A slick, smoother Bionic Commando, zipping from point to point, freezing enemies, and blasting through them with punching power based on the momentum of shooting from these points. What's not to love?

Unfortunately, these mechanics aren't the tightest in execution. When levels utilize them correctly, the player will be zipping around and feeling the joy of freezing a whole hive of evil space insects in a combo, but many of these stages are short lived, the most involved challenges being irritating escort missions and... a snowboarding segment?

That said, I give this game a bit of the benefit of the doubt due to it only being in Japanese; the cutscenes are lengthy and frequent, and may detract from the action with mostly words tossed back and forth in meetings of some vague military organization.

Still, the mechanics are smooth and definitely worth a shot, especially since the game doesn't drag on long. I wish they'd put a little more love into their set pieces, lest I escort another plane or random side character.