Developer: Arcade Zone Publisher: Poppo Release: 02/10/95 Genre: Beat em up
I have mentioned that the beat em up genre was over saturated in the early 90s. Trust me it is true. But despite the glut of titles I still generally still enjoyed the genre, even the awful ones to an extent. Legend is a mid-generation SNES beat em up that no one noticed. I wish I could say it was an underrated gem but it is not. The game was ridiculously hard and repetitive but man oh man, the art made you wish the game were better. Clearly the developers, Arcade Zone, had talent. They simply needed to button up the gameplay in their titles. Sadly Iron Commando, their second stab at the genre has a lot of the same flaws as its predecessor. With a few gameplay tweaks this could have been good.
Iron Commando was released only in Japan which is odd as it was developed in England. What little story and dialogue there is could have been translated by an intern in an afternoon. A meteorite falls to Earth, leaving heavy radioactivity in its wake. A team of scientists send in the Iron Commando field team to destroy it before it causes further damage. However a terrorist organization known as G.H.O.S.T. are also after it as well and the chase is on.
By 1995 the beat em up genre had hit an all-time high in terms of gameplay. Games like Streets of Rage 3, Denjin Makai, and Final Fight 3 are mechanically excellent and give you plenty of options to pound thugs in to the pavement. Iron Commando is a disappointment in that regard. Outside of your basic three hit combo and a jump kick you can only throw or knee bash enemies. The difference between both characters is so minor it is not worth discussing. To make up for this weapons drop constantly. Bats, pistols, Tommy guns, and a shotgun drop from almost every enemy to make up for the lacking move set. But as exciting as it sounds the game has far bigger problems that items cannot fix.
It only takes a few minutes to see the issues present in Iron Commando. Even the most basic enemy takes far too long to kill. Unloading a full pistol clip will only bring them slightly close to death. Shotguns are barely any better and you have to contend with the slow reload as well. The game feels like it was never play tested. Enemy waves come in groups of three or four and it is painful. If the game had some semblance of balance to be tolerable it would be pretty cool. This is one of the longer titles in the genre and it moves from one set piece to another. There are few overly long vehicle stages to break up the action and some levels feature hazards to help deal with enemies. But it is too bad the effort to imbue the game with variety goes to waste.
Iron Commando is frustratingly difficult as you can imagine from what I have described. Not only are basic enemies tough but they are aggressive as well. They are experts at staying out of reach of your attacks and trading damage. One or two will always hang back to hit you from behind which is damn near unavoidable. You will lose a few lives during the few boss battles which is par for the course with this genre but feels egregiously bad here. They don’t even refill your health between levels. Tackling this one in two-player coop or cheating feels mandatory to reach the end, such as it is. I am ragging on the game but not out of hate. It is obvious that serious work was put in to the game but that all too important last minute polish is lacking and it shows.
The one reason most pay attention to Iron Commando is because of its graphics. Just like Legend the art is fantastic. The sprites are some of the largest in the genre on the SNES and insanely detailed. More importantly even when four or five enemies crowd the screen it never slows down. The game does not rest on its laurels as you go on a cross country trip to chase down the meteor. Every new setting brings a unique set of enemies as well which most brawlers cannot claim. With its bone crunching sound effects and decent music Iron Commando is almost the total package. Too bad the game attached to these high production values is not better.
In Closing
Iron Commando is a beautiful but frustrating mess. The graphics are incredible but the gameplay does not rise to the same standard. Cheap hits, unbalanced difficulty, and subpar mechanics make for a lackluster experience. I can kind of see why this one never left Japan.
