Commando

a.k.a. Senjou No Ookami / 戦場の狼

created and published by Capcom in 1986-09-27, running on Nintendo Entertainment System

type: shooter
genre: Run and Gun
perspective: bird's-eye push-scroll
player options: single player

languages: eng jpn

3.4/5

Personal review

I really liked the C64 version of Commando (which C64 user doesn't remember that awesome music?), so I was really curious how the NES version would play. Commando is an early Run and Gun game, one of the genre defining games so to say, originally released in the arcades and converted to virtually every homecomputer possible. The NES version is an interesting version and playable, it even has a new feature. Throwing grenades at some places reveals otherwise hidden stairs which you can climb down and enter extra mini-rooms sometimes filled with enemies but often also having extra items in them. But the game fails to be as good as it could have been. The music doesn't drive me forward as it did in the C64 version. The graphics are adequate for a 1986 game but there is often much flickering. Sometimes enemy soldiers just disappear completely from the screen. The game has only four short levels, but despite this it is rather difficult.