7. Art
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Art Style
1.1 Mood Analysis
1.2 Super Joe
1.3 Level Art
1.3.1 Level 1-1
1.3.2 Level 1-2
1.3.3 Level 1-3
1.3.4 Level 1-4
1.3.5 Intermissions
1.4 Sprites
Commando's cover
Commando is a bellic videogame that tries to resemble the "Second World War" or "The War of Vietnam" just as Rambo films does. We know this thanks to weapons used by enemies and allies along the game because all of them are pretty similar to the ones used in both real wars. All the plot is located into an enemy base, which is surrounded by mountains, palm trees, grass and, in most of the parts, desert. The character that you reincarnate is called Super Joe and is easy to identify because of the blue uniform that he wears.
Super Joe is a sort of Rambo who is displayed alone into the enemy territory in order to rescue as many allies as posible and kill every single solider who gets in his way. He is a Second World War soldier (or at least he is similar to one of them), armed with a sub-machine gun and some grenades, and he has to kill lots of enemies. Thanks to the intermission sprites we can ensure that he is tall, blond and always wears a blue uniform that contrasts the clarity of his skin.
Super Joe is a super soldier!
Super Joe sprite and the film Rambo
All levels have a pretty similar art style. The whole game is located in an enemy base and as long as you progress into the adventure more enemy structures and different elements from an enemy base are displayed into the battlefield. The colour palette is always the same except for the last level (1-4), where the scenario gets green and darker. In general, colours used are really contrasted. Along the entire game you can enter into many secret rooms.
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In-game footage
The first level starts when an helicopter displays Super Joe alone into the battlefield. This area remembers to a jungle because of the natural elements that you can see along the mission. Despite of that, this first level has some long deserts where you can find one or two small coverage for the enemies (aka barricades) - palms are used for this purpose as well. In different parts of the map there is some grass with a decorative function, and in the bridge that is in the middle of the map there is a motorcycle ridden by an enemy who is throwing grenades at you.
Here you can check the tileset of this area.
In-game footage
In the second area, vegetation disappears and a brown colour invades the map. The map begins with a group of holes which enemies use as a coverage (they are other kind of barricades in which enemies hide). After this part, water appears for the first time in this tileset and once you overpass this river some turrets start to appear into the battlefield. You have to avoid them and pass between some mountains to arrive to the final part of this stage.
Here you can check the tileset of this area.
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In-game footage
As we progress into this third area, lots of enemy stalls appear. Our character has to kill the enemies that respawn from this stalls and has to avoid all the holes as well. After this, three small lakes followed by a bridge (pretty similar to the previous levels) appear, and you have to overpass them in order to arrive to a part of the map where some caves are used as stalls by the enemies. Later this map, eighteen white guns repositories are used as the final part of the entire map. Lots of enemies are respawned in every single repository and Super Joe.
Here you can check the tileset of this area.
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In-game footage
The last area is the strangest one. Green is the main colour in the palette used in this area and the tileset looks like a devastated zone. Roads and vehicles are visible in the map and some metallic structures like bridges are used as a link between different sections. The enemies that appear in this level look stronger than in the previous stages. Most of them are recycled from previous stages but the number is highly increased. Bazooka enemies are a clearly example as how Capcom decided to increase them in order to make this zone more terrifying. It is pretty obvious that the entire art style tries to make the player feel totally alone.
Here you can check the tileset of this area.
1-4 is the last level of the game, for this reason this is the creepiest one. The following levels are exactly identic as the descrived above.
Intermissions are shown to the player between one area and the next. In this screen, our blond character is posing as a way to create to the user a satisfacory and a "well done" feeling. Here, Super Joe is shown with some really detailed sprites and blue is the main colour used in them.
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In-game footage
Programs used:
Both Photoshop and SpriteTracer are all the image editor programs that we used to take the sprites. We started with FCEUX, a strong NES emulator than enabled us to took captures and later proceed with making the sprite sheets.
You can check all the sprites we ripped from the game here.