Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3

(Capcom for Xbox Live Arcade)
By Mike Delano

You’re forgiven if you’re a little hesitant to open up your wallet for another top-down Mercs-style shooter from Capcom on the heels of the underwhelming Rocketmen: Axis of Evil from a few months ago. But Commando has a legacy to uphold, and Wolf of the Battlefield does just that. It succeeds by way of blunt force trauma: The game’s breathless, bullet-frenzied action whizzes by in a flash, leaving little time for nitpicking along the way. That’s as it should be for an Xbox Live Arcade action title. The immediate jolt is what you’re looking for, and Wolf delivers. That rush comes at the expense of particularly memorable environments or characters (or weaponry, for that matter), but at its core, it’s a pick-up-and-play game, and its core mechanics are strong.

Using one analog stick for movement and the other for firing favors frantic, wanton destruction over precision, but any other way would just slow things down. Similarly fast is the beta for the soon-to-be-released Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, which all owners of Wolf receive free access to. Was the game really that blazing fast back in the arcade? Yikes! It’s bound to get your heart rate up, although this time around, you won’t need to pull your quarter off of the arcade cabinet if you need to sit out a tournament bracket or two.
(www.capcom.com)