you have a sweet spot for games like this, I’d avoid enrolling in cobra command.