Love/Like/Dislike/Hate – Bionic Commando: Rearmed

When a friend of mine first showed me the NES version of Bionic Commando back in the late 80’s, the main emotion I can remember feeling was confusion.  I’d played the original Commando, both in arcades and on the NES as well, and that was a straightforward vertical-scrolling shooter.  If this new game was a sequel, then why was it side-scrolling?  And most importantly, since it was a side-scroller, why couldn’t the dude freaking jump?

Those are the enduring memories I have of Bionic Commando as a child – “Come on, man, it’s just a box – hop over the dumb thing!  Why do I have to latch on to the ceiling and swing over it???”  The swinging mechanic, as cool as it was, was just too different from what I was used to, and I never really got comfortable with it.

Not to mention the game was damned hard to boot.  Even though I loved the music from the first stage – it’s one of my all-time favorite gaming tunes, and this orchestral remix is fantastic – when I played it back in the day, I don’t think I ever got past Area 4.  I eventually returned it to whoever I’d borrowed it from, adding it to my unfortunately long list of games that I’d never finished.

In my mid-20’s, I discovered that my girlfriend at the time had a copy of Bionic Commando in her NES collection – and since I had previously made use of her collection to finally play and complete the original Castlevania, I figured this was a perfect opportunity to get this particular monkey off my back as well.  When I played it this time around, I think I managed to get as far as Area 7 and rescue Super Joe, but failed to beat it, again.

I loved the concept behind the game, I loved the music, and I loved the sound effect for the bionic arm – but I just couldn’t get into the game itself to the level that I needed to in order to be able to finish it.  So when I heard about the modern remake coming to Xbox Live Arcade a year ago, I was intrigued…and I enjoyed the trial…but I didn’t want to spend 800 points just to get a few levels into it and quit again.

But 400 points?  That, I could swing.

 

Thankfully, Bionic Commando: Rearmed was made the Xbox Live “Deal of the Week” at the end of May, so I finally took the plunge…and ended up with one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences I’ve had this year (which, incidentally, totally would have been worth the 800 points).

Let’s get the important part taken care of, right off the bat – the swinging mechanic in BC: Rearmed is implemented brilliantly.  Not just because the controls are tight and responsive, and allow for a practiced player to swing around the levels like it’s second nature; but because the extra challenge rooms that were added to the game, besides being a great addition that gets you lots more game for your money, are the perfect crucible to figure out just how to get to that point.

I mean, I was horrible at the NES version of this game – neither the 12-year-old me (with endless patience and way too much time on his hands) or the 25-year-old me (with over 20 years of gaming experience) could even make a dent in it.  Yet after the first couple rounds of challenge rooms in Rearmed, I was on top of my Friends leaderboard for most of them and *finally* swinging around like a pro, having a grand old time.

Because let me tell you, once you get used to the swinging mechanic, this game is an absolute joy to play.  There are secrets and hidden areas in every well-designed level; there are six distinct weapons available that are all useful at one point or another; there are tons of diverse enemy types that keep the challenges from growing stale; the reimagined HD graphics are great and the art style used in the cutscenes is gorgeous; and the remixed soundtrack is miles better than the original.

(Go buy it on iTunes – like, right now.  Don’t worry, I’ll wait until you get back.)

No game is perfect, of course, and Rearmed is no exception.  It’s still pretty hard, and you’re going to see the words “You Died” popping up on the screen an awful lot.  There are 12 main levels but only 6 bosses, as possibly doomed developer GRIN decided to “go green” by recycling them.

The fights against enemy convoys, where the game returns to its top-down roots, get boring pretty quickly – eventually, they turn into 30-second runs where you dodge a bullet or two before firing a couple of bazooka shots at the top of the screen.   Wheeeeeeeeee.

Also, when I fired up the game this past Saturday night, I received a patch that altered the default difficulty – all of a sudden I was given infinite lives, and after a falling death, I was put right back on the ledge where I’d fallen from.

While I appreciated the time saved doing a lot of pointless repetition, I was pretty far along in the game at that point and kind of enjoying the fact that I’d gotten that far despite the difficulty.  “What am I playing now,” I thought, “‘Bionic Commando for Dummies’?”

Still, though, there wasn’t much that could be done to alter my opinion of a game that has a main character who managed to be named “Rad Spencer” yet actually was cool, not to mention that I finally got to see what is possibly the greatest ending cinematic in gaming history.

Final Score: Loved It!