Bionic Commando Rearmed: So Real, It Scares Me

[I was glad to receive help from Marcel Hoang, one of my buddies who worked with me at the Daily 49er newspaper at Cal State Long Beach. He really helped me refocus my article on what I really loved about this game.]

At the time it was first released for the NES, Bionic Commando was a silly war fantasy where players actually managed to obliterate Adolf Hitler with a fatal bazooka shot. Yet it was surprisingly difficult for a side-scrolling game. People actually had to use their bionic arm in just the right fashion so that they could swing safely from platform to platform.

Rearmed brings back those fond Tarzan memories with an added twist. When you shoot the soldiers, they actually die. I don't mean that they fall away and turn into bullet power-ups. They scream and their limp bodies fall to the floor.

Honestly, I was afraid that the Swedish developer, GRIN, would sacrifice the classic platform-swinging tactics with grim realism. I didn't want to experience extreme hardcore 3D action, like in the new Ninja Gaiden games. Thankfully, GRIN managed to keep all of the precise controls of the old Bionic Commando. They also added plenty of new features to keep players on their toes.

The new weapon system now forces players to choose their weapons wisely. I now have plenty of new ways to kill enemies. I can now grab and throw barrels and soldiers with my bionic arm. I can throw grenades to kill people hiding behind obstacles.

However, I really had to plan out the proper time to shoot the bazooka. It no longer shoots round plasma balls as in the original game. This bazooka could kill me in a fiery explosion. I was amazed at how the developers turned these weapons into dangerous explosive devices.

I love how this game makes me cringe whenever I mow down soldiers with a machine gun. It no longer feels like a humanitarian game of saving the world from an evil overlord. It’s an unnerving portrayal of modern warfare.

I'm glad that Capcom didn't slap in any unbelievably bloody fights. I can only take so many decapitated bodies in a video game and Rearmed is free of all that epic gore. Yet, it is one of the few side-scrollers that actually made me think twice about whether I should really enjoy killing people in war fantasy games.

The developers also did an amazing job in updating all the incoherent dialogue which plagued the original game. The new version now engages players into a dark, mature story which combines technological experiments with the chaotic destruction of war. Although part of this game still involves a goofy Hitler-like villain known as "The Leader," it still surprised me with all the violent twists and turns in the final levels.

This time, I was really afraid of blowing up The Leader in Rearmed. This isn’t a grotesque human explosion like in the anime "Akira." This is a bloody, exploding death sequence in computer-generated glory. Fortunately, GRIN gave me enough good reasons to hate this guy in the last scenes of the game.

Best of all, the very last battle isn’t a generic fight with a boring robot thingy. The main character, Nathan Spencer, engages in a reasonably challenging battle with his evil robot-armed nemesis, known as Gottfried Groeder. If he ever appears again in the sequel to Rearmed, I’ll eagerly take on Groeder anyday.

There’s so many other excellent new features in this game. I love the difficult final level. I love the computer hacking minigame. I love all the unlockable achievements. I love the massive boss fights. I even love running into trucks in the world map, so that I can fight soldiers on the battlefield with my heavy arsenal of weapons.

I can’t say enough about how this game made me fall in love with Bionic Commando all over again. Rearmed is a classic side-scroller that I’ll treasure for a long time.

[My article looked like this when I started. Notice how the new article adds in all the various reasons why I loved the gritty realism in Rearmed.]

The Remake of Bionic Commando Is So Real That It Scares Me.

“Bionic Commando Rearmed: So Real It Scares Me”

“Bionic Commando Rearmed Isn't As Innocent As You Think It Is”

At the time it was first released for the NES, Bionic Commando was a silly war fantasy where players actually managed to obliterate Adolf Hitler with a fatal bazooka shot. Yet it was surprisingly difficult for a side-scrolling game. People actually had to use their bionic arm in just the right fashion so that they could swing safely from platform to platform.

 

Bionic Commando: Rearmed brings back those fond memories but with an added twist. When you shoot the soldiers, they actually die. I don't mean that they fall away and turn into bullet power-ups. They scream and their limp bodies fall to the floor.

Honestly, I was afraid that the Swedish developer, GRIN, would sacrifice the classic platform-swinging tactics with brutal violence (consider changing it since you use 'brutal violence three paragraphs later. Maybe 'grim realism' or 'realistic depiction.') I didn't want to experience extreme hardcore 3D action, like in the new Ninja Gaiden games. Thankfully, GRIN managed to keep all of the precise controls of the old Bionic Commando.

Rearmed's new weapons offer plenty of new ways to kill enemies. I could kill enemies hiding behind a barrel with a grenade toss. I could grab the barrel by using my bionic arm. I could use a bazooka to kill knife soldiers with a single shot. I could even kill enemies hiding behind portable energy shields by shooting my plasma gun.

However, this game is tricky because it forces players to choose their weapons wisely. For instance, I couldn't use the bazooka weapon at close range or my character would die in a fiery explosion. This game isn't as friendly as the original Nintendo game. Bazookas are dangerous.

In fact, the remake almost freaks me out. Now I feel almost guilty for liking a seemingly innocent war game. Sure, war zones in real life are dangerous but I didn't think that this game would actually turn brutally violent.

I'm glad that Rearmed didn't opt to slap in some unbelievably bloody fights like those in the Ninja Gaiden games. I can only take so many decapitated bodies in a video game and Rearmed is free of all that epic gore. Yet, it is one of the few side-scrollers that actually makes me think twice about playing these war fantasy games.

I know for sure that it isn't right for me to mow down all these people in a first-person shooter with a machine gun. Yet, almost all the mature war games like Modern Warfare 2 or Medal of Honor will inevitably place me in these kill-or-be-killed situations.

Regardless of whether it's right or wrong, I'm glad that this game is still littered with goofy character names. I still love names such as Generalissimo Killt and Super Joe. I always wonder why Joe didn't choose to get a different name. (Is your tone about the game about how goofy it is? How surprisingly violent it is for a normally goofy game? It doesn't feel like you're mixing the two tones too well. It feels like your opinion jumps between these two tones multiple times.)

Although Hitler is now just known as "The Leader," I'm really afraid of blowing up his head now. I mean, this isn't an human explosion like in the anime movie "Akira." (considering a diverse audience, they'll probably identify more with anime specifically than movie broadly) This is a bloody, exploding face in computer-generated glory. It's horrific to watch, but it's still an awesome spectacle.