Bionic Commando

The Good
The hero got a gun in one hand, and the other is a bionic arm that can extend very far. It can kill enemies, pick up collectibles, and acts as a grappling hook. Instead of jumping, you use the grappling hook to climb higher. The swinging mechanic is fun!

The levels are very diverse, from tall forests, trough giant fortresses, to underground bases. It's good to look at, and each got unique gimmicks.

The game engine works flawlessly, there is 8-way scrolling that is butter smooth, unlike in any other home computer conversions.

Tim Follin handled the sound. There are no sound effects, but the soundtrack is so intense that I can't even mind it! The tunes are coming from the arcade original, but with unique twists. Tim really rocked off the SID chip here, wow!

The Bad
The sprites are small and somewhat ugly.

There are no boss fights, not even a proper ending.

This is not like the Japanese NES version where the main boss is a regenerated Hitler, and at the end his face shown in close blowing up. That is ridiculously awesome. It should have been included in every version!

There are two separate C64 ports of this game. The UK got this good one. The USA got the lame one. Poor americans.

The Bottom Line
Just wanted to point some of the wins out of the usual crud of arcade conversions.

The Good
In a hidden underground laboratory, scientists have perfected new fighting equipment. One of them is a bionic arm that can extend and contract, providing unheard-of strength and maneuverability. The bionic arm is placed on a soldier, nicknamed “Bionic Commando”, in an attempt to defeat the invading forces that killed your people for many years, reducing them to about half.

The arm is really useful as it lets you destroy soldiers at long distances. As you can't jump in this game, you will also use it to grab onto ledges and pull yourself up. We might see a bionic arm being developed in the future. It would be useful to add to a human if they have lost heir arm. It might also be used to punch someone at a fair distance, then get away before the recipient decides to punch you back. You can control the arm in all directions, except downwards.

You can also make use of your default weapon, which is the crappiest weapon that you can use in Bionic Commando, but you have the opportunity to get a better weapon, but you have to shoot its parachute before you can get it, otherwise it will continue going downwards into the screen.

The graphics of the Amiga/ST versions of Bionic Commando are better than its 8-bit cousins, giving them the same detail as in the coin-op version. Each character is drawn nicely, particularly the large enemies. I like the huge enemies that ride around in helicopters and mechs in the last two levels.

The environments in each of the game's five levels are interesting to pass through. The animations are quite good. The way that you parachute down to the surface after losing a life is cool, and the animation of you swinging left or right with your arm is very good. The music in the game suits the gameplay and is easy to listen to. It is quite different to that of the coin-op version.

Controls are easy to get used to in the game. You simply move your character left, right, up, and down using the joystick, and its fire button to either fire your weapon or extend or contract your bionic arm.

The Bad
Nothing.

The Bottom Line
In Bionic Commando, you can only use your bionic arm to either destroy soldiers or grab onto a platform. No jumping is allowed in the game. There are five levels, and the environments in those levels look good as you pass through them. It is faithful to the coin-op version, because of the similar gameplay and graphics, but the music is much different and much better than the music that the coin-op version has.