Requirements: PowerPC or 68040 with FPU, 640x480 256-color display, 10
MB RAM available, and System 7.1 or later
 
Overview
Cobra Gunship is a side-view helicopter scroller that pits your helicopter and a small team of intelligence officers against an army. You face many enemies equipped with a wide variety of weapons through many interesting missions. While the background story isn't essential, it is interesting and the various missions progressively add to the story as you move through the game. Following is the background taken from the manual:
 
A group of mercenaries called
the Mercenary Alliance has
seized oil fields in the Middle
East and northern Africa. As the
U.N. hems and haws, the countries
whose oil fields have been taken form
a group called the Small Country
Alliance (no shortage of alliances
around here!) and prepare to solve the problem themselves. They hire an elite team to help them, consisting of one communications expert, several explosives experts, and one helicopter pilot. The team's mission: To disrupt the Mercenary Alliance's operations until the U.N. gets around to sending in troops to reclaim the fields. You are the helicopter pilot on the team. You will receive instructions from your communications guy, and carry out your orders. Sometimes, you will get to use explosives experts on your missions.
 
Gameplay
  Cobra Gunship has a very addicting gameplay. It's easy to tell
yourself "I'll give it just one more shot" and play for 30 minutes
more to beat a level. It requires quick reflexes and a good aim to
complete most of the levels. This can be considered a bad point — Cobra Gunship is very difficult and it sometimes feels as though the odds of winning are impossibly high. There are always too many enemies for you to destroy before your helicopter gets blown to bits. Sometimes money appears (see graphic above) when you destroy an enemy. Flying over the money collects the dough and puts it in your stash. However, it it is difficult to get to the money due to the number of enemies that most likely surround it. This makes it difficult to upgrade the weapons, armor, and engine of the helicopter. Money is awarded to you at the completion of the level, but the sum of money you can get at that point isn't nearly enough to buy the weapons you'll eventually need in the later levels. It is very frustrating to play a level twenty or thirty times and still not beat it. A difficulty option may be included in version 1.3 — we hope that it becomes a reality as it may increase the playability of Cobra Gunship.
One thing that will help you throughout your 
missions is the radar at the top of the screen (see
picture at right). It is jam-packed with information. You can locate enemies, bases, money, and various other items on the radar. This greatly helps in levels with fast-flying planes that will look to intercept your path. On some levels, the enemy is even able to jam your radar (unless you purchase the Radar De-Jammer). The radar not only makes the game more realistic but a lot more fun.
  You are able to buy a wide variety of weapons,
utilities, engines, and armor. There are four
different kinds of engines and armor (the more
powerful or protective ones cost more, of course)
and utilites such as a Repair Crew that slowly
repairs your helicopter during a mission. The
primary weapon can be upgraded to a flame- thrower (or other intermediate weapons) and there are lots of secondary weapons to choose from, including bombs, rockets, napalms, heatseekers, floaters, drop rockets, and scatterbombs. There is also a wide variety of enemies including tanks, rocket launchers, helicopters, parachuting troops, and many more. This variety really raises the enjoyment level!
 
Graphics
 
The graphics are beautiful and
detailed. The background is
especially pleasing. It complements
the game, but doesn't distract you
from your main task — killing
enemies. The other graphical
elements are quite good as well.
You can see the rotors on the
helicopter spinning, the smoke
coming from the rocket launchers
as a rocket is launched, and the
bullets as they fly through the air.
Almost every detail is included and the effect is really quite wonderful. One unrealistic aspect is that the ground is flat — there are no hills. This detracts from the realism of the game. Also, buildings and enemies seem to be slightly misproportioned. Most often, they seem to be smaller than they would be in reality. All graphics in this review are at 100% their size on a 640 x 480 display, so you may compare sizes of objects in this review.
Cobra Gunship is a triple-scrolling game. This means that the three "layers," [the ground, trees, and background (mountains)] all move at different speeds. The ground scrolls the most and the background scrolls the least. This is, as we understand it, quite difficult to achieve, but the effort was well worth it as it only continues to add to the realism and graphic quality of the game.
  When your helicopter gets shot, part of
your armor flies off. As you take more
damage, more of your armor gets shot off. The tank on the right of this picture was just hit by a bullet. You can see pieces of its armor flying off. The explosions are also great. They really look like billowing smoke, and the flying debris add a nice touch (see explosion graphic above). These are more examples of detail that we realize to be a hallmark of Cobra Gunship.
 
Sound Effects / Music
  There is no music in Cobra Gunship and it really isn't
necessary. You will be far too busy concentrating on
staying alive to listen to any music. If you need music,
put in a CD and listen to it while you blow up tanks
and enemy 'copters!
The sound effects are great. At the higher mixing rates, it
is possible to hear the blades of the helicopter as they cut
through the air as well as all other noises, including explosions,
missiles firing, and saboteurs planting bombs. The explosions sound great and are quite realistic. When your helicopter is hit, you hear the damage being done. The weapons make noises when they are fired. The game sounds like you're in the middle of a war, which really makes sense because you are in the middle of a war. Cobra Gunship immerses you in itself, and that is quite fine by us!
 
Playability on Various Systems
Cobra Gunship requires 10 MB RAM and a 68040 or PowerPC to run. This game was tested on a variety of machines, including:
PowerMac 6100/66 with 24 MB RAM 
Performa 6320/120 with 32 MB RAM
PowerMac 7300/200 with 32 MB RAM
Performance at the highest possible settings for
all video and audio options (mixing, channels, explosion pieces, etc.) resulted in good performance on all machines but the 6100/66. The manual includes directions to minimize the options based on the framerate. Following the directions, the 6100/66 achieved wonderful playability with only slightly less sound quality (22KHz), a slightly lower mixing rate, and no tree layer. The directions are very clear in this regard. Cobra Gunship was even tested on a late-model 68040 Quadra and appeared to work rather well.
 
Conclusions
Cobra Gunship is a great game. The minor faults are made up for by the hours of enjoyment you will have in playing this game. If it were only a bit easier, it would deserve 4.5 stars instead of 4 stars. If you like arcade games that require good coordination, this game is perfect for you. It's definitely worth the money.
