Commando - Atari 7800

When you switch this game on, you have to sit through an annoying set of credits for everyone involved in the game (each individual letter shows up onscreen one by one, accompanied by something that I guess is supposed to sound like gunfire).

Of course, it can't be skipped and it's highly annoying. After that though, you're in vertical screen-scrolling soldier shooting heaven. Similar to Ikari Warriors, the objective is to gun everyone down and save the hostages as you go. Unlike Ikari Warriors, the bad guys have a distinctive death animation (unlike the stupid twirly thing they do in Ikari which tends to muddy exactly who died and who didn't). However, you can only throw your hand grenades straight ahead here which is extremely aggravating (could you throw them in any direction in the Commando arcade game? I can't remember).

The action is a little more fast paced than Ikari, but there can be a fair bit of slowdown if you're not sparing with your shooting. I like that you can pick up a knife and not immediately die if you touch a bad guy, but the endlessly spawning soldiers that attack from the sides as you're trying to navigate a tricky set of bad guys hiding behind walls and in ditches can be frustrating.

Oh, the music is good too which is always a bonus. This can be somewhat hard to get hold of, but if you see it for sale I'd definitely snap it up. A great shooter.

Score: 4/5