Bionic Commando
Main game
3.51 average rating based on 190 ratings
- Developers
- Capcom, Stephen Ruddy
- Publishers
- Capcom, GO!
- Series
- Bionic Commando
- Platforms
- Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Arcade, Atari ST/STE, Commodore C64/128/MAX, DOS, ZX Spectrum
- Genres
- Adventure, Platform, Shooter
- Themes
- Action, Fantasy, Historical, Science fiction
Release Dates
User Stats
How Long Is Bionic Commando?
Related Content
Review / Playthrough
History:
Another game I never played. Definitely heard about it often though.
Expectations:
I'm extremely leery. When sidescrollers take away my jump button I get really scared. Still, being that this title kicks off the top 5 I'm hoping for a good time!
Day 1:
It's strange. I played this game for about an hour and made literally zero progress. At first I didn't realize I could move freely around the map, and after that I still wasn't able to clear any of the stages I tried. What I was able to do (while dying repeatedly) was get a good feel for the grappling arm. At first, I instinctively wanted to jump all over the place, but after a short time swinging through the stages felt like second nature and was a blast to boot! After my prolonged fail session I decided to fire up the Youtubes for some playthroughs and got a MUCH better idea of what I was supposed to be doing. Will definitely be picking this one up again when I get the chance.
Day 2:
Originally I was really grappling with the idea of this game, but now it's safe to say I'm hooked. I use …
History:
Another game I never played. Definitely heard about it often though.
Expectations:
I'm extremely leery. When sidescrollers take away my jump button I get really scared. Still, being that this title kicks off the top 5 I'm hoping for a good time!
Day 1:
It's strange. I played this game for about an hour and made literally zero progress. At first I didn't realize I could move freely around the map, and after that I still wasn't able to clear any of the stages I tried. What I was able to do (while dying repeatedly) was get a good feel for the grappling arm. At first, I instinctively wanted to jump all over the place, but after a short time swinging through the stages felt like second nature and was a blast to boot! After my prolonged fail session I decided to fire up the Youtubes for some playthroughs and got a MUCH better idea of what I was supposed to be doing. Will definitely be picking this one up again when I get the chance.
Day 2:
Originally I was really grappling with the idea of this game, but now it's safe to say I'm hooked. I use to just hang there in front of my NES deciding whether or not to grab onto a controller, but now I'm ready to swing into action...
Puns...
No but really, now that I know how to play through the levels I'm actually loving this game, despite it insisting on handing my ass to me. Swinging around stages is now second nature and insanely fun, and overcoming enemies and obstacles feels great.
I was originally confused by things like the communication systems, and what I could and couldn't shoot, and that was frustrating. Now that I'm passed that, I'm finding this game makes a TON more sense. Navigating the level select screen was awkward as well until I released the numbers didn't really correlate to level order or difficulty, and that the red, higher numbered levels are effectively utility stages.
Of course none of this (oh man I need to clean my TV) none of this new understanding changes the fact that Bionic Commando is out for blood! Levels can range from manageable to slightly insane, which isn't surprising given Capcom's involvement, and portions of some stages even give off a strong Mega Man vibe, not that that's at all a bad thing!
Unlike Mega Man, you only get three continues in this game, and so far I tend to use them all up right around the halfway point of the game, with can also get a little frustrating.
Still, it definitely feels like a difficulty that can be overcome, and I look forward to spending more time with it!
Day 3:
Woke up this morning intent on saving Super Joe and beating Bionic Commando, and that's exactly what I did!
I finally made it passed the Area 6 halfway point I was stuck on yesterday and the game didn't get a whole lot easier from there. Additionally, I got stuck right towards the end, unable to find the final Orange Key Card, but a quick Google consultation resolved that quickly enough. The travel can definitely be tedious...
I was starting to get really concerned towards the end that I might be playing an NES war game that doesn't somehow reference Russia or Hitler. Luckily...
The day is saved! GO JOE!
Conclusion:
Despite my early apprehension, this ended up being one of my favorite NES games so far! It felt completely new, yet very familiar. The grappling mechanic was immensely satisfying to master, and navigating later levels was a blast. I do think the earlier frustration was somewhat merited though, as navigating the map wasn't particularly intuitive, or rather, didn't provide much in the way of direction. Definitely a departure from Mega Man which released a year earlier, but manageable once understood.
All in all I have to say I think I enjoyed Bionic Commando more than any other action platformer on the console so far, except perhaps Mega Man 3, but it's close!
Liked:
- Fantastic grappling mechanic made traversing leveling incredibly fun.
- Great music, and for an '88 title really great graphics.
- Difficulty curve was nearly perfect, and felt very rewarding.
- Super cheesy story and dialogue was fun to read.
- Great level design.
- Navigation and inventory system was a really good feature once understood.
Disliked:
- Lack of direction made learning some aspects of the game frustrating.
Personal Score:
Fun : 22 Relevance : 15 Replayability : 18 Survivability : 21 Total : 76
NES Lookback - Bionic Commando
This review is for the Nintendo Entertainment System version
Loosely based on the popular arcade game, Bionic Commando was one of the most unique platformers on the NES. The fact is, Capcom took the blueprint provided by the arcade, tweaked it to fit the NES, and came out with a superior game.
Playing the soldier Ladd, your mission is to infiltrate enemy lines to rescue your colleague Super Joe. Super Joe, as you might remember, was the protagonist from the original Commando arcade game. However, unlike other platformers, you cannot jump. Instead, to move, you have to use your bionic arm mechanic. While initially this is awkward, eventually you get used to it and it becomes fun using it to maneuver.
The game has a map that allows you, to a degree, to decide what levels you want to play. Sometimes, you will not be able to enter areas due to not having items necessary to proceed. Every area has a computer you can hack to communicate to your team to get clues/hints or to wiretap and discover intel about enemy plans. Be careful, though, as wiretapping can trigger an alarm, and then you have to fight a swarm of enemies.
In the Japanese version of the game, the …
Loosely based on the popular arcade game, Bionic Commando was one of the most unique platformers on the NES. The fact is, Capcom took the blueprint provided by the arcade, tweaked it to fit the NES, and came out with a superior game.
Playing the soldier Ladd, your mission is to infiltrate enemy lines to rescue your colleague Super Joe. Super Joe, as you might remember, was the protagonist from the original Commando arcade game. However, unlike other platformers, you cannot jump. Instead, to move, you have to use your bionic arm mechanic. While initially this is awkward, eventually you get used to it and it becomes fun using it to maneuver.
The game has a map that allows you, to a degree, to decide what levels you want to play. Sometimes, you will not be able to enter areas due to not having items necessary to proceed. Every area has a computer you can hack to communicate to your team to get clues/hints or to wiretap and discover intel about enemy plans. Be careful, though, as wiretapping can trigger an alarm, and then you have to fight a swarm of enemies.
In the Japanese version of the game, the bad guys are called Nazz (like Nazis), but this changed in America to Badds. The Nazi like imaginary is also changed in the American version.
The game also does a great callback to Commando. If you run into an enemy truck on the map screen, you enter into a Commando like style level, where you can obtain continues for the game.
I think the challenge is tough but fair. Like stated above, you only have a limited number of continues, so you'll want to be careful. Some of the sections later in the game get tricky with spikes below you and not many places for your bionic arm to grasp.
The last boss provides one of the most gory endings of an NES game, in particular during a time when Nintendo was quite careful about censoring violence.
The music is fantastic. The main song is the same one from the arcade game, which is a great tune that conveys the military theme of the game. My favorite song is the one when you are in the sewer stage.
Overall, if you like platformers with a solid challenge, unique gameplay and a lot of variety, I'd recommend giving Bionic Commando a shot.
Solid_Kuro's review of Bionic Commando
This review is for the Nintendo Entertainment System version
Another good, but at times stupidly hard game from the NES library. Controls are basically the same as in the original arcade game (mind you, they're two different games) and the core mechanic with the arm/hook being your only platforming tool (there's no jumping) is super fun. But, boy oh boy, some platforming sections are hard. Especially the ones, where you basically don't have any ground beneath you and you have to use the ceiling to get from point A to point B (again, god bless the emulators with save states). Music is nice, visuals are fine as well and gameplay is simple and fun. The walkthrough guide was helpful, but I didn't need it as much as in some other older games. After playing the game, I'm anxious to see its creative gameplay mechanic in the modern instalments of the series.
Beat in slow motion mode. This game had an over world like in G. I. Joe Atlantis, but with trucks driving around that led to short vertical shoot em up stages, very much like Commando but playing better due to a more reasonable amount of enemies. I never had to use continues due to save states but I read these trucks were the way to farm them. I wondered what those eagle pickups did. However these little truck stages only had 2 variations and got very old very fast. I wish they had more variety and challenge. The actual side scrolling stages were very varied and difficult. The guy could shoot, duck and grapple. The game began quite simple with ducking to avoid enemy shots, a basic rifle, and using the grapple to ascend up platforms and swing across gaps. Most enemies stayed dead but certain screens had infinite enemies dropping in from above like they were para dropping. This was interesting, except made no sense when underground. The path through the overworld was mostly linear but there were side branches with high number areas. I was not sure what they were so I skipped the 1st until after beating …
Beat in slow motion mode. This game had an over world like in G. I. Joe Atlantis, but with trucks driving around that led to short vertical shoot em up stages, very much like Commando but playing better due to a more reasonable amount of enemies. I never had to use continues due to save states but I read these trucks were the way to farm them. I wondered what those eagle pickups did. However these little truck stages only had 2 variations and got very old very fast. I wish they had more variety and challenge. The actual side scrolling stages were very varied and difficult. The guy could shoot, duck and grapple. The game began quite simple with ducking to avoid enemy shots, a basic rifle, and using the grapple to ascend up platforms and swing across gaps. Most enemies stayed dead but certain screens had infinite enemies dropping in from above like they were para dropping. This was interesting, except made no sense when underground. The path through the overworld was mostly linear but there were side branches with high number areas. I was not sure what they were so I skipped the 1st until after beating a couple more levels. Then I went back to find they were like towns with people to talk to and houses with loot. Every town had the exact same layout though, which was lame. There was some adventure element because you had to get upgrades from these towns to progress, and somewhat rpg element in that your max hp increased by beating stages and picking up little bullets dropped by enemies. I thought they were hp but they actually functioned more like xp. I soon got a new weapon which fired in a 3 spread pattern straight ahead, up diagonal and down diagonal, which was handy for beating the robot boss by getting up too high for it to reach. That gun was like a shotgun with terrible range. I was not sure whether I preferred the angles on the shotty or range on the rifle. Too bad you could only pick 1 gun before starting a stage instead of swapping on the fly. The bosses were disappointing because they were all stationary generators. Later ones had a built in gun that could not be destroyed. The main threat during the boss fights were 4 or 5 different tough enemies that all were fought multiple times in these boss screens. Sometimes they had infinite grunts but the goal was killing the generator so the enemies could be skipped.
Next came the bazooka which penetrated enemies and did massive damage, even killing generators in 3 or 4 hits. It made the truck stages trivial and was probably too good, with only limitations being slow rate of fire and zero verticality. Then was the 3 way shot that was needed to destroy a few barriers. It was very similar to the shotgun, only instead of diagonal the 2 extra projectiles went straight up and down. Range still sucked and I barely scraped past that stage while using this instead of the bazooka. It took so many more hits to destroy the generator that I had to use the hp potion (other options for that slot were boot damage and rapid fire for rifle), and still almost died. The 3 way had good range in the truck stages for some reason, and looked like a flamethrower. I then had to backtrack to a previous town to destroy barriers but did not remember which town it was. I also somehow missed the helmet and machine gun. The guy asked me if I wanted the gun, I said yes, then went inside the house and collected it. Yet it was not in my inventory. I tried several times before concluding this must be some kind of red herring and the actual gun was later, but it was not. Not sure what happened and it was disappointing not to be able to try out a new gun. The platforming became more and more difficult as the stages progressed, with plenty of instant death pits and other hazards. The most annoying stage played somewhat like Donkey Kong, with enemies rolling spiked balls at me and very limited ability to ascend. The trick grappling maneuvers that were required to get past that were ridiculous. The final boss was a pure platforming challenge with very limited timing to hit the weak spot. I spent an absurd amount of attempts just trying to get up there, soon getting frustrated and ignoring taking damage. Then while at 1 hp I finally managed to get up there and turboed the bazooka to kill the boss in a few seconds. That was it? Such dumb boss design, both in far too difficult platforming and far too easy combat. Then was kind of a helicopter boss but it died in 1 shot through the window. I missed the 1st try then died due to still having only 1 hp, but got it after spending a life. I am not sure how you would make that shot from the bottom. Then was a timed escape sequence with 1 of the tough boss type enemies in the way. I failed by staying to kill him when you really had to skip then use a crouch horizontal grapple, a technique that was only needed a few times throughout the game.
This game was somewhat mixed for me. I loved the core combat, grapple platforming, overworld aspect, world building and rpg elements, but other things were mediocre or worse. 1 or 2 generators to destroy would have been plenty. The game needed much better boss design. I liked how the truck vertical shoot em up parts played and how they reminded me of the ship and tank stages in Super Mario 3, but they were way too repetitive. There should have been proper top down stages or unique sequences within the stages. I also think the weapons and items could have been better and see no reason why there was even the option to choose radio. Despite the flaws it was still a very good game.
7.8/10
Once you get used to the controllers, it's actually pretty good. Also, the music is great.
Bosses can be disappointing though.