Cobra Triangle

Cobra Triangle is a 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:

 * Anticlimax Boss: The second-to-last boss is a red version of the Stock Ness Monster, who will deliver a One Hit KO if you try to attack it. If you just steer around it, however, it won't attack and will run out of health when the timer runs out.
 * 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.
 * Difficulty Spike: Level 8, Jump The Waterfall. A relatively short course, but you spend it navigating your boat over a sequence of waterfalls via ramps. Go too slow, and you won't have the speed to make it all the way across. Go too fast, and you have to pray that the ramps that move back and forth are in the right place for how you have your boat steered. While the next level is a bit easier than this, it's still no picnic, involves more ramp jumping, and the difficulty is never going back to what it was in the first seven levels.
 * 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 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).
 * Everythings Even Worse With Sharks: The Final Boss, no less.
 * Giant Enemy Crab: The second boss.
 * Giant Squid: The third boss.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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 tripe the usual value.
 * 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.
 * That One Level: Level 8, Jump The Waterfall. Constantly pulled towards bottomless pits, being required to maintain speed while trying to go over moving ramps... hair-pulling frustrating that stopped many gamers in their tracks. There's actually a second Jump The Waterfall stage much later in the game that's even worse, due to having to dodge fire from drones while jumping over more waterfalls with ramps that move even faster. Note the similarities between this and the Turbo Tunnel level in Battletoads.
 * 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.