Space Adventure Cobra The Awakening Gold Edition Upgrade (DLC)

I went into the Gold Edition Upgrade for Space Adventure Cobra: The Awakening knowing almost nothing about Cobra as a franchise, and that turned out to be the right vantage point. The base game is a 2.5D action platformer built around a space pirate who shoots first and monologues second, adapted from a manga that launched in 1978 and an anime series that followed in the early 1980s. Magic Pockets put genuine care into the cell-shaded visuals, the original anime cutscenes pulled directly from the source, and a soundtrack that punches well above the budget. The core loop runs, jumps, dashes mid-air, and grapple-hooks through exotic planetary levels while swapping between the Psychogun, the Colt Python 77, the grappling hook, and other gadgets to clear enemies and reach collectibles locked behind power-up gates. Boss fights occasionally veer into bullet-hell territory, which is a pleasant surprise. So what does this Gold Edition Upgrade actually add? Two things: the bonus mission "The Roulette of Death" - adapted from the 13th episode of the anime - and the cosmetic Smoking Skin for Cobra. That is the full contents of the upgrade. If you are a lapsed Cobra devotee who is tracking down every scrap of new content after a three-decade drought, the bonus mission is meaningful. For everyone else, it is a relatively slim addition. The base game already covers twelve story episodes with at least two levels each, three difficulty settings from story-friendly to punishing, and a two-player couch co-op mode where the camera stubbornly follows Player One (so keep your co-op partner close, or they die off-screen, which is both funny and annoying). The honest criticisms of the base game carry over here by association. The controls feel slightly off - no button remapping, only three fixed presets - and the level design leans on an older, more archaic school of platforming that does not always translate cleanly to 2025 expectations. Enemy variety is thin, and checkpoint progress resets if you quit out of a session, which will catch at least one person reading this off guard. Critics were split between treating it as a nostalgic curio that earns goodwill through presentation alone and holding it to a modern platformer standard it does not fully meet. Steam users were about 75 percent positive across early reviews, which is roughly the right temperature: likeable but not without friction. Who pulls the trigger on the Gold Edition Upgrade? Fans of the original anime who want the "Roulette of Death" mission as a canonical bonus chapter - that is the primary audience. Speedrunners who found the base game replayable on harder difficulties might appreciate the extra content. Newcomers and casual anime-platformer fans are better served just playing the base game first to judge whether the source material clicks before spending more. The upgrade is a niche purchase even within a niche game, which is fine. Not every piece of DLC needs to reinvent itself.

Alex · Scout Team

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