Commando, an arcade in Rambo's footsteps

Rambo.

C’era un cabinato nel bar dell’oratorio che ci permetteva di diventarlo, al costo di 200 lire: Commando and its numerous console conversions, including the inevitable Atari, guaranteed that those like me could become heroes while sitting comfortably at home.

The official release takes place in 1985, although the Atari 2600 and 7800 versions were published a few years later, in 1988 and 1989. In this vertical scrolling shooter, we take on the role of a marine with a slightly grandiose name, “Super Joe” (?), who arrives on the battlefield in the most spectacular way possible, aboard a helicopter from which he descends, armed and ready for action: from that moment on, we take comm(and) of the heroic soldier, whose goal will be to move upward on the screen, clearing out all enemy soldiers. Right from the start, the distinctive feature of Capcom’s title becomes clear: Joe can move in all directions, in a “compass rose” mode, so to speak, as can his shot, fortunately infinite and lethal. 

Il difficile where is it, you may ask. Simple: exactly as in Out-Zone, another classic masterpiece of the genre, Super Joe can never stop and we will therefore have to avoid enemy shots and their incursions from every corner of the level, paying very close attention to this detail.

“Battlefield Wolf,” the original Japanese title, will really have to growl loudly to be heard, because the game’s immediate gameplay does not go hand in hand with the learning curve, as with any self-respecting Eighties arcade title: you will have to work hard, and a lot, to learn the enemy soldiers’ patterns, the optimal timing for throwing grenades as a secondary weapon (you can hurl them exclusively northward with no possibility of different trajectories) and maneuver Super Joe with enough skill to dodge hand-to-hand enemies, especially when they infest the screen!

Ogni reference to events that really happened is no coincidence, obviously: the protagonist’s blue uniform recalls the “good” soldiers, while the gray color pattern of the bad guys can only remind you of the Nazi scum, as a certain Indy would say. The music is exceptional and transports body and soul into the tropical zones and military bases, the game’s predominant settings; the graphics do their job and the environments are rendered with all the pixelated perfection of those years. The gameplay elements you can interact with are few, but all functional to the gameplay, so barricades, trenches, trees and bridge arches behind which to take cover under enemy fire, damned relentless and incessant. Commando is one of those games that is still mentioned today and over time many developers have paid homage to it: do you remember the iconic prisoner from Metal Slug and his celebrations when he is freed by us? It is a reference to what happens in Commando when we take out the guards escorting an ally of ours who has been “taken into custody.”

When it is said that a title absolutely must not be missing from your library, sometimes that is a bit of an exaggeration, I admit it, but in this case there could not be a truer or more honest statement: Commando deserves to be played and replayed, and I still do so with great pleasure. Especially now that all my toy weapons have been lost, so I have earned my honorable discharge, all things considered.