Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 is a new Xbox Live Arcade release from Capcom that packs quite a punch to the senses. With bright and colorful visuals and crisp, accurate audio your eyes and ears will be under a full on assault from the first moments you hit the beach.

The very first thing you will notice about this game is that it is LOUD! The initial load screen will give you a taste of the sound effects immediately with a burst of staccato machine gun fire and an exploding grenade. You may need to turn down the volume a few notches!

Soon you will be selecting your character, with the standard action games selections of the slow healthy guy, the fast but less healthy chick, and the average of the first two. Local and online multiplayer supports you and two buddies (or strangers) each taking one of these characters on the adventure.

You start off on the beach, and what quickly seems like a cakewalk will soon turn into a bloodbath. This game is hard. Seriously. I'm not the worse gamer ever, nor do I proclaim to be even close to the higher echelons of gamedom, but this game was really hard for me. On the lowest difficulty setting my 6 lives lasted me through the third stage. There are three more difficulty levels above that. Die hard fans of the Commando series will surely enjoy the high level of challenge. So much for the 'games are getting too easy' argument for this one.

Controls are responsive, and landing a grenade on top of an enemy jeep is quite satisfying. Normal gunfire is handled in the Smash TV two control stick style, recently also seen in my last game reviewed, Rocketman. But while Rocketman quickly became easy even on the highest level, WotB will keep the hard core gamers attention for much longer.

My one complaint is about the controls when in a vehicle. The system is not intuitive at all, and you will see exactly what I mean.

If you are looking for an action packed challenge that you can share with some friends and have 800 XBL points to spend, then this Capcom product may be exactly what you're looking forward. You don't have to take my word for it though, go download the demo and see for yourself!

Oh yeah, purchasing this game gets you into the beta testing for Super Street Fighter® II Turbo HD Remix. That may persuade a few more people to hit that purchase button.

Other Links:
Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 Image Gallery