- 60/100
- Players8 ratings
1981 · Konami · Arcade · Shoot 'em up
Super Cobra
You're a helicopter gunship pilot on a daring and dangerous mission: air surveillance of enemy territory. Success depends on how far you can penetrate enemy airspace. Can you handle the pressure? Because the further you go, the more difficult the mission becomes.
- Released
- 1981
- Platforms
- ArcadeAtari 2600Atari 5200ColecoVisionIntellivisionMSXMagnavox Odyssey 2NEC PC-6000 SeriesNintendo SwitchPV-1000
- Genres
- ArcadeShoot 'em upShooter
- Developers
- Konami
- Publishers
- —
- Modes
- Single-player
- Perspective
- Side view
- Themes
- ActionScience fiction
- Country
- Japan
- Languages
- English
About
Super Cobra is a 1981 horizontally scrolling shooter video game developed and published by Konami for arcades. It was released in North America by Stern. It is a spiritual successor to Scramble, using the same arcade hardware.
The game was a commercial success, selling 12,337 arcade cabinets in the United States within four months, becoming Stern's third best-selling arcade game. Super Cobra was widely ported by Parker Brothers, and there are Adventure Vision and standalone versions from Entex.
Keywords
- helicopter
- shoot 'em up
- side-scrolling
- save point
- checkpoints
- auto-saving
Media
The articlegameplay, story, development, reception
Gameplay
The player controls a helicopter through tight caverns. A laser and bombs can be used to destroy defenders, tanks, and UFOs while infiltrating 10 Super Cobra defense systems. The ship has a limited fuel supply, which is depleted over time. More fuel can be acquired by destroying fuel tanks. The player navigates through ten levels and a base, where they must safely make it through the level and extract loot.
Reception
The game was a commercial success. Stern produced 12,337 arcade cabinets for the US market by October 2, 1981, becoming Stern's third best-selling arcade classic after Berzerk and Scramble.
Arcade Express in November 1982 gave the Adventure Vision port a score of 9 out of 10. They concluded that it "takes real skill to master, and represents the state-of-the-art of scrolling shoot-outs".
Legacy
Super Cobra appeared alongside Scramble on the retro compilation Konami Arcade Classics, released for the PlayStation in 1999. Hamster Corporation released the game as part of their Arcade Archives series for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in October 2020.
Releases by platformdates and regions as published
Editions and related releases
- Included in
- Konami Antiques: MSX Collection Vol. 2Konami Arcade ClassicsKonami Game Collection Vol. 3Atari Flashback X Deluxe
- Ported as
- Super CobraArcade Archives: Super Cobra
- Built on it
- Super Cobra
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Collections9 collections
Platform libraries
- MSX games
- Sord M5Software
- Atari 2600 gamesRetail game releases
- Atari 5200 gamesGames
- Intellivision gamesMaster component releases
- Magnavox Odyssey 2 gamesOfficial games
- ColecoVision gamesOfficial › U.S.
- Nintendo Switch games (An–Az)List
Reception and records
- Arcade gameHighest-grossing
Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.