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Captain Commando hails from an obscure Capcom character in the NES days promoting what they argued the best games featured in the system. He was a far cry of what we know him as nowadays. It would be then in 1991 that he would have his gaming debut along with other three characters on his self-titled arcade beat'em up game. While this gave him a bit more recognition it wouldn't be until he appeared in the Capcom vs. series of fighting games along with other Capcom characters fighting off Marvel's own troupe of characters.
Meet our heroes
The game features the titular character along with Mac the knife, a mummy-like alien whose knives can dissolve enemies, Ginzu, a ninja who literarily slices foes, and Babyhead, a baby genius pummeling bad guys on a mechanical suit of his own design. Aside cosmetic differences both in design and attacks, none of the characters seem to have any different attributes from one another. The gameplay is pretty basic, having a two-button system for attack and jump, while pressing both will activate an special attack unique to each character at the cost of some of your health. You can tap twice on any direction to run, and use either button to decide what kind of attack you will land on the opponent. A running dash ending on a jump attack makes significantly more damage than any other. You can also hold up while making a standing jump attack to create a variation of said move, but it is mostly for show.
(Evil) Ninjas are overrated
The game is segmented on different stages, each having its own theme to them. You fight on the streets, preventing thugs from robbing a bank, then inside a museum, followed by a Japanese dojo in a deadly duel with a dangerous Kabuki boss and so on. I can give props on this game being quite inventive with each mission you go through. At the end of each boss battle bonus points are rewarded to the player who dealt the final blow, making it a competitive goal for two players or more. The final battle culminates on the leader's home planet and it is quite a difficult trial to pass.
Captain Commando displays the classy look of Capcom's CPS-1 games, combining aspects from Final Fight and implementing them in a 4-player game which is quite unique among other games of its type. Each enemy has their own health bar to be depleted in lieu of dropping defeated after two or three hits, and the bosses obviously having a whole lot more hit points than your own character. The sound and music are implemented quite well, which motivates the player in dealing justice against evil doers.
On the downside, there are times when hit detection misses, and you are left dealing with multiple characters at the same time, some of which take advantage by using long range attacks. For some inexplicable reason, you take a whole lot more damage when using one of those robot suits and are prone to be a target more than using them as an asset. There are also no means to earn an extra player by racking up score, leaving you with the standard two lives per play unless you cough up more credits to continue gameplay.
Scumocide in all his glory
Despite of its low shortcomings, Captain Commando is quite a lot of fun otherwise, cementing the superhero mythos within Capcom's legacy and achieving a mainstay within said lore. While it may not had a sequel or any other game which stars the dynamic team, they had appeared in other games like Marvel vs. Capcom and such, something that makes me smile with nostalgic pride. Captain Commando is still lots of fun to go through and I would not have it any other way.
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Community review by CptRetroBlue (November 27, 2019)
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