I bought Bionic Commando: Rearmed a while ago (2 months ago I think) but didn't bother touching it yet because I decided that I was going to play the original one before I started playing the remake so that I can fully experience and appreciate the game to its fullest. When I say original one, I mean the NES version. I didn't realize there was an Arcade version before the NES version until I checked just now.
Source: Youtube Channel Mmac2797
So, what to say about Bionic Commando? I very glad I played it, that's for sure. I tried it out years ago, but couldn't get myself to play the game after trying out the first level. All I knew about Bionic Commando before was the music to the first level since it was one of the most talked about tunes during the NES days. So when I tried Bionic Commando all those years ago (close to nine years now), I was frustrated with the concept of the game. I couldn't jump, I didn't know how to swing around, I would get killed in one hit, and the game wasn't very straight forward. Well, many years have passed and I've become more patient and willing to try new things (or old things I've never tried, haha). Seeing how I bought Bionic Commando: Rearmed, I went back to the NES version to try it out one more time.
The game is so much fun when I knew what I was doing. I guess I kind of cheated by watching a speed run on the game so I had an idea of what to do before I started playing. So the game has four different parts to it: Mission selector, Mission level, ground fight, and town exploring (not official names, I'm making it up). The levels within the game doesn't have to be in a certain order. Instead, the player choose which level to go to and can even skip certain levels. I didn't know how to get through the electric things in the first level, so I skipped it (little did I know I was a screen away from the boss fight). When choosing a mission in the helicopter, you might run into an enemy tank and fight on the ground. In towns, the player can gather useful information as well as getting special items. The game felt like a combination of several great games into one, but it was done so cohesively that I can acknowledge it as being unique. So my guess on why the developers decided not to let the player jump in an action platformer was to distinguish itself from other action platformers in the 80's (this is considering the first Bionic Commando in the Arcade) since most action platformers were about jumping and shooting and/or slash. For the NES version, there were aspects that reminded me of other games on the NES. The weapon acquisition reminded me of Mega Man. The open ended flow of the game reminded me of Metroid. Towns reminded me of Legend of Zelda 2: Link's Adventure. And the ground battles totally reminded me of Ikari Warriors. After getting the hang of the controls, I really liked swinging around and doing crazy tricks like bouncing off walls, grabbing from one object to another and such. The weapon selection didn't really interest me all that much, even though it was kind of exciting whenever I got a new one. I used the Rocket Launcher throughout the whole game. What I didn't like was not knowing what was coming up and end up falling into spikes, a pit, or an enemy which eventually gets me killed. There were also many instances where enemies pop out of no where and injure or kill me. It was also pretty brutal having a certain amount of lives and having to start over after the Game Over screen. Overall, the game was fun to play, challenging, and got me really engaged with the story. It took me between 2-3 hours to beat the game. After beating the game, I started playing the remake and am loving it:
Source: Youtube Channel Gamehelper
The gameplay is simply amazing. It takes what was great about the original and further develops it into something that fits the modern taste. The music is just beautiful to listen to and does such amazing interpretations of the original's music (especially Power Plant sampled in the trailer above). Looks like there's more weapons, and more things to do so the game won't be as short. The dialogue is extended, but with good taste (so it's fun to read through if not useful, it's not a bunch of rambling). The challenges a really hard, but they do a good job of teaching useful skills for later levels. I haven't tried multiplayer yet, but I like the idea of having two-player co-op. I hope I get to try that soon. After playing through Bionic Commando and now playing the remake along with the addition of main protagonist Nathan "Rad/Ladd" Spencer in Marvel vs. Capcom, it really makes me wonder what was wrong with the new 3D Bionic Commando. I have high interesting in playing that game now, and I'll probably do so in the near future. Bionic Commando isn't for everyone, but for those who want a challenge and likes action platformers, I highly recommend trying Bionic Commando and/or its remake "rearmed" out. Bionic Commando: Rearmed 2 is out, but I'm hearing only okay reviews for it. I'll get it if it comes out on Steam PC.
Also, when I got to the end of the NES version of Bionic Commando, I noticed something about the date of when Super Joe is telling his story:
Source: Youtube Channel humbledcowboy
Yup, that would've been 7 months ago. I wonder if it's the same on the Rearmed version.
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