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Cobra Triangle is a 1989 hybrid racing/exploration boat game for the Nintendo Entertainment System, by Rare.

In it, you control a heavily armed boat roaming around waters with several drones about, given several accomplishments to perform during the levels. It used the same engine Rare developed for RC Pro-Am.

This game has examples of:

  • Backwards-Firing Gun: One of the two forms of the top of the Fire power-up chain fires one bullet from the fore, one from the aft, and one each starboard and port. Using the Fire power-up again switches to the other form.
  • Escort Mission: Two types. In one, you're trying to defend a group of eight swimmers from being kidnapped by drones - you pass if you save at least one, and get an Extra Life if you save them all. The other inverts this, as you have eight Sea Mines that have to be taken to a safe zone for detonation (also, if you're too close when they're detonated in the safe zone, you lose a life).
  • Fixed Scrolling Level: The bonus stages.
  • Giant Enemy Crab: The second boss.
  • Giant Squid: The third boss.
  • Hold the Line: The "protect the swimmers" missions - enemy boats will try to kidnap eight swimmers, and the player has to prevent the swimmers from being taken off. Saving even one at the end of the timer clears the level; saving all of them earns an Extra Life.
  • Homing Projectile: The final form of the Missile power-up.
  • Invincible Minor Minion - The drone boats on the "destroy the mines" stage cannot be destroyed - they must be evaded instead.
  • Luck-Based Mission: The pod collection stages. "?" icons could produce lives or additional power-up pods, but can also destroy all the items within the same grouping.
  • Nintendo Hard: The game has 25 levels. Most gamers that have played it have seen 8 to 10 of them. People familiar with this game were unsurprised that Rare went on to make Battletoads two years later.
  • No Plot? No Problem!: There isn't even the pretense of a narrative in the game or its manual.
  • One-Hit Kill: The giant octopus' tentacles will grab your ship and sink it.
  • 1-Up: The one in the first level is the only easy extra life in the game.
  • Peninsula of Power Leveling: The first level allows you to get a one-up in addition to several power-ups. Collect all the power-ups and the extra life, allow time to run out, then repeat until you've hit your max speed, fully-powered missiles, and your favorite of the maxed out gun options. This mitigates some of the nightmare of combat levels, but you still have to deal with nightmarish levels to navigate.
  • Power-Up: This game uses pretty much the same power-up scheme as Gradius, with the bonus that you could collect pods that were worth double or triple the usual value.
  • Ramp Jump: The "Jump the Waterfall" stages require you to use ramps to jump across waterfalls. Most of the ramps after the first one move, so simply speeding through these levels is difficult unless you know where the ramp is going to move ahead of time and take the best racing line while also avoiding whirlpools that can throw off your momentum.
  • Sea Mine: Mission 3 tasks you with disposing of some of these. There are a couple more later in the game, with hardier, faster, and more plentiful foes and a wider play field (making it easier for the enemies to take the bombs back from you).
  • Sheathe Your Sword: The boss fight against the red Stock Ness Monster - it'll perform a One-Hit KO on you if you attack it, but its health drains and will die on its own soon enough. As it still can do Collision Damage, however, it needs to be evaded.
  • Spread Shot: One of the two forms taken by the fully-charged Fire power-up. Further use of the Fire power-up changes this to the other form.
  • Stock Ness Monster: The first Boss Fight, and shown on the cover of the game. A red one is also the fourth boss fight.
  • Threatening Shark: The Final Boss, no less.
  • Timed Mission: All of them, although played slightly differently in the "protect the swimmers" mission. Most levels, if you don't accomplish the goal in time, you lose a life when the clock runs out and have to start again from the beginning. For the "protect the swimmers" levels, you win as long as at least one swimmer is out when the clock runs out.
    • The bonus levels are also timed, but the timer is rendered irrelevant due to their auto-scrolling nature.
  • Vehicular Combat — with boats!

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