Continuing our investigation into the backstories of the B-list of Marvel Vs. Capcom characters,
we come upon CapCom himself, Captain Commando.
Yeah, he’s the roided-out lightning wielding dude with the mummy and ninja and weird baby-in-a-mech
friends who appeared in the first two MVC games, but before all that he was... the roided-out
lightning wielding dude with the mummy and ninja and weird baby-in-a-mech friends starring
in his own side-scrolling beat-’em-up, patterned very much after 1989’s Final Fight.
Eerily similar, in fact.
But it’s an effective vehicle for a character who, until that point, had just been some
weird comic-book hero without an actual comic book, remaining trapped in the back pages
of the manuals for Mega Man and Section Z and other late-80’s NES titles.
Awright, so unless you go completely off-the-wall, most games in this genre - be they of the
Konami, Capcom, or Sega lineages - are pretty much identical.
There’s some big evil thing threatening a metropolitan area, you and some number of
friends choose your heroes and beat up anything and everything that dares stand in your way,
and for whatever reason drum cans and crates contain pre-cooked food capable of repairing
knife wounds and fire damage.
(Though shortening tempura donburi to “TENDON” is funnier than it should be.)
All that really sets them apart from one another are the things you can do and the crap you
can pick up.
In a moderate deviation from the norm, Captain Commando features a broad range of projectile
weapons, from guns to lasers to rocket launchers capable of splash damage and immolation.
Also, ride armor, predating Mega Man X by a good two years.
Problem is, you interface with said ride armor by jumping into it, and if there’s a good
bit of enemy traffic about, chances are you’re just going to get knocked out of the air and
some other schmoe’s gonna jump in and then you’re gonna have to jump-kick him out of
it again... and by the time you can get settled into the pilot’s chair, everything’s dead
anyway and it’s almost out of energy.
I hate when that happens.
Aside from the moderately clunky armor, the rest of the mechanics are remarkably sound.
You don’t really get that Streets of Rage issue of hostiles backpedaling to stay just
out of reach, before coming in for the kill at speeds approaching Mach 3.
Movement is smooth and the challenge feels balanced, except for boss fights because “balanced”
doesn’t get you many quarters in the coin box, now does it?
On a completely unrelated note, I can’t help but think that the baby piloting the
mech is some sort of precursor to Tron Bonne.
This arcade version can occasionally be found in the wild, or as part of Capcom Classics
Collection Vol. 2 for the PS2 or Remixed for the PSP.
A Super NES port was also released in the States in ‘95, after the big N decided to
loosen up a bit and didn’t have to throw Brenda into the kind of gender confusion Poison
was subject to.
It does largely excise the blood and occasional bifurcation, though.
Have to keep the consoles clean, after all!