Iron Commando (SNES)

Today I want to drag you into Werdito’s strange penchant for Arcade Zone’s game. This time it’s Iron Commando (1994) for SNES.

There’s not much thing on this main menu screen except black void background, red crosshair and a meteor. The meteor is related to the story though. The new game selection is on the bottom while the most top selection is to choose the number of player (1 or 2). Much like another Arcade Zone’s game on SNES: Legend. I talked about it a bit while reviewing Legend on PS 1. Knowing how hard Legend is even in normal difficulty, I change the difficulty to easy. I have a feeling this game and Legend has bad difficulty.     

The story is meteor flies in on earth. Scientists discovered that it’s radioactive and it must be destroyed. I wonder if anything radioactive should be destroyed, why people don’t destroy radioactive waste from the beginning? Actually, I know the main point of the answer. It’s because radioactive waste can’t be destroyed easily.

However, some terrorist organization called G.H.O.S.T. want the meteor for some vague reason that most likely evil. World conquest or something. It’s up to the -titular- Iron Commando to stop the nefarious G.H.O.S.T. terrorist. My brain keeps thinking of Sega’s tactical railgun shooter: Ghost Squad which is ironic because one is terrorist organization and the other is anti-terrorist squad.   

Here's the Iron Commando. Unlike Legend, I get to choose who I play as. Wait a second! Choose your warrior is what the narration said at Sony Playstation version of Legend. Also, we don’t get to know stats of playable character’s like in that Legend. I don’t want to pick the generic looking hero so I choose the Iron Commando on right although the bloke doesn’t have shotgun in this screen. Any firearm weapon will be useful, I reckon. 

Your chosen Iron Commando will descend from chute that previously covered with “Arcade Zone” advertisement sign then land directly under the street light. Awesome! Spy_positivevocalization03.wav

Obviously, those scoundrels from G.H.O.S.T. don’t like the idea of Iron Commando to retrieve the radioactive meteor from them. So, we fight. Those knife-wielding bandits name Tino, that probably relatable to Italian Mafia. However, I can’t take their name seriously because it’s similar to the name of Indonesian artist: Tino Sidin. I used to have illustration book of his art that encourage me to draw comic.

Anyway, do you notice some similarity in this game to other side-scrolling beat em up game? If you don’t, let me help you.   

The Punisher (Arcade)

This is screenshot from Marvel’s The Punisher the arcade game made by Capcom, which hopefully get remastered in this year along with Marvel versus Capcom collection. You see that bald thug (named Leon) then compare him to Tino in previous screenshot. See what I mean? Even though Tino hold the knife in opposite hand of Leon’s.

If Legend on SNES, is homage/adaptation of Sega’s Golden Axe. Then clearly, Iron Commando, is homage homage/adaptation of Marvel’s The Punisher! The urban setting. The usage of firearm and grenade. They’re pretty similar. Also, some sprite is traced from the Capcom’s game. I won’t say rip from, because Arcade Zone does some creative change on the sprites and not just straight copy.   

I do believe, I get this tommy gun from these knife-wielding bandit. The enemy’s loot is random much like in Legend. No wonder these thugs resort to use knife because the sub-machine gun only has 5 bullets, barely useful. Lame!

The control as follows: d-pad to move around the plane. Y button to punch or use weapon. B button to jump. Pressing Y button when jump, The Iron Commando does jumping kick. I always complaint with this kind of configuration. Why attack and jump button is not within horizontal line? I know it’s pretty common in any SNES game but I just find it tedious. Or because I’m used to control layout of Arcade and/or Sega Genesis.

I encounter pistol-wielding thug. I happen to have a handgun but the ammo is 1. I like there’s ammo indicator near health bar. It’s pretty handy to have.

I also get shotgun and it also has 5 ammos. Why every gun that I get has 5 ammos? Luckily there’s spare ammo that I can pick nearby. I just press attack button near it and…I fire my shotgun. This is because to pick any item near the Iron Commando, I have to press X button and not attack button (Y). I need some time to justify pressing other button than attack button to pick item. On the other hand, the “item pick up” button is pretty intuitive to use. It’s just me who have played dozens Beat em Up game, need to adapt to this unusual feature.

Suddenly, I get hit by truck from foreground. Soldier_negativevocalization05.wav 

The truck has health so it’s enemy that I have to beat. It spawns endless supply of knife wielder. It’s kind of hard to hit the truck if it’s shy from moving farther into the stage. Also, I don’t have metal pipe that Mike Haggar used to break a car in Final Fight.

I finally beat the truck. It was not easy feat. Then 3 oil drums fall from the sky which contain Tommy gun, a grenade, and an apple. I can safely say that this game is genuine side scrolling beat em up ones because it contains oil drums. As far as I know, there’s only 1 kind of healing item and that’s the apple which barely heal you. It only fills your health bar by 20% or so. As for the grenade, we will talk about it later. Like very shortly.

To use the grenade, I have to jump and then press A button. The method is quite close to The Punisher game but it requires both attack and jump button pressed instead of 1 special button. So, it’s 100% more efficient to do, I guess. However, the damage that the grenades deal is pretty minuscule even though the duration of the bombing is pretty long and those awesome burning sprites which is taken from either The Punisher game or Street Fighter 2. After several step from this area, the stage just abruptly ends without any end of level boss like in other game. I guess the developer just settled with the sub-boss truck for the first level.  

Now, we’re at harbor and immediately attacked by dogs. My punch will sail pass through them so I need weapon to defeat them. Fortunately, I have this shotgun. This is not the first time I fire shotgun at dogs in beat em up game. I did that in Konami’s Vendetta although the time for pumping animation takes twice longer than in Vendetta.

There’s unarmed enemy who’s excels at charging at you strongly. What do you do with this kind of enemy? You jump kick at him, right? The thing is your jumping kick -somehow- has lower priority than the stupid charging move, so you end up getting hurt yourself. You think jumping kick can be safe method to defeat enemy like in any Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game, but in Iron Commando’s case you will hurt yourself if you do jump kick at enemies. Not everytime, mind you. It only happens if you jump kick at enemy who’s attacking. The speed of jumping kick can catch enemy off guard though.

Besides firearms and knife, you can also find baseball bat from enemy’s loot. Certainly not ranged weapon but it provides you with extra range. I like the ammo count becomes fist icon to indicate the weapon’s durability. If your Iron Commando has weapon in hand and enemies are too close, he will jab as like when he doesn’t have any weapon. This may useful to conserve ammo but right now he has baseball bat. I prefer he use the goddamn bat because it can hit multiple enemies and deal bit more damage than his fist. It’s like The Punisher, when Frank Castle or Nick Fury is in gun mode. They can punch enemy nearby instead of using their gun. It’s executed fast and intuitively. But Iron Commando does it sluggishly plus there’s no gun mode outside using gun looted from enemies which only has 5 ammo.

As we delve further into G.H.O.S.T warehouse, we find automatic lift and it goes up without Chang on it. It doesn’t come back down afterward. This is the first time I play Beat em Up game that can softlock me! Good thing I saved state before this moment. Wait a moment, please.

After walk on the lift just in time then, walking farther and more beating G.H.O.S.T terrorists…

Finally, we have our first end of level boss…in 2nd level! Big Tom is big and also use knife on each hand. He like to stab Iron Commando with it or throw it from afar. My jumping kick can be interrupted with his knife stab but it’s more believable because he points the knife slightly upward.    

 

The perfect time for your jumping kick to connect is when Tom throwing his knife. You can bait him to do that by walking away from him the. immediately turn around, jump, then kick him right in his bald head. He frequently breaks you combo with his double knife thrust, so my jumping kick strategy is more reliable to defeat Tom than usual attack combo.  

 

I defeat Tom but G.H.O.S.T manage to escape with the meteor which tucked in the back of that truck. However, Chang Li says he will chase them with motorcycle. There’s still hope!

 

Wow! I didn’t expect motorcycle section in this game, really. Good news: I have Uzi with unlimited ammo. Bad news: The clip only contains 5 bullets and I have to stop using it very frequently to let the sub-machine gun refill the ammo. If you excuse me…WHAT THE HECK IS THIS UZI???? Commonly, Uzi’s magazine contains 32 Parabellum bullets. 5 ammo is just one eighth plus 1 of the actual ammo capacity! Meanwhile Erik over there can casually spray me with bullets without need to pause! Heavy_jeers03.wav

 

Someone put oil barrels for me to run over for extra score. Thanks, I guess?

 

Then a boulder crashes my bike. Game over! Engineer_paincrticialdeath06.wav

 

Lucky there’s continue. I don’t see remaining continue. The number I can see only countdown timer. So I guess I have unlimited continue?

 

I switch my Iron Commando to Jack and he’s not controlled differently than Chang. Eventually, I reach road section filled with bottles of oil. I thought G.H.O.S.T. terrorists hurt my Iron Commando directly and not his motorbike. Nevertheless, the oil bottles replenish Iron Commando’s health in this level. I notice that Jack’s life reserve can increase if he picks oil exceed his health bar! Finally, some gracious feature in the game where it’s mostly filled with tedious oddity!

Jack travel through some tunnel where there’s lots of strange piece of metal can be picked up. Turns out, it’s (supposed to be) magazine that can extend Uzi capacity! Another great feature.

We almost catch up with the truck but it keeps chucking endless supply of charging men. I can dodge them by moving to the sides but I can’t shoot at the truck if I do that. It seems there’s not much opportunity to defeat this truck safely because the thugs spawn every second.  

 

Finally, I destroy the tailgate to reveal Sam. I shouldn’t worry about the meteor whereabouts within the truck for now because Sam gives me serious business by chucking wooden barrel at me periodically. Sam reminds me that guy at tavern in Legend who fight with barrel. However, Sam is more difficult to defeat because he’s on the back of the truck and I have to shoot him at correct height on my jump otherwise bullets only get into the truck. I’m very impressed with Jack’s ability to do wheelie jump 8 meters (26.2467 feet) high, but it’s not helping in this section because his jump is too high to facilitate my aim at Sam accurately.

 

In rather shocking twist, Jack decides to ride in front of the truck after killing Sam. Sure. You can aim at truck’s engine this way but when the truck charges forward there’s nothing you can do to dodge it, Jack. I try the high jump but it doesn’t make Jack dodge the truck’s charge. Eventually, the truck explodes after receiving tons of bullets. Maybe try using Colt Monitor/Browning Automatic rifle next time, Jack! Bonnie & Clyde never saw that coming.  

Now we return to usual beat em up action at the forest stage which is -For the love of God!- the copied part of 5th stage of The Punisher! This forest level introduces us with Tom who’s armed with rifle and he doesn’t shy to use it. Always bring rifle to fistfight, reader.  

 

Snake. Why did have to be snake?

I mean seriously. I can’t punch these slithering bastards no matter how hard I try because they’re too small. You can punch them when they’re jumping at you but it’s hard to do. Then I remember I can chuck grenade and it works perfectly against them. Using grenade on snake seems excessive but it’s Jack’s fault not having common sense that he can stomp or kick snake instead of swinging his fist at empty air.

 

There’s also Tina who joins G.H.O.S.T just want to put her blade/machete into Iron Commando’s body and she did it. She manages to kill me and I have to use another continue. Although my health is critical because I encountered lots of snake before this screen and I forgot to use my grenades.

 

In this valley section, some rocks slide down and I have to avoid it. Hold up! This section reminds me of another Capcom’s game that also based on American Comic: Cadillac and Dinosaurs. Also, Jack’s outfit has the same color with Mustapha’s one of playable character in CaD. Scout_sf13_magic_reac03.wav  

 

Once again, the jungle level just abruptly ends like in the city level. Now, I end up in a Lost Temple filled with G.H.O.S.T. bandit and uhm…some Mesoamerican cosplayer named Quetzoal, not Quetzalcoatl? These cosplayers armed with spear pose less threat than blokes with rifle, naturally. I assume they’re just pretend to be Mesoamerican so they can trick Iron Commander into pulling his punch because he respects Mesoamerican beautiful civilization. Unlucky for them, I don’t pull any punch toward anything in side scroller beat em up game. Whether they’re oil drums, Mad Gear gang, Cao Cao’s army, terrorists, pirates, evil poachers, or Xenomorphs.

 

Suddenly, I get hit by a vicious Inca’s trap. I wish push wall trap in Kagero is this big and powerful. Hazard or trap in beat em up game is quite rare, I give some credit to Arcade Zone for the creativity. But this is way to obnoxious. First, this spiked wall is too big! Second, it attacks diagonally. So -as you can see-, there’s barely safe spot. On the other hand, enemies can get hit by this trap.

 

These spike pits are easy to dodge. Just jump over them. But enemies can’t jump so they’re sucker to this ancient simple trap. I notice one of those “Mesoamerican” drops handgun when dies. See? They’re fake.

 

Like the spike pit, the fire pit is easy to avoid. But I like this trap more because I’m pyro.

 

Then I enter this secret chamber and fighting Huaco who’s Ghost Rider but using bomb instead of chain and motorcycle. This boss fight is pretty enjoyable. It reminds me rare enjoyable moment in Legend where I kick flying wizard and dragon.

 

But I realize too late that spiked wall on the left side slowly moving. Eventually, it stuck there and not pushing me further into those spike pit. It’s quite mercy, really. Although fighting Huaco becomes more tedious because the safe spot becomes very narrow.

 

After defeating Huaco, I’m in mine cart level armed with the weak Uzi. This level immediately reminds me of 2nd of Cutthroat Island which is bad side-scroller slash em up based on old pirate movie that I recently know. This is bad omen.     

 

It’s bad level especially when this enemy just spray dozens of bullets and stunlocking me. I can barely do anything against him. I remind you that my Uzi only has 5 bullets capacity which is irrelevantly small. Game over.

What the freak! I can’t continue anymore. So, 3 continues and that’s it? I was very disappointed to this game even though I want to like it. I try search hack version of this game that hopefully provide me with unlimited ammo but to no avail. But I learn the fact that Iron Commando is unreleased game. Maybe I have to accept that the game is unwinnable because it’s unfinished. I really want to like the game but if it’s unwinnable, I have no choice to give up and call it here.

But then…

Turns out there’s level select in option menu. It’s currently highlighted with the cursor arrow. I thought it as music player. Silly me, duh. To be fair, level select isn’t usually on option menu near music setting. At least that’s what I learn from my experience. Strangely you can choose to go to "The End" which is just epilogue screen. So, with level select, I can continue my beating em up in this game. I hoped for unlimited continue but level select is certainly helpful to finish the game. Although the levels are slightly not in proper order like The Beach is before The Mine. I do believe The mine is where I left off so on to The Beach!

The Beach

 

There’s mine’s exit at the start of this level so my theory is correct. This level ramps up the difficulty by introducing enemies armed with Avtomat Kalashnikova rifle. Their name is Fidelio, which is certainly not parody of Fidel Castro. [Medium-sized Sarcasm]

Sometime there’s wind blowing which push me to either left or right.

 

The boss is Sgt Gunner who is Ward Zabac from Final Fantasy 8, that finally snapped out. Realized that fighting with anchor is tediously stupid and use light machine gun for better combat efficiency. He shots a lot. Straight of on the ground. You name it. He can also boot you out if you get too close. I can’t defeat him so I decide to go back to option menu and move in to next level.  

 

The jeep driver on the background of boss fight: Zhe Guevaro, somehow willing to give us a ride. Even passing through his Fidelio friends.

 

It was relatively smooth ride until we encounter a combat chopper, that can shoot machine gun rapidly, launch missile, and drop endless supply of vicious Tina. Because I’m on the jeep which is bigger and slower target than motorbike or mine cart, I barely able to dodge any of the chopper’s attack. This is one of nigh impossible boss fight especially when there’s no healing item on the way. Again, I have to skip level.

The Laboratory

 

I know it’s common for later level to have harder difficulty than previous level but this is very ludicrous. There are only enemies armed with gun in this level, which is very unfair in Side Scrolling Beat em up genre. They are Fidelio and Zloxx, guy with alien-shaped head and armed with wavy laser gun. I wish the game implements auto gun mode like in The Punisher. No more Tino and Tina. If you think that’s already unfair, then the level becomes more garbage hard with this section full of laser turrets on the wall. Time to skip the level, again.   

The Robot

 

The boss fight starts in platform and the giant robot appears on the background. Good thing the level starts at elevated platform so I can easily aim at the robot’s head. The giant robot either punch/grab from left/right side or shoots giant laser from his eyes. Luckily, the laser can hurt reinforcement Zloxx.

 

The boss fight is strangely enjoyable and fair. Perhaps because I can jump kick him to my heart content safely. But I have to watch his left or right hand. Sometime I land on his giant eye laser after jumping kick, which is fairly embarrassing. Sniper_jeers02.wav    

 

I have crushed his face really bad so his health won’t get lowered if I keep hitting his face. I have to hit his chest, then. I don’t think there’s other game that allows me to hit giant robot with baseball bat, other than Iron Commando. Scout_cheers03.wav 

 

By defeating the giant robot, I finish the game! How happy I am! There’s no word regarding the meteor on the epilogue text so I assume the meteor is used to fuel the giant robot and it’s destroyed as he’s defeated. I get to give G.H.O.S.T some credit because using Giant Robot to conquer the world, is pretty solid plan? Oh, wait! Their evil plan involved mutation? You lost me, G.H.O.S.T. Unless the giant robot can spread mutation but he doesn’t seem able to do that during the final boss fight. So, beats me.

 

“The Iron Commando Team is very proud to have heroes like you.”

“Now Let’s take a break but we will back for new adventure.”

Then credit rolls and finally ends with picture of the duo: Carlo Perconti & Lyes Belaidouni. The End.

What’s my thought on Arcade Zone’s Iron Commando (1994)? It’s janky and tedious but I’m glad I play it until finish (even though with level select “cheat”). I have seen worse final boss and The Giant Robot is not so bad especially if compared with the rest of the game, ironically. He’s not unfair or awful as other final boss of some beat em up game that I played. The core gameplay is noticeably rough. It’s nigh impossible to deal with enemies safely especially when you’re in riding section. You think you can run over melee enemies with motorcycle/mine cart/ jeep and you are wrong. You still take damage if you run over them which makes less sense. But running over oil drum, is safe though. You can jump during the riding section but it’s cumbersome and makes you can’t move sideway to dodge projectile and stuffs. I will say this over and over again. The freaking useless Uzi is very bad. Very low bullet capacity and damaging power. It’s very not suited with the riding section that’s very relentless.

On to the beat em up section. It’s just bit better. Every enemy especially bosses, is very durable and able to take lots of damage. They also too tough to crack in riding section. Compared to Legend, where the lesser enemies only take 3 hits at most. Whereas in Iron Commando, lesser enemies take like dozen hits. Even with gun! Not only the firearm is weak but also take too long time to press the trigger after pressing the attack button. Tommy gun trigger’s delay probably the shortest but it only contains 5 bullets. Disgusting! It’s not related to gameplay but I like to point out that the shotgun is called “riffle”. Very weird. The healing item is only apple that you can find randomly over dead enemies much like weapons and money bag. But it can only heal 20% of your health bar and it’s very unsuited with the game’s harsh difficulty. Sadly, finishing the level also regain only 20% of your health bar. Again, I make comparison with other Arcade Zone’s game Legend. It has bread as lesser heal item and chicken drumstick as greater heal item. Also you get full health refill after finishing a level. The auto melee when you have weapon is more of annoying than useful. Sure, it can conserve your ammo or weapon’s durability. But the normal attack is weak and sluggish and using any weapon is significantly better. The bosses mostly stronger damage sponge and have attack with higher priority than Iron Commando’s. Although some of them have fair gimmick and provide enjoyable boss fight. Tom wields 2 knives. Huaco is flying and susceptible to flying kick. Lastly, The Giant Robot Golgot 21 (probably parody of Golgo 13) uses his giant hands and eye laser though not in unfair manner. The music is not significant and memorable which kind of sad because I can easily remember 2 music in Legend (the first level and boss fight) and I believe all of those soundtracks are made by same person: Carlo Perconti. They’re not good but enjoyable whereas none music in Iron Commando that I considered likeable. The sound effect is sub-standard but not in very awful level. On the other hand, the graphic is pretty good.

 

I believe Iron Commando (1994) is the last Arcade Zone game on SNES that I review. It’s probably the most unpleasant ones but I’m glad I play the game on to finish. It’s curious case of beat em up game. It tries to be bootleg The Punisher game with some element of Cadillac and Dinosaurs and Warriors of Fate. Jack’s neutral jump and get up animation is traced from Zhang Fei in Warriors of Fate, I believe. My easy solutions to fix the game: 1) Decrease all of enemy’s health. 2) Remove bullet capacity in riding section. 3) Put the unlimited continue. Then the game becomes closer to meet standard quality. As for my recommendation. I’m afraid the game doesn’t deserve one. It’s too tedious even though there’s level select. Maybe just fight the giant robot and be done with it. That’s my only advice, sadly.

Once again. Thank you so much, Carlo Perconti & Lyes Belaidouni!