It's one of those days where you discover something about yourself you didn't already know. Well, maybe I did know, but it's been awhile since I thought about it, so maybe I needed reminding.
Youtube has been doing that thing where, I watched a video, at one day at a random time it was randomly deciding to super-pay attention to that particular moment of interest when I had at some point in time watched a video about Bionic Commando; now it seems to think I want to watch absolutely everything to do with Bionic Commando on the NES.
And the thing is, it's not wrong; I do actually click on just about every video it suggests to me about Bionic Commando and watch most of them thoroughly or at least in the background while I kinda 'skim through' listening as I write this.
Bionic Commando is a game for the Nintendo Entertainment System wherein you play as a man named Radd Spencer, a soldier fighting against the Neo-Nazi regime or in this localization, a group called 'the Badds', which was derived from them originally trying to get away with calling them the 'Nazz', but everyone could tell it was too close to Nazi and they had to censor it even further.
Here, you can see how they have transformed the swastika into the eagle; a bold design choice.
My point here is, the Youtube suggestions are a little annoying; sometimes even when they're scarily spot-on accurate. Like I said, it seems to think I want to see every video relating to the game; I don't, but it sure doesn't help ease the confusion of the algorithm when I'm sitting there clicking on 'em and watching dozens of these 30 minute videos. But ah, no, I'm not interested. Clearly!
I guess I hadn't considered it in awhile, but Bionic Commando is one of my favorite games, and I guess I considered the fact I would definitely put it in my list of top 10 NES games, if not top 5. It's a beautiful masterpiece that, while it didn't pull billions of dollars in sales, has established it's place in video game history quite solidly, and built it's own legacy by being a genuinely good game for all these years and over time developed a following. But this isn't some random game out of the woodworks that you swear didn't exist and came from some mandela effect; this is a game I've grown up with since I was a little kid and have had as far as I remember; like I don't remember ever getting it, we just always had it, which is how I remember most of our older Nintendo games. This cult classic didn't come out of nowhere, I had watched my dad blow Hitler's head up since I was a half a decade old! It was some of my most cherished childhood memories, and one of my favorite action games on the platform since a very early age, even though it took until I was at least in my double-digits to beat the game myself.
No other game I know of consisted of such action and adventure, let's talk about genre for a second.
Here, we have a game that transcends what games on the Nintendo are known for; platformers where you play as a little dude moving to the right to get to the end of a level.
We've all seen it hundreds of times before, and to us who are burned out on platformer sidescrolling NES gameplay, we will immediately get this sort of 'Ugh', like, 'Oh no, not another one of these', but when you pick up the controller and start playing here, the feeling slowly starts to set in; Well, there's a slight shuffle to his walk, like he has a weight he carries about himself, and the way he carries himself has a sort of 'feel' to it. A lot of games have this sort of 'weighty' feeling, like a slight delay in movement that doesn't instantaneously push you across the screen when you hit the direction but rather insists that you keep going; walk your ass over there yourself. So you shoot the gun and, unlike the movement itself, it goes off instantly; like a hair-trigger. You fire and the second you see the guy he's down. You just killed a man. That was probably easier than even forcing yourself to play a platformer after having seen hundreds of thousands of them, but then you decide to try an experiment; the other button.
Now we're cooking with fire.
Getting used to the grappling arm is like getting used to a new pair of underwear. At first, it feels restrictive, but after enough breaking it in and getting used to it, stretching it out where and when you need to, you'll come to find that, after a few levels, it feels like an extension of yourself, just another thing your character can do like walk around, or shoot your super-triggerhappy gun.
You start to really get the hang of it after some practice, and once you get into the swing of things, your confidence as a player grows, and by now you'll probably have noticed your life bar has been slowly growing over time as well.
Here's where I want to talk about genre.
The game sets the stage with the story, tells you what's going on, who you are, and what you're doing. And if you mash start and don't bother watching all that shit, you still pretty much get the idea; Me army guy. Me fight bad guys.
But you go from an overhead map screen to Metroidvania-style stages in no particularly specific order (albeit somewhat linear, despite what they were going for with the player freedom of choosing locations) and level up your character to gain extra life all the while traversing levels and finding and using various items, weapons, and communication devices. There's a lot of variety, even in this small amount of change it affects gameplay.
I forgot to mention the top-down truck levels where if you run into an enemy vehicle, you're stuck being pulled in to a short top-down 3D level where you have to get to the truck at the end. This is also the only way you can earn continues.
The game does not have to explain much to get the player into the action. But once you get into it, things change quickly for those who were expecting a normal platformer.
Then, the first stage happens and you're forced to use a communications tower room to contact your headquarters and get them to open the fokken' door m8 let us in, and then you're made to traverse the level almost metroidvania style but very linear. Despite that, you're placed into a situation with spikes, moving platforms, elevators that fall without warning, electric walls you have to cling to the ceiling and shoot to pass through, all while enemies parachute down from past the walls and guys with bazookas come out of doors and there's occasionally a falling care package you have to grab and through all of this, you've probably gained enough bullets (which count as experience in this game, says nowhere in the manual) and gained a level by now which brings an additional hit point, all of which is introduced in the first level.
This is the part of the game where mama bird pushes you out of the nest, and if you don't fly, well, you're fucked kid. Better get your shit together, or you'll die. But now that you've been guided through the level, put into several low-risk situations to learn to use your grappling arm, before putting you in any case where failing to do so means your immediate death, I'd say that the game by now has given you adequate chance to learn to survive.
Aside from the game's levels, there are many Neutral Zones which you must visit, while inside you are prohibited from firing your weapon, else face endless swarms of enemy soldiers as they relentlessly attempt to destroy you, and do not relinquish any reward such as experience points. They won't notice if you're inside a building, though.
So long as you're smart and careful, you can get around this way for awhile, following the advice from NPCs and collecting upgrades and powerups, as well as other useful items, weapons, and the like.
All in all, I don't want to spoil anything, as it's a fantastic play for anyone to experience, and definitely worth a replay to those who already have. This game was punching way above it's weight class and way ahead of it's time. It's thanks to games like this we have action games that aren't afraid to employ some RPG elements to it's gameplay mechanics, as well as games that aren't afraid to take an edgy concept and make it the core foundation of their story setting.
The gameplay is difficult to learn but enjoyable to master; the stages are devious but not humanly impossible. The direction is present, but not hand-holding. While it may be known as a challenging game, it makes sure to let you know it is difficult, but gives the player every ability to succeed; so long as you are willing to work for it.
With all that said, I think this is a fantastic game for the NES. Sure, it might have flaws. But I don't know what they are.
Now, it's about time you go and experience the game for yourself if you haven't already. But whether you have or not..
Youtube has been doing that thing where, I watched a video, at one day at a random time it was randomly deciding to super-pay attention to that particular moment of interest when I had at some point in time watched a video about Bionic Commando; now it seems to think I want to watch absolutely everything to do with Bionic Commando on the NES.
And the thing is, it's not wrong; I do actually click on just about every video it suggests to me about Bionic Commando and watch most of them thoroughly or at least in the background while I kinda 'skim through' listening as I write this.
Bionic Commando is a game for the Nintendo Entertainment System wherein you play as a man named Radd Spencer, a soldier fighting against the Neo-Nazi regime or in this localization, a group called 'the Badds', which was derived from them originally trying to get away with calling them the 'Nazz', but everyone could tell it was too close to Nazi and they had to censor it even further.
Here, you can see how they have transformed the swastika into the eagle; a bold design choice.
My point here is, the Youtube suggestions are a little annoying; sometimes even when they're scarily spot-on accurate. Like I said, it seems to think I want to see every video relating to the game; I don't, but it sure doesn't help ease the confusion of the algorithm when I'm sitting there clicking on 'em and watching dozens of these 30 minute videos. But ah, no, I'm not interested. Clearly!
I guess I hadn't considered it in awhile, but Bionic Commando is one of my favorite games, and I guess I considered the fact I would definitely put it in my list of top 10 NES games, if not top 5. It's a beautiful masterpiece that, while it didn't pull billions of dollars in sales, has established it's place in video game history quite solidly, and built it's own legacy by being a genuinely good game for all these years and over time developed a following. But this isn't some random game out of the woodworks that you swear didn't exist and came from some mandela effect; this is a game I've grown up with since I was a little kid and have had as far as I remember; like I don't remember ever getting it, we just always had it, which is how I remember most of our older Nintendo games. This cult classic didn't come out of nowhere, I had watched my dad blow Hitler's head up since I was a half a decade old! It was some of my most cherished childhood memories, and one of my favorite action games on the platform since a very early age, even though it took until I was at least in my double-digits to beat the game myself.
No other game I know of consisted of such action and adventure, let's talk about genre for a second.
Here, we have a game that transcends what games on the Nintendo are known for; platformers where you play as a little dude moving to the right to get to the end of a level.
We've all seen it hundreds of times before, and to us who are burned out on platformer sidescrolling NES gameplay, we will immediately get this sort of 'Ugh', like, 'Oh no, not another one of these', but when you pick up the controller and start playing here, the feeling slowly starts to set in; Well, there's a slight shuffle to his walk, like he has a weight he carries about himself, and the way he carries himself has a sort of 'feel' to it. A lot of games have this sort of 'weighty' feeling, like a slight delay in movement that doesn't instantaneously push you across the screen when you hit the direction but rather insists that you keep going; walk your ass over there yourself. So you shoot the gun and, unlike the movement itself, it goes off instantly; like a hair-trigger. You fire and the second you see the guy he's down. You just killed a man. That was probably easier than even forcing yourself to play a platformer after having seen hundreds of thousands of them, but then you decide to try an experiment; the other button.
Now we're cooking with fire.
Getting used to the grappling arm is like getting used to a new pair of underwear. At first, it feels restrictive, but after enough breaking it in and getting used to it, stretching it out where and when you need to, you'll come to find that, after a few levels, it feels like an extension of yourself, just another thing your character can do like walk around, or shoot your super-triggerhappy gun.
You start to really get the hang of it after some practice, and once you get into the swing of things, your confidence as a player grows, and by now you'll probably have noticed your life bar has been slowly growing over time as well.
Here's where I want to talk about genre.
The game sets the stage with the story, tells you what's going on, who you are, and what you're doing. And if you mash start and don't bother watching all that shit, you still pretty much get the idea; Me army guy. Me fight bad guys.
But you go from an overhead map screen to Metroidvania-style stages in no particularly specific order (albeit somewhat linear, despite what they were going for with the player freedom of choosing locations) and level up your character to gain extra life all the while traversing levels and finding and using various items, weapons, and communication devices. There's a lot of variety, even in this small amount of change it affects gameplay.
I forgot to mention the top-down truck levels where if you run into an enemy vehicle, you're stuck being pulled in to a short top-down 3D level where you have to get to the truck at the end. This is also the only way you can earn continues.
The game does not have to explain much to get the player into the action. But once you get into it, things change quickly for those who were expecting a normal platformer.
Then, the first stage happens and you're forced to use a communications tower room to contact your headquarters and get them to open the fokken' door m8 let us in, and then you're made to traverse the level almost metroidvania style but very linear. Despite that, you're placed into a situation with spikes, moving platforms, elevators that fall without warning, electric walls you have to cling to the ceiling and shoot to pass through, all while enemies parachute down from past the walls and guys with bazookas come out of doors and there's occasionally a falling care package you have to grab and through all of this, you've probably gained enough bullets (which count as experience in this game, says nowhere in the manual) and gained a level by now which brings an additional hit point, all of which is introduced in the first level.
This is the part of the game where mama bird pushes you out of the nest, and if you don't fly, well, you're fucked kid. Better get your shit together, or you'll die. But now that you've been guided through the level, put into several low-risk situations to learn to use your grappling arm, before putting you in any case where failing to do so means your immediate death, I'd say that the game by now has given you adequate chance to learn to survive.
Aside from the game's levels, there are many Neutral Zones which you must visit, while inside you are prohibited from firing your weapon, else face endless swarms of enemy soldiers as they relentlessly attempt to destroy you, and do not relinquish any reward such as experience points. They won't notice if you're inside a building, though.
So long as you're smart and careful, you can get around this way for awhile, following the advice from NPCs and collecting upgrades and powerups, as well as other useful items, weapons, and the like.
All in all, I don't want to spoil anything, as it's a fantastic play for anyone to experience, and definitely worth a replay to those who already have. This game was punching way above it's weight class and way ahead of it's time. It's thanks to games like this we have action games that aren't afraid to employ some RPG elements to it's gameplay mechanics, as well as games that aren't afraid to take an edgy concept and make it the core foundation of their story setting.
The gameplay is difficult to learn but enjoyable to master; the stages are devious but not humanly impossible. The direction is present, but not hand-holding. While it may be known as a challenging game, it makes sure to let you know it is difficult, but gives the player every ability to succeed; so long as you are willing to work for it.
With all that said, I think this is a fantastic game for the NES. Sure, it might have flaws. But I don't know what they are.
Now, it's about time you go and experience the game for yourself if you haven't already. But whether you have or not..
Pros
- + Many Various Items & Weapons
- + Fairly long play, with lots of large stages
- + Fun and Challenging
Cons
- - Quite difficult to learn and get used to
- - Quite long and features no save function
- - Quite a pain in the ass
10
Gameplay
I have no jump, and I must platform; but this game's grappling gimmick's got me hooked!
10
Graphics
Fantastic detail for it's time. For the most part, everything looks like what it's supposed to be.
10
Story
Absolute cinema
10
Sound
With a fantastic musical score, a lot of these songs will likely live in your head rent-free for many years to come.
10
Replayability
With much in the game to discover, it is easy to miss things and forget to do others. This game has a surprising amount of unnecessary side content for it's time.
10
out of 10
Overall
One of the best games I've ever played, and games even since then have rarely come close. It set a bar for level of quality that few games can boast, and pioneered many aspects of gameplay not seen combined in such an interesting and refreshing manner.
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