Video Game / Commando

Commando (Senjō no Ōkami, literally Battlefield Wolf) is a top-down Run-and-Gun game released by Capcom in 1985. Originally an arcade game, it was later ported to a wide range of game consoles, including the Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System, Amiga, Commodore 64, Intellivision, and ZX Spectrum. In this game, you control a soldier (unnamed in the game, but identified as "Super Joe" in the promotional flyer) who is dropped off in a jungle and has to shoot and grenade his way through enemy territory.

It had two sequels: Mercs (aka Senjō no Ōkami 2), released in 1989, and Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3, released in 2008. Both sequels featured cooperative play for up to three players.

Not to be confused with Ōkami, the similarly-named flash game series or the World War II strategy games. Or the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.

Compare with Ikari Warriors, SNK's own take on the concept.

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Tropes used in Commando and its sequels:

• Anti-Frustration Features: The final boss mission in Mercs lets you try again after failing once, for free.
  FINAL MISSION FAILED, NO BONUS
  ATTACK AGAIN
• Attract Mode: The original game is one of the very few arcade games made in the 1980s to not have a demo mode. It goes from the title screen, to the high score screen, to the "Player" screen (which shows your character's sprite, plus the point values needed to get an extra life), and back again.
• Bullet Hell: Sometimes. Having enemies fire steady streams of bullets on you can't be easy to avoid.
• Excuse Plot: You're dropped down in a battlefield and kill everyone.
• Mooks, but no Bosses: In the first game, each section ends with a red uniformed general ordering his soldiers to attack, but he goes down in one shot just like all of the others. The second game, Mercs, adds some formal boss battles, though.
• More Dakka: When you get your hands on mounted machine guns or anti-aircraft guns.
• Nintendo Hard: One man versus the entire army—and they can kill you pretty easily.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Both you and your enemies. Averted in Mercs, where you have a health bar and can take a few hits before dying.
• One-Man Army: Even if you don't succeed, you'll have killed most of the Russian/unnamed African nation's army.
• Secret Underground Passage: The NES version adds hidden rooms you can find by throwing grenades into the right spots. Many of them have power-ups as well as POWs to rescue, but a few are trap rooms that you need to waste grenades finding the exit before you die from poison gas.
• Tank Goodness: Tanks are encountered throughout the series. You can even drive one in Mercs.

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