Although the game had mixed reception upon the release of its trailer, the Cobra Kai video
game has received typically positive feedback so far, with the video game sticking to the
beat-em-up roots of classics such as Double Dragon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Final
Fight, and more.
What's interesting to note is that the big 3 had quite a bit of say in the game's development,
as evidenced in how faithful the game is to the show
(although in a way, the game is set in its own universe.)
With Cobra Kai Season 4 coming out at the end of the year, the question is now what will
happen next as far as the video game franchise (outside of the Card Fighter)?
This is my concept and opinion of what I think the next Cobra Kai video game should look like.
Let's talk about the elephant in the room and something that is currently missing from
the pre-existing game: online play.
Now, I know this game was made to be more of a couch co-op game and the multiplayer
mode itself is very smooth; however, when the video game was released at the end of
October 2020, this was during the pandemic (which is still ongoing), and not to mention that
most people that do game, jump into online multiplayer modes nowadays.
I recommended this game to a lot of my friends; the only problem is that most of these friends
live a minimum of one hour away, so it wouldn't be any time soon that I would be seeing them.
Online connectivity is something I would definitely jump on when the next Cobra Kai game comes out.
Side-note; something else that is slowly becoming more common these days is crossplay.
Having people being able to play online together despite having the game on different consoles
would be another huge benefit for the next installment.
Another nice feature, or rather fix, would be shorter load times.
Initially, the game was released for Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, and Xbox One.
The problem is when you finish a level and go to the dojo or pick a level from the map
screen, there is a bit of a wait.
Another example of this if you go the map screen from the dojo, and let's say you forget to upgrade
and need to go back to your dojo, you have to go through another loading screen before
re-entering the dojo, even though you were just there.
Now when the game was released on Steam earlier this year, this was addressed as the loading
screens are nearly non-existent.
One way that this could be addressed is if there was something in place of the loading
screen while the game itself is being loaded.
This has actually been done before – if you've ever played the Star Wars Episode III:
Movie Game, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
When playing through the game's story, cutscenes would play that would incorporate both movie
footage and game cutscenes right before the level started, and when the cutscene finished,
the level would be fully loaded and would drop you right in the middle of gameplay.
Something else I would like to see is the use of music from both the movies and the
TV shows.
Now don't get me wrong: Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson, the composers of the show,
did a great game soundtrack that still has that Cobra Kai feel.
I just can't help but feel that there were some missed opportunities to incorporate show
music such as Hallway Hellscape during the school level or Sam/Tory boss fight, Cobra
and the Mongoose or Timeout during the Robby/Miguel boss fight, and if Season 3 had been out by
then, Duel of the Snakes during the Kreese boss fight.
I think this would be a nice touch and would bring me to my next point:
Different game modes.
Now, I'm not against keeping the current Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks-style gameplay that
Cobra Kai currently incorporates, but there are some sorely missed modes that should be
in the next game.
The first would be a Movie Mode.
What I mean by this is playing through levels that are based on scenes out of the movies
and TV show; for example, fighting Johnny at the All-Valley Tournament, participating in
the Season 2 school fight, fighting against Chozen in 1985, sparring with Chozen in Okinawa, the list goes on.
Also, if we are keeping the option to play either Daniel or Johnny's side of the story,
this would also give us perhaps some unique levels that would explore what Johnny did between
1984 and 2018.
A prime example of this Movie Mode and how it's worked so far are in the video games Rocky
and Rocky Legends.
You have your fights that play out just like the movies, so going against Apollo Creed,
Clubber Lang, and Ivan Drago for example, but you get to fight other opponents and also
train between those bouts in mini-games.
A training mini-game with some approproiate music such as Like a Dance while training
as either Miguel, Robby, Sam, or Hawk would definitely also give us a break from purely
beat-em-up gameplay, to something that would just test our knowledge on current skills
and abilities.
What could also be unique to Movie Mode is a what-if scenario, for example if Johnny
beat Daniel in 1984 and we get a completely different timeline to play through.
This is something that's slightly touched upon in Rocky Legends where if you beat Rocky
as either Apollo, Clubber, or Drago.
Even playing as some of the villains, ala the Spider-Man 2002 video game (and I know
I keep bringing up the 2000s, but this era did the movie game genre pretty well and it's
a shame you don't see movie games anymore), like Chozen or Mike Barnes and get some movie
modes timelines like that as well.
Another mode that has seriously been voiced from people I know that play the game (and
I would agree) is a versus mode.
This would be amazing to have, as we could have the ability to play as both heroes and
villains, and say after beating the movie mode, you get an option to use your fully upgraded character
in this versus mode.
Either way, a 1 on 1 fighting game mode is something that's definitely needed for the
next game, and you could have all sorts of dream matchups to simulate: Chozen 85 vs Johnny
84, Miguel S2 vs Daniel 85, Hawk S3 vs Dutch, Julie Pierce vs Sam S3, and more.
Last but not least, what else I want to see as mentioned above, the ability to play
as legacy characters, whether they be good or bad guys, and have outfit options with
appropriate skillsets.
For example, playing as 84 Daniel your only mega move so to speak would be the Crane Kick,
but if you played as 85/KK3 Daniel you would have access to the Drum Technique and the
Kata, and say that the Kata could boost your focus meter for example.
I would be totally ok running through the game under specific requirements to unlock
Mr. Miyagi as a near-boss character to play through other modes with.
As someone who is not normally a fan of DLC whatsoever, I would totally be ok with paying
money to play as Miyagi if they went this route, or to unlock Chozen or other outfits
with specific abilities.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed this concept, if the big 3 ever look at this, call me up so
we can disccus (just kidding), but I think these ideas would be fantastic to implement
into the next game.
I could also understand the next major game not coming out until the series is complete,
and I would totally be ok with waiting for that as well.
Also big props to Flux Game Studio for putting out an excellent game with fluid mechanics,
the game never gets old!
Let me know what you guys think in the comments down below: what would you like to see in
a Cobra Kai video game?
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