Aside from the requisite maintenance necessary to keep oneself upright and animate like sleeping, eating, drinking, and clean underwear, life as we know it can be broken down into two basic phases; discovering the things that make us happy (thats one) and then finding the easiest way to obtain them (thats two) so that we can do them as much and as often as possible. If youre reading this review, chances are that somewhere along the line you discovered the power of a great video game (hey, me too), plunging you into the never-ending pursuit of finding the next one that might return you to the exalted state of prolonged euphoria that drew you to a life of console cycles and loading screens in the first place. Welcome to the hamster wheel pal. Hey, you could do a lot worse.
As addictions go circa 2009, video games are right up there with birthday cake flavored ice cream, sleeping in, and fondling the opposite sex. Theyre also legal, wont kill you and are relatively inexpensive. The only drawback is that the more games you play, the harder it gets to find your way back to that magic place. This is especially true for anyone who got started when horizontal running and punching (or shooting) was considered a major breakthrough. Mulling over the sea of NES flip cards at the local toy emporium, you didnt know what you were gonna get, so when you came across a game like Bionic Commando, it was like an act of god. Thats why modern versions of games like Castlevania and Metroid seldom measure up, even though theyre infinitely deeper, more polished games. Its not the original game theyre up against; its the memory of how that original made us feel at the time, and in 1988, Bionic Commando was nothing short of an 8-bit shot of straight heroin. Forget that the graphics and music were almost inconceivably cool; the grapple arm was like some otherworldly machination from a superior race. Sure weve been begging for a sequel ever since, thats what we do, but it never even crossed my mind that the new Bionic Commando could do for me today what the NES game did for me 20 years ago. I expected a great game, but it never occurred to me that Grin could transplant the exhilaration I felt playing the original into open 3D landscapes. Mario Galaxy was a 10 but did it trump the pure ecstasy I felt playing Super Mario World? No. Metroid Prime was first-person perfection but did it hold a candle to Metroid or Super Metroid? Negative. The only sequels to classic NES games that have met or exceeded the splendor of the originals are The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Final Fantasy VII, Ninja Gaiden, and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. And then there were five
The people at Grin and Capcom who crafted Bionic Commando were put on this earth to make this game; what they do from here is pure bonus material. It was their love of the original game that ultimately landed them the gig in the first placeand they werent kidding. First and foremost, outside of the technology on display (which is both vast and mind blowing) they have painstakingly evolved the grapple-arm mechanics to the extent that Nathan feels like hes hard-wired into your brain. The configuration may seem foreign at first, but within minutes all you feel is exhilaration, power and most of all, freedom. So what if everyones dead, I can fly through the air like a mad ape and survive plunges from hundreds of feet above the ground! Dang! Nathan Spencer is maybe the most fun to control 3D character Ive ever had the pleasure of maneuvering. If he can latch onto it (depicted by the reticule turning blue) he can attach, zip, climb, leap up or swing from it. Thats where the fun begins. Nathans bionic appendage evolves in league with the saga until he can grab onto, rip, or throw everything from cars to grunts, flipping them into the air like rag dolls to whip into ranged attackers or just to see how far they can fly. FSA supply drops provide special weapons such as the Bulldog grenade launcher and Yelena sniper rifle but nothing says right-back-at-cha! like a screaming projectile grunt. They talk a lot of smack until theyre mashing into the side of a building or being whipped into their BioReign buddies like a human torpedo. Its best to conserve your ammo anyway because the AI in Bionic Commando is like nothing youve ever experienced in three dimensions.
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