Sgt. Saunders' Combat!

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Sgt. Saunders Combat!
Developer(s)	Play Avenue, Chickenhead
Publisher(s)	ASCII Corporation
Distributor(s)	Nintendo?
Platform(s)	Super Famicom
Release date	^JP September 29, 1995 ^[1]
Genre(s)	Turn-based strategy
Mode(s)	One player only (with optional CPU vs CPU mode)
Rating(s)	ESRB: E (everyone)
Media	6-Megabit Cartridge
Input methods	Super Famicom controller(s)

Sgt. Saunders' Combat! (サージェント・サンダース・コンバット！, Sgt. Saunders' Combat!^?)^[2] is a Super Famicom war game based on a late 1950s television series originally broadcast on the ABC Television Network. The player can play either as Sgt. Saunders or as one of the Axis forces that fought in Europe and North Africa during World War II (Vichy France, Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany). The object in the game is to defeat Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini so that the U.S. forces can concentrate on the Pacific Front against the Empire of Japan. The orders are in English, and are subtitled in Japanese, even though the game was never released in either North America or Europe.

Using the Super Famicom mouse or the Super Famicom controller, the players gives commands to each individual unit that is under his or her control. Orders range from moving, attacking, treating the wounded, summoning an artillery attack, exchanging weapons/items, and even fixing broken weapons^[3]. The game has two difficulty levels, normal and expert. In normal mode, Sgt. Saunders or his German counterpart is strong and can fend off any blows. However in the expert mode, Sgt. Saunders can get wounded or even killed. If Sgt. Saunders is killed, then the mission immediately ends with a failure.

After each player has completed all 8 phases that consists of a single turn, both players engage all opponents that are on the same square as their unit(s) in a crisis mode. Before the next turn can begin, the player must either release the hostage, kill the hostage in hand to hand combat, or merely capture him as a prisoner of war. However, not all actions will be successful as in real life combat. In order to help the player strategize his or her moves more carefully, a percent gauge as well as an advisor gives players the chance of failure for each action. During the campaign mode, a player is given a squad of units to command.

While other infantry units, tanks, and motorized units can be seen in the game, they cannot be controlled by the player. Since this game is played by Japanese school children in primary school, there is no blood in the game. Shooting the enemy requires the victim to go through a bureaucracy of stages - dizzy, unconscious, wounded, then finally death. Gun shots cause death slowly while tanks and artillery can cause instant deaths.