A Howling Good Time with Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3

Both the Xbox Live Marketplace and the Playstation Store
have seen a slew of twin-stick shooters. Two Assault Heroes games, two Mutant
Storm titles, Geometry Wars, Smash TV, and Super Stardust HD are just a few
examples of the titles that fit into this popular genre. Recently, Capcom and
developer Backbone Entertainment released Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3,
a sequel to the seminal arcade title, which uses the classic control scheme.

Players control one of three selectable characters with the
left stick, while firing in 360 degrees with the right. The right bumper throws
grenades, while the left trigger destroys all infantry units around the player.
The controls become instinctual after just a few minutes of play, and hark back
to a time when game control and was refreshingly simplistic. Although the control scheme should be familiar to players, WoB: Commando 3 offers enough excitement in its gameplay to attract twin stick veterans.

Enemy bullet speeds, numbers and trajectories rarely feel
unfair, forcing the player to be constantly moving. Although the AI has the
tendency to repawn, your character is given enough firepower to turn this
threat into a minor inconvenience. Boss encounters give the player an overhead
view of the action, and recreate the feel of classic shmup perfectly.  WoB: Commando 3 doesn’t give players the ability to
continue, until players destroy the final boss.

Graphically, the game’s models look sharp and contain enough
polygons to seem fully realized. However, the game does show sporadic drops in
framerate as the title seems to load in new data. A constant framerate of 60
fps would have helped the game measurably. We appreciated the comic book
stylings which closely resemble the recent Penny Arcade Adventures game,
thematically.

Players have the option of online or offline co-op play with
up to two other players. While we had a bit of difficulty finding other gamers to
play with, once we found our fellow liberators, being online was a relatively
lag-free experience, although a bit chaotic with the amount of on-screen
mayhem.

Fans of old-school arcade action will want to at least
download and try the demo that is on both the Marketplace and Playstation
Store. While the game isn’t quite as polished as we would have liked, we still
had a very enjoyable time clearing the virtual battlefields of all enemies.

Final Grade: B

As a further incentive for 360 owners, purchasers of WoB:
Commando 3 will be able to download the Super Street Fighter II HD Remix on
June 25^th. We recently contacted Tim Ng, Associate PR Manager for
Capcom Entertainment to answer a few questions about the beta:

Tech-Gaming: Will the beta have single
player or is it multiplayer only?
Tim Ng: On and offline multiplayer
only.  There is no single player.

T-G:
We know the art has been redrawn by Udon; have additional frames of animation
been included, or for playability has the number of animations remained
constant?
Ng: There are no new additional frames,
so the frame rate, animation, and gameplay timing will all remain the same.
 But, there we are adding a few moves, such as Ryu’s fake fireball, that
use existing frames.

T-G: What is the native resolution of
the game?
Ng: 1080p.

T-G: Any connectivity features with the
upcoming SF4?

Ng: Unfortunately no.

Thanks Tim, for your time!