"Mr. Joe, I am here to rescue you..."

While I thought that on the whole the original Bionic Command for the NES was kind of crude, it stands as one of the NES's better action titles. This Gameboy revamp manages to improve on it in nearly every way.

The story is practically identical to the one from the first game, although it was given a little spit and polish for its rerelease. The evil Doraize empire is building the Albatross, a secret weapon that will allow them to take over the world. Super Joe, the leader of the FF Corps, a whole team of Bionic Commandoes, was sent into enemy territory to stop them, but contact has been lost with him. So it's up to you, Rad Spencer, to find out what happened to Joe and help him defeat the Albatross.

The game's graphics are a little better than the NES's, considering the limitations of being on the Gameboy. You use your bionic arm, a grappling hook, to climb and swing on platforms and poles (you can't jump), and blast enemies and collect the bullets they leave behind to extend your life bar. You even run into enemy transports on the map screen and then have to fight your way through a whole legion of enemies where you can pick up little bird symbols to get continues, like in the first game.

Gameplay wise, Bionic Commando is virtually identical to its predecessor. The one area in which it's different, and which I did not like, is that when you're picking weapons to take into each area, none of them is easily identified as the wide gun, or rocket launcher, or whatever, as they were in the old game. This can be kind of annoying, as the weapon you bring is usually the key to success in a given area, and you'll just be wasting your time if you bring the wrong one.

In ways in which this version is better, however, include a password system, and nice little breaks that add a touch of story to the game. In the first game, every single level was infiltrate an enemy complex, blow away everybody in sight, and then blast the reactor to kingdom come. That's basically what it's like in this game too, but in one level you'll be captured and thrown in jail only to be rescued by a fellow Bionic Commando, who gives you a dressing down for being caught, and before you can get back on track you need to find where they put all your weapons. And there's other character interaction in other places, to make this more than just an endless stream of ''run and gun'' infiltration levels. That got kind of boring in the first one.

Plus you can take this revamp of the old classic with you wherever you go, if you can find a copy. That's the main bad thing about this game, though; it's almost impossible to find, even at Game Stop or other places that buy and resell used games.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/22/04