Played quite a bit of GI Joe: The Atlantis Factor. Made by Capcom (might be the USA office). I don't think the first GI Joe NES game was made by Capcom but I'm too lazy to check right now.
It takes its cue from Bionic Commando -and it was most likely made in the same engine- with a top-down map system where you can choose your path and what Joe's you take with you for the level. Also like Bionic Commando you can level up your character by collecting items from dead enemies that annoying jump out of them in weird arc and can easily leave the screen. Luckily, if you kill an enemy but don't get the item, you can leave the screen and come back and kill them again and get the item. But on the flip side, enemies infinitely re-spawn but it doesn't reach Ninja Gaiden levels of annoyance. BUT, you can also level up select weapons, for every character... Which means that if you want to level up a specific character's weapon or health, you have to pause, switch to that character, and hopefully grab the item. For every, single, character, and, weapon.
It's an interesting game, kinda' fun, but flawed in quite a few areas. The devs love to have you take a lift or go down in the level only for an enemy or mine to be right there to get a cheap hit. Some bosses are very cheap and seem to require that you tank them. Best example is the very first boss you fight (the sledgehammer dude). He follows you, he only stops when you hit him, but you can't get away in time after hitting him to avoid being hit. There might be a way of doing it but I'll search for an LP later.
It's one of those games where you need a level order to follow like Mega Man. There's certain levels (especially one early on) that can just annihilate you because you're just not leveled up enough. It does seem to have infinite continues and passwords at least.
