Space Adventure Cobra – The Awakening Review (PS5) – The Past Has Fangs

Anime and the video game adaptations thereof aren’t a new thing, and subsequently, are usually of more current media. Just look at the Dragonball Z Sparking Whatnots or Naruto Boruto Something or Other, or Attack On Titan getting a few releases not so long ago. So when something old, like Space Adventure Cobra, does get booted into the modern age it makes me take an interest.

A 2.5D platformer (I can’t remember the last time we utilised 2.5D as a term), Space Adventure Cobra – The Awakening is a faithful retread of the franchise that started all the way back in 1978. That’s right, it’s a vintage that’s been brought up to speed with modern-ish graphics and an old school playstyle.

With that in mind, does Space Adventure Cobra- The Awakening look like it’ll get its fangs into you, or should it be defanged and left in the relics section? Let’s find out, shall we?

See You, Space Bounty Hunter

Fortunately, being a series nearing fifty, it doesn’t have all the modern fancies of a convoluted plot. No Nolan-esque time messings, no Villeneuve random giant spider metaphors, just good old science fiction, anime style. It’s simple, but it’s also very dumb as far as auspicious starts go.

We start with the titular Cobra, a dashing adventurer trying to rob Vaikan of the Space Pirates Guild (really, a piracy guild? Defeats the purpose, surely). Anyway, that goes wrong and Cobra goes into hiding in an extreme way, changing his features and really going off grid.

Five years later, a man named Johnson leaves a Total Recall-esque dream theatre, where he lives that beginning episode as Cobra. I am now going to recount how daft the sudden memory recall goes:

Johnson, upon leaving the theatre: “Wow, that felt so real, like I was actually this Cobra fellow.”

Random Thug: “Wait, did you say Cobra?! That’s ‘im, get the boss!”

…and as if by magic, Johnson suddenly remembers he’s actually the disguised Cobra. Not only that, the Space Pirates Guild knows his exact location and send an army after him.

See, told you old stuff was uninhibited by anything technical or groundbreaking.

Linearity… In Space!

The gameplay in Space Adventure Cobra is, also rather fittingly, extremely rooted in the school of old. Much like the recent Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound (that your’s truly reviewed here), Space Adventure Cobra is a mostly side-scrolling affair.

Levels are pretty linear, with some climbing and exploration needed to find those pesky skill tokens that are pretty endemic nowadays. Cobra will gain later abilities like grappling hooks and magnetic climbing boots, but don’t expect Metroidvania. It’s more a case of making a note of which level you’re missing tokens on, then replaying said level.

Progress is pretty straightforward too: run a bit, jump a bit more, and shoot a lot of enemies. This will be done (or ignored) in the normal sections, whilst others are forced. Yes, Space Adventure Cobra isn’t above pulling the whole “locked room, waves of enemies” gambits at regular intervals.

Which is where Cobra uses one hand to get himself out of sticky situations.

Hand Solo

If you’ve watched the trailer at the beginning of the review, you may immediately get Metroid or Mega Man vibes. Whilst you might be correct in terms of gameplay, please try to remember that Space Adventure Cobra predates them.

But anyway, pedantry aside, that’s exactly how Cobra plays. Players will run and gun, mostly from left to right, shooting waves of enemies along the way. The gimmick is the Psychogun, a weapon that replaces Cobra’s left hand entirely.

Of the games I’ve personally played, I got a reminiscence for Metroid 2: Samus Returns. This is largely in part with having to both move and aim with the left stick. It’s a bit fiddly, not helped by shooting being mapped to R2 (on the PlayStation). It’s not a deal breaker, just takes some getting used to.

Cobra’s other main use of the Psychogun is a guided shot, which is pretty self-explanatory. As well as being able to chain it through several enemies at once, its other function is button-pusher. Often there’ll be an awkward button hidden behind a thin access hole, or three switches that need hitting in quick succession. That’s where Cobra’s Guided Shot comes in, sometimes functional whilst at other times fiddly to aim.

Our man’s also equipped with a revolver, which sounds a bit antique in the future, but it has its uses. Namely, bursting pink energy shields around enemies so that the Psychogun can hit them. Yeah, I know it sounds backwards, but it’s the game’s way of adding combat challenge. As are the enemies with blue shields, that need dispelling with a melee attack before the futuristic space arm-cannon can kill them.

I’m being glib but it makes for some interesting combat room scenarios. It means Cobra can’t just sit back in a corner and take potshots, he needs to get involved. Combine that with an evade/dash technique and it can come to life. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it has fun rolling with it.

The Golden Age

Whilst Space Adventure Cobra is relatively unknown to me, I have watched a fair old bit of anime back in the day. That’s when it was the good stuff, mind, in the age of kick-ass Saturday morning cartoons like Ulysses 31 and the old Manga label classics. None of this computer-animated, mass-produced nonsense for me, thank you very much. Old man tangent aside, my point is that I love the retro style of animation used in Space Adventure Cobra.

So it’s nice to not only see it represented in the narrative, text-box elements, but that the cutscenes use the original animations too. It definitely adds that nostalgic charm, if not for the specific title then the medium as a whole.

It gels pretty well with the gameplay graphics. Again, it’s that 2.5D aspect of big open areas, but Cobra only runs/rides vehicles in the foreground. It’s all vibrant and bright colours, again meshing with the overall colour vibe of the source material.

The voice acting is… well, wooden. It sounds like you’d imagine an old, Japanese animation dubbed by actors using pseudonyms and not knowing what tone or cadence to use. But again, it adds to the charm. There’s a lot of early Spike Speigel in there, the breathy damsels in distress, the beep boop monotony of robot voices.

The Ouroboros Effect

In regards to extra content, or multiplayer, or any other tacked-on content in Space Adventure Cobra – The Awakening… there isn’t really any. Magic Pockets may have done a grand job in bringing something classic to life, but they have certainly streamlined the experience.

As I’d mentioned in the gameplay section, the game presents itself as a Metroidvania with potential backtracking. Cobra will even say aloud things like, “Well gee, if only I had my magnetic climbing boots” as a mental note, for example. But this is more to make the player take note to come back and replay said level for the missed areas.

If you do go off the beaten track, replayed level or on a first run, there are the occasional challenge rooms to find. Doing so rewards skill tokens, with enough being collected to boost Cobra’s stats. Increased stats mean more damage and life, ergo making it easier, but it’s not essential. There are difficulty options and end-of-level scores to beat too, but that’s pretty much it.

The game itself is fairly generous with level checkpoints and no live system, so if you are stuck on a particular section, you can keep trying as much as you like. I will say, however, that level checkpoints are temporary. Should you quit out or turn the game off, you’ll be restarting the whole level. I found out the hard way.

Fangs For The Memories

To conclude then, Space Adventure Cobra – The Awakening is a blast if you’re after something retro-inspired. If one is a fan of the anime, or even the comic strip before it, then I’d imagine all ten of you have probably completed it. For the newcomer, whilst it might seem like a hard sell, there is fun to be had in here.

If you go in knowing it’s cheesy, with corny dialogue, pulp sci-fi story and sometimes a little bit too much over-sexualisation of women (a somewhat “classic” trope in old anime), you can’t go too wrong here. I’m enjoying it, the janky transitions to vintage footage over some Battletoads/Metroid/Contra-like platforming. The vehicular sections, by the way, definitely more forgiving than Battletoads.

Don’t go in expecting a new era of platformer, mind. This is definitely one that plays it safe. However, there’s added challenge if needed, what with the difficulty options and trophies/achievements to pad the hours out.

Sometimes it’s fun just to kick back with something retro, amidst all the doom and gloom of all these “realism based Souls-likes” in the market. Hey, at least it’s better than Afro Samurai 2: Revenge of Kuma.

Space Adventure Cobra – The Awakening is available now on PlayStation 5 (review platform), Xbox Series S|X, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.

Developer: Magic Pockets
Publisher: Microids

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

If you enjoyed this article or any more of our content, please consider our Patreon.

Make sure to follow Finger Guns on our social channels. Twitter, Facebook, Twitch, Spotify or Apple Podcasts – to keep up to date on our news, reviews and features.