Twin Cobra

aka: Desert Attack Helicopter, Kyūkyoku Tiger, Kyūkyoku Tiger Classic, Twin Cobra Classic, Twin Cobra: Desert Attack Helicopter, Ultimate Tiger
Moby ID: 13725
Arcade Specs
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Description official descriptions

Twin Cobra is a vertically scrolling shoot-em-up. You pilot the TC-17 Twin Cobra assault helicopter to fight the forces of Commander Anziga, the myopic leader of the nation of Kaban. Your job is to fly into Kaban and take out the entire military base of Commander Anziga.

You will fight small helicopters, tanks and stationary guns, defeat the large helicopters to get power-ups. By picking up colored icons (blue, yellow, red or green) you can change to different weapon types. Blue is a forward spread shot, yellow is a four-way shot, red is a wide forward laser shot and green is a continuous forward laser shot.

At the end of each section, you land on a carrier ship and count up your bonuses.

Spellings

  • 究極Tiger クラシック - Japanese Android/iPhone/iPad spelling
  • 究極タイガー - Japanese spelling
  • 트윈 코브라 클래식 - Korean Android/iPhone/iPad spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (TurboGrafx-16 version)

4 People

Designer
Musician
Sub programmer
Main programmer

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 71% (based on 15 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 36 ratings with 1 reviews)

Original NES quality graphics come to the Genesis.

The Good
I like that I will never have to play this game again. I like that I can play the GOOD version of this game on the PC Engine (Turbo Graphics 16).

The Bad
The graphics are some of the worst on the Genesis ever. It does not look like a 16 bit game. It looks like a Master System game. Seriously, the graphics are THAT bad.

The control is good, and there is no slow down. Unfortunately enemy characters move about 4 times faster than your little helicopter and can predict your movements instantaneously. Even the tanks move faster than your helicopter!!!

Even on the lowest difficulty level, while cheating with a game genie you will get blown out of the sky about every four minutes. It crosses the line beyond challenging to tedious and implausible. Tanks cannot cover distance faster than helicoptors. Other helicoptors should not be able zip across the screen in less than a quarter of a second.

This game was obviously rushed through production so that it would be ready to go so that Sega would have more arcade ports to compete with the Super Nintendo which had just come out in 1991. Not only are the graphics terrible, but it was obviously never tested by game players.

To be frank, this game should NEVER have been released. Its a joke and not worth of its namesake. Twin Cobra (Tiger Heli) was a good arcade game and did not deserve this disgraceful translation.

Its a shame because the Mega Drive could have handled and excellent translation of Twin Cobra.



The Bottom Line
The only way you will know how bad this is, is if you play it yourself. It defies discription. However, don't let your experience with this version color your perception of the arcade game or the excellent Turbo Graphics 16 port.

Usually the Mega Drive versions of shooters were as good or better than their PC Engine counterparts. This is not the case with Twin Cobra and it also was not the case with Raiden Trad (although Raiden Trad was still a very good game).

So try the PC Engine version of this game "Tiger Heli" its decent.

There are several top down shooters for the Genesis / Megadrive that are pretty good. Fireshark, Elemental Master, and Truxton immediately come to mind.

Genesis · by Majestic Lizard (670) · 2006

Trivia

Version differences

The original Japanese arcade version, called Kyūkyoku Tiger ("Ultimate Tiger") is a single player game where the player's helicopter is gray like the one on the title screen. The export version, Twin Cobra however allowed two simultaneous players where the helicopters are colored red and blue. The Genesis and NES conversions, although using the Twin Cobra moniker are still single player games, thus more resembling Ultimate Tiger than Twin Cobra.

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  • MobyGames ID: 13725
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Carl-Henrik.

Arcade added by Trypticon. Linux, Windows, Macintosh added by Plok. FM Towns added by Sciere. TurboGrafx-16 added by Martin Smith. Blacknut, Android, iPhone, iPad added by lights out party. Sharp X68000 added by Terok Nor.

Additional contributors: chirinea, Alaka, lights out party, Sunbeam, S Olafsson, Gouken, GenesisBR.

Game added June 21, 2004. Last modified January 25, 2024.