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Games Entertainment

Bionic Commando Returns 74

Posted by Zonk from the only-matters-if-you-were-born-in-the-80s dept.
One of the most-wanted game remakes is now a realty: Capcom has revealed that they'll be bringing back Bionic Commando for the current generation of consoles. "Where the original Bionic Commando followed players on a mission to rescue a fellow agent named Super Joe, the new game's storyline appears to carry a more cynical edge. After serving his country honorably in conflict with the Imperials, technologically enhanced agent Nathan Spencer is framed for a number of crimes by his superiors and sentenced for execution. Fate intervenes, as an experimental terrorist weapon is detonated in Ascension City on the day Spencer is to be executed. With the city in ruins and Spencer uniquely equipped to handle the many skyscrapers, monorails, and suspended roadways, the government reluctantly turns to its imprisoned bionic commando for help."
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Bionic Commando Returns More

Bionic Commando Returns

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  • Will he finally be able ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Alzheimers ( 467217 ) on Tuesday October 16, 2007 @09:45AM (#20995543)
    ...to jump?
    • Oh come on. You know that with all the weight of his arm that he can bairly walk, let alone jump. Besides we want to see the arm slinging action, not fancy feet.
    • That was my first thought too! Even just a little jumping would be good. Keep the 8-bit graphics though. :)
      • 8 Bit? Nobody will ever accept that. Bump them up to 32 with hi-rez, but keep it 2D. A 3D Bionic Commando would really take away from the fast action of just flailing your arm out there to grab anything just to get away. I know that Mario and Metroid made a very successful jump into 3D, but the focus on this game it so evenly arm/gun centric that the camera would be far too frantic to gun, or far too slow to sling your arm.

        Here's hoping!

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by karnal ( 22275 )
          I agree with the not being 3d, but maybe a 2.5d???

          Gradius V made great use of the PS2's 3d power in a true 2d game - I still like playing through it, even though I've beaten it multiple times.

          Sadly, Bionic looks like it's all 3d. Ugh. Time to whip out the emu on my GBA.
          • Yup. Shooters in general made the transition to 2.5D very well. You've also got titles like Viewtiful Joe [wikipedia.org] that really manage to push the limits of 2.5D. One of the first 2.5D games that I have ever played is also one of my top 10 games of all time, Einhander [wikipedia.org].

            When I got home last night I took a look at the screenshots for Bionic Commando in its current form. I'm ready to be disappointed. It looks good, but nothing like you would expect from any iteration of Bionic Commando. I don't know if I like the f

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by LKM ( 227954 )
          It looks like it's going to be yet another FPS. But I'd agree: A HD 2D (or 2.5D) version would rock my socks off. If that isn't fancy enough for a PS3 or 360 title, make it online. Or make it for the Wii (hm, bionic arm + Wii Remote = coolness???).
    • Why would he need his arm, if he could jump? Oh, right--because the gaps he was jumping across would be like 20-50 feet wide. Yea, you can't jump that far.

      And besides, if you read the story (Yes, there is a story) you would know that he lost his arm in combat and they replaced it with the bionic one. The book even went so far as to have a bunch of things that the game didn't have. For instance, his pinky could heat up things by touching them.

      I am so looking forward to this. I can see this being on the Wii e

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Jason Levine ( 196982 )
        Unfortunately, the article doesn't say anything about a Wii version. Just XBox 360, PS3, and PC. I think this game would fit well with the WiiMote controller. Use the button to fire your arm. Hold it down as your arm grabs something. Then swing the WiiMote and your character swings the object around. Let go of the button and it goes flying. Of course, there would be other ways to activate "swinging", "rappelling", and "climbing."
        • Had the same thought. I recently played through Metroid Prime 3, and loved it. Half of the mechanics for this type of game are already there, and work quite well with the WiiMote.
  • If the government was going to execute the bionic commando, who I recall largely only could be killed by falling into the bottomless pits, does that mean the government has found a way to build bottomless pits?

  • Come on, what dorky kid in the 80's didn't imagine having a grappling hook arm after playing the original game? The wii controller might let us flesh out that imagination just a little further...
    • It's really stupid of Capcom to not plan a Wii version. The grappling hook in Metroid Prime works just fine and using my left arm as a primary means of transportation and defense would be fun. It's time for a Wii game with an extendable arm or two.
  • Imperials? Or do they mean the REICH? The original game had nazis, the american version was butchered because Nintendo was so wussy back then. Not that it mattered much, Bionic Commando wasn't that good in the first place.
    • it's not that they were wussies, it was their standard and practice at the time.

      Remember: Japan was part of the Axis--which included the Nazi's--during WWII, so it is a part of their culture. Over here, its a bad thing to ever mention Nazi's. Ever.

      Also... What's the protocol for an argument that starts out with nazi's?

      • Also... What's the protocol for an argument that starts out with nazi's?
        Let it continue. Discussions about National Socialists as such are fine. The conversation stops when somebody with no evidence of connection to National Socialism is compared with a National Socialist.
      • Ok, perhaps it's a bad thing to mention nazis in the west, in a game. Which is why we've played Castle Wolfenstein, all the Medal of Honor games minus Rising Sun, and the Call of Duty series minus the last one, against nazis? And then there was Brothers in Arms, and (insert random huge assortment of games where you kill nazis)

        I always thought the taboo was against playing AS a nazi... it's perfectly acceptable, even encouraged, to KILL nazis in games.
    • Despite the DeNazi-ism, it was the first and the only NES game to use the word "damn", When Master-D(Hitler) calls Ladd a "damn fool". Then there was the part where you fired a missile through Hitler's head and got to see a nice cut scene depicting the bloody explosion of said head.

        Wussy indeed.
  • Bionic Commando had a plot?! Who knew!?

    • I would argue that Bionic Commando had an excellent plot... at least for the era of gaming it was available in. A story of the Nazis (essentially) trying to revive Adolf Hitler to build a terrifying device. In the mean time, the Allies greatest hero, Super Joe from the old Commando game, has been captured and they send you to find him. You traverse enemy strongholds of numerous varieties, visit neutral fortifications... you wiretap enemy lines and the story unfolds before you. You learn where Super joe
  • Get the heck out of here you nerd!
  • I can still remember watching the cut scene at the end where the antagonist's face/head blows up in bloody detail (pretty facinating for a 12 yr old. Even in 8-bit). *sigh* such satisfaction.

    (of COURSE I used a gamegenie to finish it. Bionic Commando was feckin' impossible!)

     
    • I beat that game quite easily without ever cheating once. I didn't find it that difficult...it was mainly just learning where to go and patterns the enemy used. The head-exploding guy was supposed to be Hitler also. I remember thinking at the time (even as a kid), boy that looks like Hitler. Of course they had changed his name in the US version, but when I read the plot of the original Japanese version (all they did was change names and edit swastikas to eagles), it was supposed to BE Hitler.
    • It was easy, I was able to finish it without dying once, I had even taped myself on a VHS tape doing it, took some time, but it was possible.
    • It wasn't really that tough, there were a few tricky spots but the rest was fairly straight forward. you had to do the truck encounters to earn continues, I used to (and still sometimes on emulators) be able to finish it in about 45 minutes. Now the GBC version that was like taking the tricky parts of the NES ones and making the whole game like that. that one was tough.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Das Modell ( 969371 )
      It wasn't impossible. I beat it as a kid at least twice if I remember right. A speedrunner has completed the game in 18 minutes and 20 seconds [speeddemosarchive.com].
    • I found it impossible until I figured out the ultimate trick. In the "cave" on the first level, there's a spot where bad guys keep on falling in paracutes (yes, parachutes underground...) anyway, it's right before the first electric fence. blow up the electric fence, then the bad guys come down 2 by 2. Keep on shooting and collecting bullets Until you are about at 280. Then go to the end of the level, right before the boss character, and you can do the same. This ensure that you have full life when fig

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by SIIHP ( 1128921 )
      "(of COURSE I used a gamegenie to finish it. Bionic Commando was feckin' impossible!)"

      Took me about a day and a half playing on a weekend.

      However, I had tons of trouble with Ninja Gaiden, so don't take that to mean I am bragging.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by XavidX ( 1117783 )
      Dude. I finished the game without any help and yes it was really hard. many many hours

      I remember having to jump of a ledge and shot the guy in the cockpit on the way down because if i missed i was a dead man.

      ahhh good times.
  • Keep to the original game in which there is NO JUMPING.

    That was half of the challenge of the game, right there. You can't jump, only use your bionic grappling arm to drag your metal-laden butt from skyscraper to skyscraper. I loved that concept so much that I ended up not touching Castlevania and Contra for months!
    • Take a chance to try Zelda:Twilight Princess. You'll love the Double Clawshots. Even though you can normally jump, the latest levels are designed so as you have to hang from one wall to other with extensible chains, all over the place.
  • Add your own!

    1) The more bullets you possess, the more damage you can take.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Murrdox ( 601048 )
      2) Do NOT fire your gun in Neutral territory! 3) Do NOT fly a helicopter over trucks. You will be attacked.
      • Just hit A+B+Start when the whiteshirts start coming after you. You'll be fine. And you want to fly over trucks, especially once you have the wide cannon or Super Joe's machine gun. You can't continue if you don't.

        Pi pi pi. We have found an intruder. We are going to attack...
      • 4) Donkey Kong is just as hard with a bionic arm.
  • Solving Bionic Commando on the NES without cheating is one of my "Nerd Accomplishments". I still remember the final "Boss Battle" which simply required a PERFECTLY TIMED rocket launcher into Hitler's helicopter as your character fell to his death. You miss, you die. Hope you have a few lives stored up for the end, because that's only as many shots as you get at the final boss. The game was SO much fun, it never got old. My only criticism with the game was that there were many many weapons in the game,
    • It is sad, no neo-nazis and no resurrected hitler in this new sequal... How could they be so stupid to not have the nazis included? Dang, I doubt I want this game just because it doesn't follow the nazi theme from the original Japanese version. Hopefully in Japan, they will still be playing against nazis, but I doubt it!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Tebriel ( 192168 )
        They probably want to be able to sell the game in Germany, hence no Nazis.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by modecx ( 130548 )
          They could have done what they did for Return to Castle Wolfenstein: take out all of the swastikas, replace them with a stylized logo, and change the names of the relevant characters to something similar.
    • I hated that part... I rented Bionic Commando as a kid, and managed to get there with like 4 lives left, but I couldn't make the shot. I never did finish the game and see the ending. :(
    • I'm not sure if it made any difference, but I swear, that when you're fighting the Albatross(??) that it was easier to swing up and get to the spot where you could shoot the glowing orb if you had the machine gun. Using the machine gun, I would get up there most of the time, but using the bazooka, it seems like the arm was just a little bit shorter, causing me to not be able to reach up there on most occasions. With machine gun, I could get up there 9/10 times, with the bazooka it was about 3/10.
  • I remeber seeing the Arcade version when I was a kid thinking it looked so much cooler then the NES 8 bit version, and then was so excited to get the GBC version which was freakin tough! It was like all the hard parts of the NES version (Which overall wasn't hard) and made the whole game that way. I could finish the NES one in about 45 minutes and after a few times through could make the last guy shot in the first shot, but the GBC version? forget about it! I never finished that one, I only got a bout halfw
    • I got the game for the Amiga, which was an almost exact translation of the arcade version, except they music was much better. The 5th state, the one with the big robots, even had an opera woman singing in part of it. After many MANY tries, I finally beat it. Of course I also beat Obliterator.
  • They REALLY need to make a Wii version of this. The Wii remote is perfect for this sort of thing (think Double Clawshot from Zelda: Twilight Princess). Besides, a Wii version would sell like hotcakes, especially if they hyped it up by releasing the original NES Bionic Commando to the Virtual Console prior to the new game's release.
  • ...let this come out on the Wii. Couldn't RTFA because the site's blocked at work. I'll go back to salivating over the awesomeness that could be the grappling hook/Wiimote...
    • And yet again another great game that would be absolutely perfect for the interactive hardware that is the Wii will not be released on it. PC, XBOX360, and PS3 need only apply....
  • > technologically enhanced agent Nathan Spencer is framed for a number of crimes by his
    > superiors and sentenced for execution. Fate intervenes, as an experimental terrorist
    > weapon is detonated in Ascension City on the day Spencer is to be executed. With the
    > city in ruins and Spencer uniquely equipped to handle the many skyscrapers, monorails,
    > and suspended roadways, the government reluctantly turns to its imprisoned bionic commando for help.

    "Unfortunately," the story continues, "Nathan is
  • I read that as "Ascalon City" TWICE.

    Still, the idea of a new BC is promising... just either lose the limited continues or the split-second-timed helicopter shooting (but keep the exploding Hitler!)
  • They could definitely let that guy jump. Just have him jump as high as a real life human does instead of the superhuman 30ft jumps Mario pulls off. It wouldn't negate the need for that bionic arm at all.

    It's kind of funny how this guy somehow seemed crippled compared to his video game brethren because of his inability to jump.
  • I got around to playing this again after hearing a cool remix of the 1st level tune done by Romeo Knight that I found on www.remix64.com

    Must admit my memories of the game were from the c64 conversion which I played as a kid, but the arcade version emulated on the PS2 is pretty good to revisit nostalgia.
  • That would be another awesome addition to my list of Capcoms HD Games for my PS3!!!
    WOW!!!
  • it was called Gears of War.

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