Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Capcom Generation: Dai 4 Shū – Kokō no Eiyū delivers three classic top-down shooters—Commando, Gun.Smoke and Mercs—in one collection. Each game preserves its original arcade mechanics, offering a pure, unadulterated run-and-gun experience. In Commando, you charge through enemy territory, blasting foes with your standard rifle while dodging artillery fire. The simplicity of its one-button shooting and eight-way movement makes it instantly accessible yet endlessly challenging.

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Gun.Smoke shifts the setting to the Old West, introducing a vertical-scroll battlefield where your horse and quick draw are essential. The rail-shooter approach forces you forward while bandits and outlaws appear from all sides. Collecting weapon upgrades and managing limited ammunition adds a layer of strategy—deciding whether to grab a shotgun spread or a high-power revolver can mean the difference between survival and starting over.

Mercs, the third entry, ramps up the pace with modern military hardware and multiple selectable characters. Co-op play—if you have a second controller—allows two players to join forces, coordinating bomb clears and covering fire to tackle heavily fortified strongholds. The introduction of vehicle segments, such as battle tanks and jeeps, breaks up the infantry assaults and keeps the gameplay varied across its lengthy mission structure.

Overall, the responsiveness of the controls across all three titles is impressive for a retro compilation. Capcom has retained the original arcade timing, meaning enemy patterns and spawn points remain faithfully reproduced. While modern players might bristle at the steep difficulty spikes, this collection stays true to its coin-op roots: it’s about memorizing patterns, perfecting your reflexes and striving for high scores.

Graphics

Graphically, the collection is a testament to Capcom’s 8-bit and 16-bit mastery. Commando’s lush jungle palettes and detailed soldier sprites look crisp, with only the occasional slowdown when the screen fills with grenades and explosions. The pixel art retains its vibrancy, and the character animations—such as the recoil frames when you fire your weapon—add a charming graininess that nostalgia buffs will adore.

In Gun.Smoke, the dusty desert backgrounds and wooden frontier towns are rendered in warm earth tones, punctuated by bright muzzle flashes and flashy power-ups. The sprite scaling during boss encounters, though simple by modern standards, effectively conveys a sense of looming threat. The parallax layers, while subtle, provide depth to saloon rooftops and distant mesas.

Mercs ups the ante with larger sprites and more complex animations. Explosions light up the screen in vibrant oranges and yellows, and the variety of enemy vehicles—from APCs to attack helicopters—showcases a surprisingly wide palette of metallic grays and olive drab tones. Special effects like the screen-centered bomb blast in co-op mode still manage to feel impactful, despite the limited resolution.

On modern displays, the upscaling is managed cleanly, with optional scanline filters to approximate CRT softness. There’s virtually no glitching or artifacting, and the transition between games is instantaneous. For purists, Capcom even includes a brief dip switch–style menu to toggle “official” arcade settings, ensuring that pixel positioning and color palettes remain as the developers intended.

Story

Storytelling in these shooters is minimal but serviceable, reflecting arcade conventions of the late ’80s. Commando casts you as Super Joe, a lone operative tasked with rescuing prisoners of war. The plot is relayed through brief inter-mission cutscenes and text screens, emphasizing urgency and raw action over character depth. It’s a straightforward premise that keeps the focus on frenetic gameplay.

Gun.Smoke presents a bounty-hunter narrative: you’re Billy Bob, gunning down outlaws who’ve terrorized dusty frontier towns. Each level ends with a wanted poster or a quick nod to the next villain’s lair. The story’s Wild West tropes—saloon showdowns, stagecoach ambushes—are conveyed visually rather than through dialogue, but the thematic cohesion makes each stage feel like its own mini-western chapter.

Mercs offers a slightly more developed context: a renegade general has seized power in a small nation, and your PMC team is sent in to liberate hostages and topple his regime. Again, text screens bookend missions, and occasional splash art hints at deeper motivations. While you won’t find cinematic cutscenes or branching plotlines, there is a clear progression from rural skirmishes to high-tech compounds, giving a satisfying sense of scale.

Across all three titles, the light narrative framework serves to justify your run-and-gun actions and to vary environments from jungles to deserts to urban strongholds. It’s not Shakespeare, but it doesn’t need to be—these games are about the catharsis of constant forward momentum and the thrill of narrowly escaping a hail of bullets.

Overall Experience

Capcom Generation: Dai 4 Shū – Kokō no Eiyū is a nostalgic treasure trove for fans of classic arcade shooters. The compilation offers exceptional value if you’re seeking rapid-fire action and retro charm, all bundled into a single package. The faithful emulation and optional display filters show respect for the source material, while the immediate pick-up-and-play design means you can jump right into the carnage without wading through tutorials.

Replayability is high—each game features branching paths, hidden power-ups and scoring mechanics that reward mastery. Grinding for extra lives in Commando, perfecting weapon switches in Gun.Smoke or coordinating co-op bomb drops in Mercs will keep even seasoned players engaged for hours. The challenge remains steep, but that’s part of the appeal: every run feels earned.

If you’re new to retro shooters, be prepared for a learning curve. Lives are finite, continues may be scarce, and boss patterns can be unforgiving. However, the sheer variety—three games with distinct themes and pacing—ensures you never grow tired of one formula. You can switch between a jungle rescue mission, a western bounty hunt and a military strike force at will.

Ultimately, this volume of the Capcom Generation series stands as a robust celebration of Capcom’s early arcade prowess. It may lack modern conveniences like save states or extensive lore, but for purists and newcomers alike, it offers a distilled, adrenaline-fuelled experience that laid the groundwork for countless shooters to follow. Whether you’re chasing high scores or reliving arcade hall glory days, Kokō no Eiyū delivers fast, focused fun from start to finish.

Retro Replay Score

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