Captain Commando
Introduction
Captain Commando was developed and published by Capcom for arcades, produced by Yoshiki Okamoto and designed by Akira Yasuda and Junichi Ohno, released on the CP System hardware in late 1991 as the seventeenth game built for that board. The title character has an unusual origin story: Captain Commando began life years earlier as an in-house mascot Capcom’s North American branch used to advertise its NES games between 1986 and 1988, and was largely forgotten until the team developing Capcom’s first four-player beat ’em up rediscovered him and rebuilt the whole game around a redesigned version of the character, reimagined by artist Akira ‘Akiman’ Yasuda in a style closer to American superhero comics. Up to four players choose from Captain Commando and three teammates, Ginzu the Ninja, Mack the Knife, and Hoover the Baby, each with a distinct fighting style and special attack, battling through a sci-fi-tinged crime wave across a series of side-scrolling stages against the villainous Scumocide gang. Its colorful cast, generous four-player co-op, and comic-book presentation made it a standout entry in Capcom’s early-90s run of CP System brawlers, distinct from the studio’s more grounded Final Fight and Captain Commando’s own later crossover appearances.
