While it was nothing really all that special whatsoever, as well as its severe case of arcade syndrome, the original Commando by Capcom was a decent enough game. It made for a good amount of fun, going around, shooting up every single other enemy soldier that wasn’t me, dodging what feels like an infinite amount of gunfire at every turn, and taking down plenty of big bad bosses along the way. But again, you wouldn’t think that a game like that would really lead to anything more, given how generic it is compared to others at the time, and yet, it ended up spawning a little series that would get a handful of titles sparingly overtime, such as five years after the original, where we would get the sequel NOT called Commando 2, but instead called Mercs. Like with the original game, Mercs really isn’t anything all too special, especially for the time it came out, but when compared to the original game, it is an improvement in just almost every way, and I would say it is pretty good for a short arcade title. I wouldn’t say it is a game that you NEED to play immediately, but it is one of the better titles from Capcom’s arcade days.

The story is about three big buff manly men going to save the president in an African country after being kidnapped by an apartheid government, which is definitely the most 90s action-movie/game plot that I have ever heard, so it works for this game, the graphics are pretty good, being an improvement over the original game, but they aren’t really all that special when paired alongside other games of that era, the music gives off just the right vibes to fight alongside this classic action arcade setting, so it works in all the right areas, the control is pretty simple, yet it works well enough, with no noticeable issues to be found, and the gameplay is very basic for the time it came out, but it is a substantial improvement to what came before it, and it can be a pretty fun time with the right people.

The game is your typical run and gun game, where you take control of either Joseph Gibson, Howard Powell, or Thomas Clarke, which have got to be the most generic-ass names ever for the most generic Contra-wannabes I have ever seen, go through a set of six levels through various standard locations that you would expect to see from this type of game, take out as many of the endless enemy soldiers as you can, gather plenty of powerups, health items which can actually increase your health bar, and weapons to help you out along the way, and take on plenty of standard bosses for this type of game that will put your skills to the test in seeing how much arcade bullshit you can dodge at once. We have heard this same song and dance time and time again, so there is nothing new that we can add to it, but what we can add is that, again, compared to the original Commando, this is a much better game.

The original game was very basic, where you just had your simple, puny gun, and you shot down everybody with little to no variety thrown in. It worked well enough, but thankfully this game brought the series back up to where it should be with the amount of powerups and variation that you have in this game. You get access to several weapons to choose from, such as a flamethrower, a machine gun, rockets, and a spread gun, with each of them upgrading quite a bit as you collect powerups to upgrade them. In addition to this, you also get bombs that you can use to give you an advantage over enemies, especially bosses, and throughout plenty of levels, you do get access to several vehicles to drive and cause destruction with, such as a car with a turret on it, a boat with a turret on it, the… turret by itself, which isn’t a vehicle, but you get the idea, and even a motherthumping TANK! Yeah, this stuff may not sound like much if you are familiar with the run and gun genre, but not only does this make this game much more appealing when compared to the previous, but it also separates itself from others with its top-down perspective, and anyone who is new to the run and gun genre would probably be able to jump in and have a blast with it… if they can get past the difficulty. But hey, unlike the original game, you do get a health bar, so you don’t die in one hit, so that should help things out.

Unfortunately though, this game does carry over a problem from the original that isn’t really made all that better here: the arcade syndrome. There will be plenty of moments where there is too much shit happening on screen, and you are given very little time to properly maneuver around their fire and fire back at them, which does suck. I get it, it is a game from 1990, but they couldn’t have at least eased up just a little bit in the five years since the original game? And not only that, but really, when compared to every other run and gun game at the time, again, it is pretty generic. All of the features that this game offers has been served up in much better packages before and since, so there really isn’t any reason that you need to jump into this one immediately, unless you were a big fan of the original and you wanted to see where the series progressed from there.

Overall, despite its unoriginality and its case of arcade syndrome it just can’t shake, Mercs is a pretty damn good sequel to the original Commando, and as a game on its own, it can be pretty fun to play, especially if you have two buddies to help you along the way. I would recommend it for those who are big fans of the run and gun genre, but for anyone else who couldn’t care less for the genre, you will probably find better choices elsewhere. Besides, it’s not like this game is gonna get a sequel or anything like that…. certainly not one made after 18 years of nothing………. definitely one of the most random retro revivals that I have ever seen.

Game #359

This is easily the most boring capcom IP that Sega's in-house team brought to genesis, and yet it has the most polish and new content of any of them, what the FUCK were they doing.

The arcade original is ported over well but the highlight is the new scenario with remixed levels and stat progression. You swap between 5 recruited soldiers and each one has their own life bar ala Shadow Blasters. Lose 'em all and it's game over. It's fun to immediately build up one team member to max power and speed, then totally sweep.

Every tank enemy is fucking horrible and ruins the game. Their hitboxes are somehow impossible to read despite being giant ass tanks, it's like you have to hit a weak point located on another weak point. They deal obscene damage back to you and the trajectory of their fire is really inconsistent. They throw a bunch at you as early as stage 2 in arcade mode and they were a big enough pain in the ass to make me drop it years ago.

Glad I returned to this but damn if only this treatment was given to ANY other capcom gig. Coulda put captain commando or fuckin, three wonders on this shit. maybe give three wonders a proper third game instead of funny bunny land shenanigans.

Piscou perdeu!

Belos sprites, os soldados, os cenários, os bosses, é isso quê o jogo tem a te oferecer, a dificuldade é a famosa "papa ficha" e ele bem curtinho dependendo da sua habilidade.
É isso, o melhor coisa do jogo é a melhoria visual comparado ao primeiro, e agora se você morrer não é obrigado a voltar do zero, as fichas servem para isso.
Quer jogar os top down shooter da capcom e não está afim de commando ou gun smoke, joga esse, não é a melhor experiência, mas é divertida e curta.

Joguei no CAPCOM Classic Collection de PS2.

Jogo desnecessariamente difícil

Variedade legal de veículos e armas para a época.

Mercs is another arcade port that made its way to Genesis thanks to its System-16 similarity. Few people know about Mercs when compared to its far more popular predecessor, Commando. Whereas the original game is a Capcom classic. The Mega Drive version of Mercs was produced exclusively by Sega for the Mega Drive. Not only did the Mega Drive version include an almost arcade-perfect port of the game; it also featured its own mode, adding features into the game such as secret shops and the ability to swap between its four characters - each wielding their own power-ups and weapons. We can only give Mercs a Play Score of 4 stars due to the port's disappointing lack of a multiplayer mode.