Bionic Commando

"One Of The Lesser Known NES Classics."

There are a lot of great games that just never get the credit they deserve, usually because in order to become memorable, a game will need to be apart of a series or receive enough hype to make The Cable Guy look good. Or, on rare occasions, the game will be absolutely spectacular and becomes an instant classic. Bionic Commando, however, fits into none of these categories, which is a shame because it's such a damn great game.

The story of Bionic Commando is a bit scrambled, probably because it was edited before being released in North America; a lot of the names were changed to protect the North American population from the evils of video games.

In the year 198X, the Federation found plans for a top-secret project called Albatross that was first imagined by the Badds (In the Japanese version, the Badds are the Nazis.), but it was never put into use. Unfortunately, the Federation also found out that Generalissimo Killt has seen the plans, and has decided to create Albatross himself. To help him with this, Killt is going to revive Master D, the leader of the Badds before he was killed (If you couldn't guess, Master D is Adolf Hitler.). The Federation sends their best man, Super Joe, to stop Killt, but he hasn't reported back for several days. To rescue him, Ladd is called into action, not only to find Super Joe, but also to prevent the completion of Albatross.

As with other Capcom games, the graphics are fairly well done; all of the character's dialogue faces are interesting and varied. The backgrounds, which include military bases, caves, and mountains, are all colorful and neat, as are the character sprites; especially Ladd's swinging animation. While it's nothing spectacular, I appreciated the effort put into them.

Like the graphics, Bionic Commando features some pretty cool tunes, but it doesn't have anything memorable; unlike some of Capcom's other games like Mega Man or Street Fighter. The sound effects are pretty cool though; I especially enjoyed the bionic arm, which has a mechanical sound when it shoots out.

Ladd's running animation is fairly smooth, unlike some other NES games I've played, and the bionic arm is easy to get used to (Think of it as the whip in Super Castlevania IV.). Besides being able to attach itself to objects, it can also push back enemies and grab otherwise unreachable items. Surprisingly, the one thing the bionic arm doesn't do is damage the bad guys, which is why Ladd carries around a rocket launcher on his shoulder. Most enemies can be taken out with a burst shot from the weapon, and the bosses can take a few more hits.

The game is set up almost like a board game, meaning that your helicopter can fly to any level on the map, or at least anywhere on the first half, from the start. Of course, some of the levels can only be beaten by obtaining a certain weapon from another, but you can escape at any time by pushing all of the buttons at once. However, should you make it all the way through the level, you face a boss before being able to destroy the reactor to complete the mission. The bosses are pretty lame at first, a Nazi commander surrounded by his troops, but the commander doesn't even fight, he just lets you kill him. Thankfully, the bosses become more intelligent, with a cyborg and a robot, each that you fight at least two or three times. It doesn't matter though, as long as you have the right gun.

Other than the main levels, there are also neutral zones where you can pick up useful items such as communicators and weapons. And besides the levels themselves, there are always five or six Nazi trucks roaming the board, and intersecting with one will force a confrontation. While it seems like a pain in the ass, you can pick up continues in case you lose the three lives you begin the game with.

Most of the levels aren't very difficult, although it isn't a walk in the park. At first, you can only be hit once before you die, but the more Nazis you kill, the more life you can have. There really wasn't a time when I was getting too frustrated, although the part where you have to swing under three or four narrow pillars above a bottomless pit got pretty annoying, especially when you die three times there and have to start at the beginning again.

After completing Bionic Commando, there really isn't much else to do; but since the game is pretty short it's easy to just play through the game every once in awhile. Although, the end of the game does have one of the coolest scenes ever: Hitler's exploding head. Yeah…

Overall, Bionic Commando is a pretty awesome game; there were a lot of great ideas that actually worked. Capcom has a way of coming up with great, original, ideas, but a lot of the time they blow what they have with shoddy sequels; but thankfully, Bionic Commando has remained a one-hit-wonder. When such a fun game is only four dollars, how can you not buy it?

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/01/04, Updated 08/05/04