Captain Commando Is Set in 2026: The 1991 Arcade Future, Read From the Game

Captain Commando, Capcom’s 1991 arcade beat ’em up, is set in the year 2026, in a futuristic Metro City where crime has taken over. The year of the game has arrived, and the game’s own profile cards say its hero is 26 years old: in the story, Captain Commando was born in 2000. Below is what the 1991 game imagined for 2026, the four heroes’ profile cards exactly as the arcade machine shows them, and how to play it in your browser on Captain Commando on Yes This Game.

The 2026 of the game

The story is short and pure arcade: the year is 2026, the world is full of crime, and in Metro City a gang of super criminals led by a mad scientist, Scumocide (Genocide in the Japanese version), has taken over. Against them stands the Commando Team, four heroes with nothing in common except that they fight crime. Over nine stages you meet:

• Mechs on the street. Some enemies ride robots that punch, breathe fire or freeze. Knock the rider off and jump on: the robot is yours until its own energy bar runs out.
• Energy weapons. Captain Commando’s gloves fire flame and electricity, and Mack the Knife’s blades melt the enemy.
• Guns and gadgets lying in the streets, to pick up and use.
• A team that is half science fiction: an alien, a ninja, a genius baby in a robot, and a hero in a futuristic suit.

Metro City is the same city as Capcom’s Final Fight from 1989, which makes Captain Commando a look at that city’s future.

The heroes’ profile cards

When nobody is playing, the arcade machine shows a profile card for each hero. We read them from the running game:

The text under each card sums the hero up in the game’s own words:

• Captain Commando: “The leader of the Commando team. He not only has a tough body but also a sharp brain. He wears the Energy Glove which discharges fire and electricity.”
• Mack the Knife: “An alien warrior who is very cool. He attacks very swiftly with his two special knives which melt the enemy.”
• Ginzu the Ninja: “A master of Ninjitsu. He is very agile and can cut enemies in half with a single stroke of his sword.”
• Baby Head: “A genius baby who rides on a robot of his own creation. His robot is not only powerful but also agile.”

Read against the year of the story, the ages give birth years: Captain Commando was born in 2000, Ginzu in 1998 and Baby Head, born in a lab, in 2024. Mack the Knife, 210 cm tall and only 45 kg, has an unknown age and a blood type listed simply as “blend”.

1991’s 2026 and the real one

The game’s future is a comic-book future, and that is its charm. Walking robots exist in 2026, but not as stolen battle mechs on city streets; there are no energy gloves that throw lightning, and no two-year-olds building robots in labs. What the game got right is less about technology than about its own staying power: a hero created for a 1991 arcade cabinet, in a story set 35 years ahead, is still played in 2026.

From box-art mascot to arcade hero

Captain Commando was Capcom’s mascot before he was a game. Capcom USA used him as a fictional spokesman on the packaging of its NES games from 1986 to 1989, and his name is built from the company’s own name: CAPtain COMmando. For the 1991 arcade game, the artist Akira Yasuda redesigned him into the visored hero of the title screen. He later joined Capcom’s crossover fighters, starting with Marvel vs. Capcom in 1998.

How to play it now

1. Open Captain Commando and press Play; wait a moment while the arcade machine starts.
2. Press Coin (V on a keyboard), then Start (Enter), and pick a hero.
3. Arrow keys walk, Z attacks, X jumps, and Z and X together do a special attack that costs a little energy.

The magic wand button next to full screen holds the cheats: unlimited lives, unlimited energy and invincibility. For more Capcom brawlers from the same years, try Knights of the Round and The Punisher, or see our list of the best beat ’em up games to play online.