The Asian Power Hour

When I was a wee little lad, I remember breaking my Nintendo controller in anger and frustration at one of the games I rented from the local video store. Two months later, after I had scraped together enough funds to buy another controller and plaster up the dent in the wall of the living room, the first thing I did after getting that controller was go out and rent that game again. That game was Bionic Commando.

Nearly two decades later, I am thrilled to be able to pick up the new re-imagining of this classic Capcom game and say with enthusiasm that this is probably one of my favorite DLC games out there (Pixeljunk monsters being the other one). As usual for one of the design overview posts, thoughts follow below.....after short trailer that really gives a nice overview of the feel of the game. Hit the jump for the full design overview, enjoy!

Things I like about Bionic Commando Rearmed:
1. A strong re-imagining of the original aesthetics.
The first thing I noticed when booting up BC: Rearmed was the amazing OC:Remix style soundtrack, all the old tunes completely remixed to have this strong and clean modern feel while still sounding like the original music at it's core. This also applied to the clean yet gritty visuals, especially in the stages and on the number map.

2. A new update to the gameplay, while still maintaining a "classic" feel.
The swing mechanics were all still there, with new and inventive moves, such as throwing barrels and grabbing foes to use as shields. These grapple mechanics were also applied cleverly to the various bosses throughout the game.Also, the retro weapons in particular were well tuned for specific situations and none of them felt out of place or particularly overpowered at any point in time.

3. Clever and accessible level design.
Levels were short and sweet if the player wanted them to be, but still held a bevy of secrets that only the most hardcore would or would care to find.

4. Co-Op multiplayer gameplay mechanics.
While playing a co-op game, I was surprised at how the boss AI would dynamically change during fights if a player died. For instance, there would be forced co-operation during multiplayer games, letting players really feel that they needed to work together and they were useful. For example, for the first boss, in one player mode, players would just need to throw a barrel on the open part of the armor. But in co-op mode, as soon as players threw a barrel at an open part of the armor, it would close and another spot would open up, forcing players to co-ordinate their attacks. If a player died, it would go back to the standard 1P AI.

5. Bionic Commando (new game) tie-in.
BC: Rearmed was meant as a giant ad for the new Bionic Commando game. Usually, these type of games feel rushed and not "complete". I felt that a lot of love and care went into this game specifically as an ad to the new game, but also as a homage to the original game, letting players learn a bit about the world and basic mechanics before delving into the new game. Also, unlocking Nathan Spencer (The original BC hero) for use in the new game was just icing on top of the cake.

Things I hate about Bionic Commando Rearmed:
1. Gameplay mechanics are sometimes difficult and temperamental.
While the swing mechanics were well done, the controls sometimes were not as responsive as the game forced to the player to be. This caused a great deal of cursing and threatening of the game on my part, especially in the harder areas where one missed or disconnected grapple would hurtle my poor self into certain doom.

2. Co-Op multiplayer mechanics.
While co-op was clever in certain areas, it was also frustrating in certain areas. When players would get too far out from each other, the screen would split either top/bottom or left/right in a Cookies and Cream style. But unlike Cookies and Cream, a large portion of the screen would suddenly get cut off and much harder to see, with areas that players needed to grapple or avoid now hidden. It was nice that this means that falling off a certain area (a.k.a Contra) would not kill players, but it almost meant certain doom if players could not see what obstacles they needed to navigate to make it back to the next player, all-in-all a tough design choice, but I fell that penalizing player's health and resetting the players back together would have been a better decision.

3. Sudden "Nintendo-hard" shifts in gameplay balance.
The game itself was pretty well-balanced throughout most of the experience, but the portions where it got hard, it got ridiculously hard. To the point that would make most players quit. I think a sliding difficulty scale to let players slowly learn mechanics is the right way to go, with secrets and optional areas OK with sudden difficulty jumps, but with the standard route, It's too much of a wall sometimes for players. This got apparent especially near the end of the game, where the platforming mechanics suddenly ramped up to insane levels in certain areas.