Retro Gamer Review - Bionic Commando (NES)

Cover Art from the PAL and European version of Bionic Commando

"I'll talk about the person I met when I was young...

"In 198X, we've found the Badds' top secret material called Albatross, which was never put into practice.

"Imperial Forces' Generalissimo Killt has seen the plan, and decided to execute to plan himself.

"The Federation tried to his attempt by sending our hero, Super Joe. But lost contact with him. One brave man was sent with a special mission...to rescue Super Joe.

"The story begins..."

                                                                                                                        - Opening Narration

Bionic Commando is a 1988 action/adventure platformer, developed and created by Tokuro Fujiwara and published by Capcom. Based on the arcade game of the same name (more on that later), this game is one of many that doesn't require the player to jump, but use a grappling hook to traverse through the game, particularly a Bionic Arm. This game wasn't the first to use this mechanic, but newcomers and veteran gamers alike would get a kick out of this. Anyway, let us begin and this is quite a story, indeed. Speaking of which...

Story: Even though the short narration explains bits and pieces of the plot, let me give you the abridged version of this story.

It was the year 198X A.D., the Federation uncovered a plot by the Badds (or Nazzs in the instruction manual, more on that later) called Operation: Albatross, which was never put into practice. All that changed when the Imperial Army's Generalissimo Killt decided to put the plan into action. Fearing what Killt was planning to do, the federation sent their top operative, Super Joe, to stop the Imperials and keep Albatross grounded. But just as he began his mission, they lost contact with him. Fearing the worst, the Federation sent down Capt. Nathan "Rad" Spencer, a fearless commando with his trusty rifle and his Bionic Arm, to rescue Super Joe and bring down Albatross before the Imperials make their plan come to fruition.

Capt. Nathan "Rad" Spencer, the Bionic Commando himself, in all of his bionic, pixilated glory!

Concept: You play as Capt. Nathan "Rad" Spencer (or Ladd as he was called in the game), as he traveled across many areas occupied by the Imperials. Your mission is to rescue Super Joe and stop the Imperials from putting Operation: Albatross into action. Your weapon of choice is your long rifle, which starts off with normal shots, but gets upgraded as you progress through your missions, along with acquiring other items and equipment to help Rad, including additional communicators. The one defining gameplay concept is your trusty Bionic Arm, a grappling hook of sorts that can help you swing through chasms and spike floors, pull you up into a platform or you can use it to deflect enemy bullets. If that's not bionic enough, then I don't know what is.

The Area Map, where Rad Spencer has to traverse to save Super Joe and shutdown Operation: Albatross before the Imperials raise it from the sky.

Gameplay: You guide Rad Spencer through all the areas occupied by the Imperials labeled on the map. With the exception of Area 0 (your starting point), the areas labeled in white are the Imperials' operation sites, where you must infiltrate and blast them hard. When you land on an area, you get the option of selecting your weapon of choice, protective gear, additional equipment and most importantly, communicator chips. After gearing up, Rad gets parachuted into the area and begins the mission. With your gun and Bionic Arm, you blast and swing your way from point A to point B. Rad starts with no health, but when you blast away an enemy, they drop a bullet you collect. The more bullets you collect, the more you gain an addition health point. My advice to you is the increase your health gauge before going further. Playing the game with no health is considered suicide. Sometimes, a parachute with a pillbox will drop down. You take that down and it will give a random item like a an additional bullet for increasing your health gauge, a medicine to restore your health, a 1up or a POW barrier that protects you for a short time. Halfway through your mission, you stop by at the communications room. Depending on which communication chip you got, you can either contact your fellow members of the Federation and/or wiretap what important information the Imperials spew out. Be careful, though, sometimes the alarm goes off and some of the Imperial troops attack you when you wiretap. However, if you use the wrong communication chip, the message will all go "GA, GA, GA." It is imperative to have the right communications chip in order to use the communicator properly in order to open the main reactor room at the end of the area. Speaking of which, when you enter the reactor room, you got to destroy the reactor. Simply, right? But not always. Sometimes you have to deal with other enemies before going after the reactor, whether it's small grunts, soldiers with shield mounted cannons, security robots or even bionic-enhanced soldiers of their own. With the exception of Area 7, the success of your mission will result in gaining addition weapons and/or additional equipment. The other areas, which are labeled in red, are called neutral areas. These areas are occupied by Federation forces, and they can help you give you items like 1up and health restoration, and not to mention the additional communications chips you need. Some neutral areas require a permit to enter. And unlike the regular mission areas, the neutral area prohibit any form of violence and any attempt to shoot will result in immediate retaliation, so be careful when doing so. And finally, whenever you travel through the map, you will encounter enemy convoys. When you do encounter one, the gameplay shifts into an overhead view, which was similar to another famed Capcom game, Commando. Blasting certain enemies drop an eagle symbol, which are continues, which are vital to your survival. If you get a Game Over, and depending how much continues you got from the overhead missions, you will continue where you left off. Grab every eagle as you can, cause you are going to need them.

Controls: The controls for the game are mostly simple, and I mean, "mostly". Your D-Pad moves Rad left and right and pressing down helps him duck. The B-button fires your gun while the A-Button deploys your Bionic Arm. When pressing the A-Button, depending on what direction, your Bionic Arm deploys in a upper left and/or upper right position. Using the D-Pad, you can change the range on how your Bionic Arm is deployed. For example, if you simultaneously press Up and A, you fire your Bionic Arm upward or simultaneously press left or right and A, your arm fires straight forward, perfect for either for deflecting bullets, grabbing nearby items or pushing enemy troops to their doom. When you duck down, your arm fires forwards automatically. And once you grapple, you press A to start swinging then either swing back and forth while pulling yourself up in the next platform or doing a quick grapple upward by pressing Up. While you're swinging, depending on the direction you are headed, pressing Left or Right releases Rad and follow up with another swing or landing on a platform. And if you are lucky, when you get the Iron Boots, as you swing against an enemy grunt, instead of shoving them, they ended up dead to rights. The Bionic Arm is also useful for the overhead missions, but when using it, Rad spins it to deflect a lot of enemy bullets. Usual the Start Button is what pauses the game, not in this one. The Start Button is one certain items you use, either your health medicine or your Flare Bombs (more on that later when I talk about the equipment). The Select Button is used for pausing the game, which shows us the Area Map, how many bullets collected to increase your health, the next level in increasing your health and how many lives you got. And here's a little trick that can help you complete the mission without resetting game. By simultaneously pressing A, B and Start, you will go back the Area Map. This is very useful for either going back and switching to the right Communication chip or if you are stuck in one part of the area you can't escape from. Trust me, it just might save your life.

Items & Equipment: To get through the Imperials and rescue Super Joe, Rad has to rely on more than just his Bionic Arm and rifle alone. Throughout his mission, Rad will acquire additional weapons and equipment to aid him to shut down Albatross. Here is a list of Rad's equipment, starting with:

Weapons:

Normal Gun - Your default gun

Wide Gun - A short ranged weapon that fires in a triangular angle, one in the middle and two shots from the upper right and lower right respectively. Acquired in Area 4.

Rocket Launcher - The best weapon in the game. Despite firing one shot at a time, it's blast packs a punch with its one hit kill. Acquired in Area 5.

3-Way - Similar to the Wide Gun, unlike the the aforementioned weapon, the top and bottom blasts fires up and down respectively. Powerful enough to break walls, including the one in Area 7. Acquired in Area 9.

Joe's Machine Gun - Super Joe's trusty rifle. Fires in a spread pattern. And on a nostalgic note, if you play the overhead stages, equip this weapon, just to relive the action straight from the original Commando. Acquired in Neutral Area 18 after rescuing Super Joe in Area 7. To get the weapon, talk to the one called Destroyer-3 in the aforementioned Neutral Area 18.

Special Equipment:

Flare Bombs - These will light an otherwise dark room as you travel. To light up the place with the flares, press Start. The Flare Bombs are for Area 4 only. Acquired in Neutral Area 13.

Energy Recovery Pills - Seriously? These don't look like pills to me. It's just a jar of medicine, if you ask me. Anyway, pressing Start recovers your health. And it can only be used once per Area, so save that for emergencies. Acquired in Area 1.

Permit - This will grant you access to Neutral Area 14. Acquired in Area 6.

Iron Boots - As you swing towards enemies, instead of bumping them off, they will get killed by those iron soles. Acquired in Area 8.

Rapid Fire Device - This will make your normal gun fire rapidly by pressing and holding B, making it easier for you to give your button mashing a break. Acquired in Area 3.

Protective Gear:

Charm - A crucifix around your neck that protects you from one hit. Acquired in Area 2.

Helmet - General Mack's lucky helmet, which protects you from three hits. Acquired in the hidden areas between Neutral Areas 14 & 17 and Neutral Areas 15 & 18 respectively, provided that you interrogated one of the Imperials in the aforementioned Neutral Area 17.

Bulletproof Vest - Blocks every bullet shot at Rad. Acquired in Area 11.

Communicators:

Alpha - Your default communicator, which you use for Areas 1, 4 and 5.

Beta - Useful for Areas 2, 3 and 6. Acquired in Neutral Area 16.

Gamma - Useful for Areas 7, 8, and 9. Acquired in Neutral Area 14.

Delta - Useful for Areas 10, 11 and 12. Acquired in Neural Area 15 (provided that you deal with that unbreakable wall there. More on that later).

Graphics: For an NES title, especially one made by Capcom, it is colorful and well detailed at best, from the backgrounds like the mountains (most of them in the blue skies of the neutral areas to the redness in between at Area 5). It has sort of a Megaman type vibe to it. Speaking of which...

Music: The music itself is as equally memorable as the gameplay itself. It was composed by Junko Tamiya, who went under the pseudonym of "Gondanim". Most of the music in this game were mostly original, Tamiya composed two of the music tracks straight from the original arcade game, originally done by Harumi Fujita, which are themes of Stage 2 (The Forefront) and Stage 4 (The Control Tower), which are used for the main theme and Area 8 respectively. Here are my favorites:

- The Bionic Commando Theme (The Main Theme/Area 1, 4, 3, outside Area 2 and Area 7 - Straight from the arcade version)

- Area 8 Theme (Straight from the arcade version, as well)

- The Theme for Areas 5, 6 and 10

- Imperials' HQ - Area 12 Theme

- Albatross Fight (Boss Fight against the Albatross after Master-D's resurrection)

History: Bionic Commando started its life in the arcades in 1987. Created by Tokuro Fujiwara aka Professor F aka Arthur King (his pseudonyms), after his time at Konami when he created Roc 'N Rope, which has similar gameplay to Bionic Commando, he left the company and joined Capcom in 1984 when he created his first game since joining, which was Pirate Ship Higemaru (Bomberman with Barrels as I like to call it). It was not until 1985, when he hit pay dirt when he help made 2 of the legendary games for Capcom to date, Ghosts 'N Goblins and Commando. Known in Japan and in other regions as Top Secret, you guided the titular hero, who was called Super Joe in the U.S. version, through 5 stages of heart pounding action. Similar to the aforementioned Roc 'N Rope, Bionic Commando's gameplay was unique at the time, where you acquired to use your Bionic Arm to grapple through platforms and swing through chasms , since you can't jump at all. Regarding naming the hero Super Joe, the higher ups at Capcom figured that this game would be the spiritual sequel to the original Commando, whose main hero is named Super Joe. They did the same thing for the release of The Speed Rumbler (Rush & Crash) in 1986. Super Joe didn't have real name until Bionic Commando Rearmed when he gotten his name, Joseph Gibson, which was also the name he went under in another Capcom run and gun classic, Mercs. Under Fujiwara's guidance, Capcom created the home version of Bionic Commando in 1988, which was not only different from the arcade version, it was also the sequel to the aforementioned arcade game. A Game Boy version was released in 1992. Although the story is the same, but it took place in a futuristic setting. Then, in 1999, Bionic Commando: Elite Forces was released on the Game Boy Color., which was a completely different story than the original. It was not until 2008 when Capcom and Swedish game developer Grin, created and released the remake, Bionic Commando Rearmed. The story is the same as the original, but with better graphics, remixed music, better boss battles and new weapons for Rad to use against the Imperials and Albatross, among other things. This was followed up by a newer, darker version of Bionic Commando in 2009. Finally, Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 was released in 2011. Mostly the same as the original Rearmed, but now, you can jump in this game, making you do awesome moves to take out your enemies.

Rad Spencer comes face to face with Master-D, or should I say, Adolf Hitler!

Regional Differences: Even though this game is awesome, it is not without controversy, especially with the Japanese and European versions. You see, in the U.S. version, the main villains were simply known as the Baddz or the Nazz. However, in other regions like Japan, this wasn't always called Bionic Commando. Near the end of the game, when you confront Killt or General Wiseman in the Famicom version, he gets killed off by their mysterious leader named Master-D. But at first glance of his face and mustache, Master-D is none other than one of history's most infamous monsters of all time, Adolf Hitler. That's right, folks, the Baddz, the Imperials are nothing more than Nazis. And since this game is the sequel to Commando and its alternate name is Top Secret, it went by its alternate title, Hitler's Resurrection: Top Secret. And when it reached state side, any references to Hitler and the Nazis were removed, including replacing the swastika with the eagle emblem for the Imperials themselves. However, one thing didn't change, aside from Master-D's dialog having mild swearing, we got this gory image, and how it got passed Nintendo censors, I'll never know.

Rad: "Your number's up, monster!"

Bad Aspects: There is nothing bad to say about this game. But there are a couple pet peeves I will talk about they are completely minor. As I stated before, although we got the Bionic Arm, our character can't jump. But that was remedied by Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 and the 2009 version, but that story is for another time. However, there is one slightly problematic part of the game that got me buffaloed. When you were in Neutral Area 15, where you confront Killt for the first time, there is a wall that blocks your path. Normally, when you get your 3-Way gun, the wall gets destroyed, no harm, no foul. But since they didn't fixed this problem when the game was released, even if you fire at the wall, the same thing will happen every time you are in a neutral area, when you fire, they will all fire back. That is why, if you a master in timing your Bionic Arm, you can swing under the barrier without firing a single shot, and I mean really, REALLY, good at timing. And, not to mention that not all bosses, aside from the Imperial Bionic soldier in Areas 5, 7 and 12, are that challenging. Other than that, there is no problems other than these minor hiccups.

Pros:

- Bionic Arm Action

- Colorful Graphics

- Awesome Memorable Music

-  Deep Story

Cons:

- No Jumping

- Bosses Are Not That Tough (Except for the Bionic Soldier in Areas 5, 7, and 12)

- Glitch in Barrier Wall in Neutral Area 15

Final Report: Overall, not really the first gameplay wise, Bionic Commando's gameplay, overall story and heart-pumping music keeps you going, fighting against enemy soldiers with your gun, Bionic Arm and your wits. And if you got an NES like myself, you will get kick out this and it will not disappoint. Believe me, I know. And if you enjoy this, I'm pretty sure you will play the other games in this underrated franchise, including Rearmed.

Final Score: 9.0 out of 10

Until next time, stay frosty, and keep on gamin', my friends.

Saraba da (Farewell), for now!

"Now, so much time has elapsed and I'm old now. I think it's time for me to tell you the whole story. I hope this story will be told for a long time..."