Commando

Commando for the Nintendo Entertainment System is Capcom's 1986 home conversion of its 1985 arcade run-and-gun game, released in Japan as Senjō no Ōkami. The NES game puts the player in control of the lone soldier Super Joe, dropped into hostile territory by helicopter and tasked with fighting through a heavily defended battlefield. Capcom retains the original's urgent overhead viewpoint and military-action premise, while reshaping the game around the hardware and a longer console campaign.

Super Joe moves on foot through vertically scrolling terrain, firing an automatic weapon in the direction he faces while weaving around infantry, gunfire, rivers, trees, bridges, and fortified positions. His regular gun has unlimited ammunition, but grenades are limited and matter just as much: they can clear barriers, strike groups of enemies, and uncover concealed entrances. The control scheme rewards constant movement and careful positioning, since enemies approach from several directions and hazards can restrict a safe route forward.

The NES version expands the hunt for a way through the battlefield with hidden bunkers and underground rooms. Throwing grenades at the right spots can reveal ladders, allowing Joe to enter areas that contain prisoners and useful items. Power-ups include a stronger machine gun, an unlimited-grenade upgrade, and glasses that expose the locations of hidden bunkers. These advantages do not last after a lost life, making the search for secrets part of the game's risk-and-reward rhythm rather than a permanent shortcut.

Each stage ends at an enemy gate or stronghold, where the scrolling stops and Joe must survive a concentrated attack before advancing. Prisoners appear elsewhere in the action and can be rescued for points, while score milestones provide extra lives. Instead of reproducing all eight distinct arcade stages, Commando NES uses four core level designs and revisits them with changes and increased resistance to form a 16-level campaign. That structure gives the cartridge its own pacing and makes the later rounds progressively more demanding.

Commando arrived during Capcom's early NES years, following the company's arcade release of the same game. The original arcade design is credited with helping popularize the military-themed run-and-gun format, and the NES adaptation preserves its central image of one fighter pushing forward against overwhelming numbers. For NES players, the added secret areas and temporary upgrades distinguish this version from the coin-op source while keeping Super Joe's direct, fast-moving battle to escape the war zone at the center of the game.