Retro Gaming: Bionic Commando

I was about 11 years old and still hadn't learned how to swim. It wasn't so much I had never learned as I was absolutely terrified of the idea of swimming. Sure, I liked to play around in the shallow end, but anything after a depth of 4-1/2 feet scared me witless. One year my mother roped us into swimming lessons at the local pool, and I was ready to run away from home. So the parents played off my obsession: Nintendo. If I went through the swim class, I could have a new NES game. I did it, and my reward, the legendary classic known as Bionic Commando.

You'd think it anti-climactic to have finished the game in one weekend. In most cases, this is true, but with Bionic Commando, you could play it over and over. What's not to love? Swinging around on a bionic arm, a variety of weapons, some nonsensical dialog, and killing Hitler's doppelganger in the final showdown.

The gameplay as easy to learn as it was unique. Getting a hang of the bionic arm took all of a minute, then your trusty NES controller became like an extension of your own body, pulling off some amazing swinging moves. The graphics were never really revolutionary for the time, but the music was very impressive, especially with the limitations of the day. I remember Area 2, the one with the slime, always ended too soon because the music was actually pretty hypnotic.

The game was remade for current gen platforms a couple of years back. It looked incredible, and played fairly well, but for some reason lacked a lot of the charm of the original. It wasn't nearly as nice to control, and I stopped playing pretty early in frustration. The sequel is due out early 2011, for XBLA and similar venues. Hopefully they'll put a bit of polish on it to honor the original now over twenty years old.