Title: Iron Commando
Where is it? On the PIKO Collection 1
What is it? A tough as teak scrolling beat 'em up with hidden depths
if I was to tell you that this game is tough, you'd probably nod your head and say 'whatever,' because you've played difficult games before. But this is something different. Never has a game been more aptly named than Iron Commando, two things that are famed for being exceptionally tough. Upon booting up the game for the first time you're greeted with nice chunky sprites not unlike Final Fight, but there is no warm up. You're swarmed by enemies from all sides almost straight away and it becomes readily apparent that it's kill or be killed. It's fortunate then that the Iron Commando has a few tricks up his sleeve then. For starters there's his special attack which sees him leap into the air before raining down grenades on his foes. This is not as fatal as you'd think, but it does level up the playing field somewhat if you're on the wrong end of a beating , and you will be.
But there's also the fact that fallen enemies leave weapons in their wake, from knives to baseball bats to shotguns, and you'll need them because combat is nothing short of attritional. For the record, it's also fun, there's nothing as satisfying in the world of gaming as beating a level that seems impossible, but I got more than I bargained for when I decided to review this game. I'm certainly a little greyer. Thank goodness then, as I readied myself for another unrelenting beating, for the vehicle levels. Make no mistake, they're still as tough as old boots, but they add a new dimension to the game, and make it more than the Final Fight clone that I thought it was.
If you can handle the difficulty level (even Easy is Hard) then there's a lot to be liked here. Though there're many of these kinds of games in the world of gaming, particularly from Capcom, there're much fewer in the world of Evercade so you could do a lot worse than to give it a try.
7/10