| Captain Commando | |
| Developer: | Capcom |
| Publisher: | Capcom |
| Designer: | Akira Yasuda Junichi Ohno |
| Artist: | Akira Yasuda |
| Composer: | Masaki Izutani |
| Platforms: | Arcade, Super NES, PlayStation |
| Release: | Arcade Super NES PlayStation |
| Genre: | Beat 'em up |
| Modes: | Single-player, multiplayer |
| Arcade System: | CP System |
is a 1991 futuristic side-scrolling beat 'em up originally developed and published by Capcom as an arcade video game, and later ported to several other platforms. It was the seventeenth game produced for the company's CP System hardware. The game stars the titular superhero who was originally conceived as a fictional spokesman used by Capcom USA in the company's console games during the late 1980s. The game was included in Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle compilation title, which was released digitally for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows on September 18, 2018.[1]
The game is set in a futuristic version of Metro City, the setting of Capcom's other beat 'em up, Final Fight, and features several loose ties with the characters and settings from that game. The year is 2026. The world is filled with crime. Captain Commando and his three faithful Commando Companions rise up to erase this crime from Planet Earth and from all the Galaxy, but the futuristic criminals they have to fight are endowed with a secret, hidden, evil power. Many of them are Super Criminals, with ability beyond that of ordinary mortals. The leader of all Super Criminals is Scumocide (known as Genocide in Japan).
Captain Commando follows the same gameplay established in Capcom's previous beat-'em-up Final Fight. The arcade version allows up to two, three, or even four players simultaneously depending on the game's settings. The player can select between any of the four "commandos" (Mack, Captain, Ginzu, or Baby-Head) as their character, with each player controlling a different character. The player's objective as usual is to move towards the end of each stage, defeat every adversary who gets in their way while avoiding any traps that they may throw at the player's way before eventually fighting the boss awaiting at the final area of each stage. The game consists of a total of nine stages.
The control configuration is exactly like Final Fight, with an eight-way joystick for moving the character left or right, as well as towards or away from the background, along with two action buttons for attacking and jumping. The player can perform numerous combinations of attacks while standing or jumping, including grabbing the enemy, as well as a special attack by pressing the attack and jump simultaneously that will drain a portion of the player's vitality. An addition to the controls is the ability to dash by pushing the joystick left or right twice. The player can perform a running attack or even a running jump attack.
Like in Final Fight, the player can pick up health-restoring food items hidden inside barrels and other destructible objects to restore their vitality, as well as other bonus items to increase their score. Weapons also can be picked up, such as three different types of firearms, as well as shurikens that can only be used by Ginzu. Players also can ride certain robots by dismounting their riders and then jumping over the robot. The robots have their own vitality gauge and if they sustain enough damage, they will be destroyed. There are three types of robots in the game: a punching robot, a flame-throwing robot, and a freezing robot. Unlike Final Fight, weapons can be carried when the player makes the transition to a new area until the stage is completed.
The origin of Captain Commando as a character predates his appearance in his self-titled game, in the packaging and manuals of many of Capcom's earlier titles for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Commodore 64 in North America released between 1986 and 1989. All of Capcom's games released for the NES between 1986 and 1988 (1942, Commando, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Mega Man, Trojan, Section Z and Gun Smoke) were released as part of the "Captain Commando Challenge Series" and featured a drawing of the Captain on the back of the packaging, which depicted him as a "futuristic" space hero wielding a raygun on each hand and two large medallions around his neck with the letter "C" engraved on each. Each game's instruction manual also featured a "Special Message" from the Captain addressed to the owner of the game, congratulating the player for purchasing one of Capcom's products. Additionally, the instruction manual for Section Z has the otherwise nameless player character uniting with Captain Commando himself,[4] although it is unclear if that means they both control the spacesuit or if Captain Commando is a separate character.
A revised version of the Captain Commando character appeared again in Capcom's NES lineup in 1989 (Strider, Mega Man 2, Willow, and Duck Tales). The artwork on the rear packaging of those games featured an illustration of Captain Commando wearing a pilot suit in front of a fighter jet, holding a helmet under his right arm, with an alien chimp sitting on his right shoulder and the Capcom logo in an airbrushed style above them. The text above the artwork featured a message from the Captain advising the reader to "look to (him) for up-to-date reports for all the exciting action games from Capcom", followed by the Captain's apparent handwritten signature.
Captain Commando would return as a player character in the fighting game Marvel vs. Capcom in 1998, as one of the characters representing Capcom. The Captain has a transformation sequence prior to each match which depicts him in a suit (or in a cowboy outfit) before donning his superhero costume. His "Commando Strike" special move, as well as both of his Hyper Combos (the "Captain Sword" and the "Captain Storm"), has him summoning his "Commando Companions" to attack his opponent. The Captain's victory quotes consist of random Capcom trivia, while his ending in Marvel vs. Capcom is an homage to the ending in his original game. This incarnation of Captain Commando also appears in the sequel, Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Besides the Marvel vs. Capcom games, Captain Commando also appears in four other cross-over games: Capcom World 2, Namco × Capcom, Project X Zone 2 and the series. A two-volume manga was also published in Japan in 1994 in Gamest Comics, which was translated and published overseas by UDON.
In Japan, Game Machine listed Captain Commando on their December 1, 1991 issue as being the most-successful table arcade unit of the month, outperforming titles such as and WWF WrestleFest.[10]
The November 1991 issue of Sinclair User gave it the shared award for "Games Most Likely To Save The Universe" as one of the best superhero games, along with and Captain America and The Avengers.[11]
On release, Famicom Tsūshin scored the Super Famicom version of the game a 21 out of 40.[12] In 2013, the arcade original game was ranked as the 21st top beat 'em up video game of all time by Heavy.com.[13] In 2018, Complex rated Captain Commando 79th on their "The Best Super Nintendo Games of All Time".[14]