Game 396: Commando

 

I can't believe it - I actually beat Commando - an old-school, quarter-munching multidirectional shooter which, unlike Capcom's prior (and much longer) game 1942, doesn't allow you any continues.

I cheated, but only a little bit. Specifically, I made a save state right at the game's midpoint, once I managed to reach it without losing any lives. Beating the first four stages on one life, earning me two extras along the way, took me quite a few tries. Beating the remaining four stages on five lives still took me far longer.

 

At first glance, Commando seems awfully similar to Taito's Front Line. Even dumbed down compared to it. You run around in eight directions, shooting at grunts with your semi-automatic carbine and throwing grenades, but there's no aiming dial here - you shoot in the direction you are moving, which can be a bit awkward as you might not always want to be moving toward the thing you're trying to shoot. There are no tanks to commander (or fight), and no multi-directional scrolling; you're doing this on foot, and it's vertical scrolling only. At least it looks nicer.

Except for when Super Joe appears faceless in closeups. Aaaaaaaa!

 

Much of what I said about Front Line still applies here, especially regarding the success of an aggressive playstyle. If you try to cautiously and systematically eliminate threats before advancing, you'll get overwhelmed by infinitely respawning soldiers. If anything, Commando demands even more aggression than Front Line does; your bullets do not outrange the enemy, but their bullets are slow and individually easy to dodge. Eventually, you'll face barrages of grenades, mortars, and bazookas, but they tend to be bad about leading you, and overtaking these enemies can be easier than killing them and almost as good.

Only grenades can kill men in foxholes, but sometimes it's better to walk around them

 

Your own grenades, though they are finite and may seem a bit underpowered, are still quite useful simply because they are quick to throw and are always thrown due north, no matter what direction you are moving in. You can afford to be a bit wasteful; there are lots of grenades lying around, and you never know when lobbing one or two ahead of you as you move at an angle might take out an enemy, sparing you the trouble of stopping to shoot him.

Lots of enemies, lots of bullets, good thing the puddle is a barrier to them too.

Super Joe can face and shoot in 16 intermediate directions, though you only move in eight of them, and this can lead to some control awkwardness. Rotation is not instant; there is a delay of a few frames as he cycles through each angle. A light joystick tap in the direction opposite or lateral to your current movement vector, intended to help you face a certain direction without moving, could only rotate him part of the way, causing him to not face and shoot in the desired orientation. On the other hand, this can be done on purpose too, when you need to hit something at a slight angle, but not a full 45 degree diagonal. Especially during the climactic fights at the end of each stage where enemies spawn in great numbers but not infinitely, making it worthwhile to fight more cautiously. 

A late stage unpleasantly reminds me of Cannon Fodder and its grunt-spawning barracks.

Beating Commando is doable, but it felt like it required some luck, even with my midpoint anchor save. Enemy spawns and attack patterns are semi-random, and sometimes you just get pinned down into a corner and gunned down in an inescapable hail of bullets and grenades, or sometimes an enemy spawns on the edge of the screen and shoots you immediately.

 

Most dangerous of all are the overpasses, which funnel you into a small area that conceals the bullets that fly under them, during which enemies on the overpass are lobbing nonstop grenades at you from above - I found that the best approach is to keep moving forward, toss some grenades, shoot, and hope you emerge unscathed on the other side. Any hesitation means more enemy spawns to deal with.

And I swear that during the second half, enemies' hitboxes magically shrink. During one run I flat-out saw one of my own bullets pass right through an enemy sprite.

Nevertheless, after countless failures, I beat the last level, on my last life, and without many grenades left.

Setting fire to the final compound

 

Side note - in order to comply with German censorship laws, Europe got a sprite-swapped version called Space Invasion, where the soldiers have a robotic makeover, somewhat resembling Star Wars stormtroopers, perhaps anticipating the similar redesigns of Contra/Gryzor/Probotector. Super Joe at least stays human.

 

GAB rating: Above average. Commando is, like many arcade games, repetitive and a bit shallow. It's also a better game than its inspiration Front Line despite being simpler on the surface - the run & gun action is tighter, faster, and more intense. It's also better than its predecessor 1942 despite having more awkward controls - I noted that game was overlong and overpadded and should have had eight levels instead of 32, which is exactly the length of Commando.