Video Game / Bionic Commando (1988)

Experience the power of a One-Man Army.

Classic side-scrolling gameplay is reporting back for duty with Bionic Commando Rearmed, a remake of the classic NES game, out now on PC. 20 years after the 8-bit classic was released, Bionic Commando Rearmed recreates the world of the original with a complete "2.5D" visual revamp.

—Steam description of the remake.

When Generalissimo Killt steals the Albatross plans after they were discovered following the fall of a military regime, his imperial army captures Super Joe when he tries to stop him from executing it, leading to Radd Spencer taking the reins to save Super Joe and stop the Albatross's threat.

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''Bionic Commando (1988) contains examples of:

• Adaptation Expansion: In both the original NES game and Rearmed, Area 12 features "Master-D" launching the Albatross after killing Generalissimo Killt. In the NES version, the Albatross is just a screen-sized gunship that Ladd has to Colossus Climb to reach the core of. Rearmed has a cutscene showing the launch of a Floating Continent-sized Albatross at the end of the stage, and the Airborne Aircraft Carrier is an almost completely new final level by itself. The final attack on "The Leader"'s helicopter was also expanded into an actual Boss Battle in Rearmed, as well.
• Anime Theme Song: "Bionic Commando" (sometimes called "Go! Go! Bionic Commando" or just "Go! Go! Bionic!") sung by the inimitable Ichiro Mizuki of JAM Project fame. (There's a song on the Bionic Commando Rearmed OST called "Go Go Bionic," but it's nothing but thirty seconds of a Japanese guy saying "Go! Go! Bionic!" with the NES game's Area 1 tune in the background.)
• Attract Mode: The game has a rather lengthy intro sequence when left running at the title screen that explains most of the story and gives demos of the gameplay.
• Bookends: The game begins with Joe telling the story of a man he met when he was young. It ends with him finishing it, and hoping it will be told for a long time.
• Bowdlerise:
  • All references to Nazis were edited out of the game and replaced with Nazz/Badds, and there are No Swastikas. For a more complete list of changes, see this game's entry over at Wikipedia. Oddly, Hitler's visage remains untouched (and seeing as his mustache is a relatively iconic feature, it draws attention to the censorship more than it would otherwise).
  • What's sort of ironic is that the Worlds of Power book based on this game is one of the few in the series where people actually died.
  • Rearmed is mostly unchanged in the Japanese version, too, making this somewhat of a invoked Recursive Import.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: If you played the demo version of Rearmed instead of purchasing the game, the first boss will fail to load its attack patterns, saying you need to buy the full version of the game. Your character quips, "Aww, but I really wanted to fight you! Please..?" as well.
• Company Cross References: In Rearmed There's a challenge run called the "Dragon Run" which is a reference to the Mecha Dragon Boss of Mega Man 2.
• Conspicuous Electric Obstacle: Area 12 has rooms where sparks travel along some of the floors.
• Darker and Edgier: Considering the arcade version was a very cartoony game to begin with and the NES version was about blowing Hitler's head off, the NES game itself could be considered a Darker and Edgier version of the arcade game (although, not to the same extent as the 2009 sequel).
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Initially, Rearmed gave you the usual finite life stock for each stage, however a later update gives you infinite lives. Which doesn't necessarily translate to an easy win, because you still get tossed back to the last checkpoint after dying.
• Difficulty by Region: The NES game had some changes to difficulty scattered about from the Famicom version. Rather than making the entire game easier or harder, they change the difficulty of certain segments — generally speaking, the earlier parts of the game are harder and the later ones easier in the NES version.
• Disc-One Nuke: In the NES version, you get the rocket launcher, which is supremely overpowered compared to every other weapon, fairly early in the game (at about the 40% mark). There's only one level (the one with helicopters) where you'd even possibly want to use another gun — in this case, the three-way. The choppers still aren't around enough to make it worthwhile. It retains its power in Rearmed, albeit with the slight downside that you can kill yourself with it if you're not careful. It still makes most of the early bosses a complete joke.
• Down the Drain: Area 2 is an underground chemical waste dumping site.
• 11th-Hour Superpower:
  • You have Super Joe's machine gun for the final three levels of Rearmed, and the upgraded rocket launcher only for the final boss fight.
  • You supposedly receive the special bazooka at the end of the original NES game, but despite three levels of explaining how powerful it is, it's exactly the same as the rocket launcher you've been carrying since Area 5.
• Engrish: The NES game's engrish is legendary, inspiring a number of memes. Rearmed makes several humorous references to it.
• Gorn: In the NES game, and both Rearmed entries, enemies just die or explode fairly normally without a single hint of blood, and the games even take steps to have surprisingly family-friendly content despite all the people and stuff you take down, complete with ragdolls in Rearmed just comically flopping around. Then you finish off Hitler- I mean, Master-D, with a rocket to the cockpit. Even in the NES game, you get to see his head graphically blow up as his eyeballs fly off, and the Rearmed equivalent even does a Repeat Cut followed by a slow motion close-up of the chunkiness just to bask in recreating the infamous moment. This single scene earned the otherwise fairly-tame remake an M rating, even despite arguably making the game Denser and Wackier.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: invoked An enemy soldier in Area 16 will tell you to "Get the heck out of here, you nerd!"
• Guide Dang It!:
  • In the NES version, the player can abort a mission by pressing Start+A+B simultaneously and return to the map screen. This would've come in handy if you enter a stage without having the proper equipment... if it weren't for the fact that the manual doesn't tell you this. Because of this, many first-time players often reset the game when they enter Area 6 without the Rocket Gun.
  • Also in the NES game, acquiring Joe's machine gun. You have to talk to the correct person. If you talk to the wrong one, a machine gun still appears in the room, but taking it does not add a weapon to your inventory. Because the game gives no indication you've done anything wrong (or that there was even a test you could fail,) it simply appears that the item is bugged and unobtainable. Just to add insult to injury, when you do get the right one, it's a piece of crap that's worse than your starting weapon.
• Hollywood Hacking: Intercepting enemy communications in Rearmed requires you to play a short mini-game; in the full console sequel, you just grapple the computer and hit B (or "O," or whatever the action button is for the PC version). In the original game, simply having the correct communicator will allow you to listen in to enemy chatter (though they may detect you and attack as soon as you're done listening). Justified in that spies specifically tune the various communicators to the enemy frequencies.
• Inconsistent Dub: When the Nazi references were rubbed out of the NES localization, the manual went with "the Nazz" while the intro uses "the Badds" in-game.
• Instant-Win Condition: In the NES game, the objective of every area except the last is to destroy the reactor. Bosses can be completely ignored in just about every level, and the two levels that have the boss that cannot be ignored can still be completed easily if you're willing (and able) to take a couple of hits.
• Invulnerable Civilians: Averted — it's very possible to shoot innocent civilians in a neutral area; you'll just set off alarms and the peacekeeper forces will attempt to kill you. Played straight in Rearmed; opening fire in a neutral zone FSA camp doesn't trigger anything.
• Level 1 Music Represents: An odd case. The NES Area 1 music is iconic of the series to the point it makes up a large portion of the soundtrack in the sequel but it is in fact a rendition of the arcade game's Stage 2 music.
• Man-Eating Plant: You get a slight rustling of leaves, and if you don't move, you're eaten.
• Marathon Level: The Albatross in Rearmed is three times as long as most stages in the game, which makes it a lot more painful to get back to where you were if you run out of lives late in the level.
• Market-Based Title:
  • The original NES game is called TOP SECRET: Hitler no Fukkatsu ("Hitler's Resurrection") in Japan.
  • The Japanese title for Rearmed is Bionic Commando: MASTER-D Fukkatsu Keikaku ("The Plot to Revive Master-D").
• Meaningful Rename: Rearmed changes Hitler/Master-D's name to The Leader, the definition of the man's title of Führer.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Area 5 of Rearmed features safety posters reading ''Warning! Falling Objects! Wear a helmet!" depicting a Met helmet. In the same level, there are background decals of a hanging iron balls on chains, an irritating obstacle in the first game which is no longer implemented in the remake.
  • Rearmed lovingly reminds you of its roots on a regular basis ("Get the heck out of here, you nerd!") Also, the characters strenuously avoid using Hitler's name to the point of (intentional) comedy.
• No Swastikas: In the translation, the Nazis were changed to the Nazz/Badds, swastikas were removed, and Hitler was renamed Master-D. Strangely enough, his dialogue portrait, which clearly shows Hitler, wasn't changed at all. In Rearmed, the Nazis are simply referred to as "a long-dead military regime." What is strange is that there's symbols and power-ups scattered around in both the NES game and the updated remake which resemble the Imperial Eagle. That can't be coincidental.
• Palette Swap: Notably, the peacekeepers in the neutral zones are just white versions of the mooks from the rest of the game.
• Reformulated Game: The NES version, which adapted the wire swinging concept from the arcade version into an entirely new game with selectable stages and more emphasis on exploration. To a lesser extent, the Game Boy version as well.
• Repeat Cut: At the end of Bionic Commando Rearmed you use a rocket to explode Hitler's head. This moment is shown once at normal speed, a second time in slow motion, then a third time as a still image showing it in great detail.
• Sequence Breaking: Mostly averted in the NES version. Besides level grinding, there's nothing to stop you from playing any and all of the levels in whatever order you want but you won't get far in the later ones without the proper equipment.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: The Rearmed shotgun is extremely powerful up close, beaten only by the rocket launcher and a full machine gun clip, but the range is so short, even with the range extending duckbill upgrade, that it's best used to get swinging again than as a weapon.
• Shout-Out: The legendary ending of the NES game recalls a similar scene from Mobile Suit Gundam, where Char fires a bazooka into the cockpit of Kycilia's fleeing spacecraft, scoring a perfect headshot in the process. Of course, the results in Bionic Commando are far more graphic.
• "Simon Says" Mini-Game: The Fabricator bosses have a phase where Spencer needs to stand in the center of an arch and block spikes launched in sequence, as indicated by lights around the arch. The Leader's helicopter also has a phase where it launches missiles in sequence, and the player has to anticipate which direction to block from.
• Single-Use Shield: A pendant, which lasts one stage, and can block a single projectile, but also goes away if you die some other way.
• Spike Balls of Doom: In the first game, spiky balls appear from some of the Bottomless Pits.
• Stupid Helicopter Hitler: Among other things, the Imperials utilize wired, cybernetic soldiers, experiment on plant life and bugs in Area 3 in the NES version, have mobilized droids in their ranks, keep their master in a status tube, and they also made the Albatross.
• Translation Matchmaking: Originally called Top Secret in Japan, the arcade game was retitled Bionic Commando and marketed as a Commando spin-off.
• The Unfought: Killt is never fought in either the NES game or Rearmed, as he's promptly backstabbed by the revived Hitler before he can do anything.
• Video Game Tools: In the NES version, communicators, flares, and even the bionic arm itself are necessary but not used to damage your enemies directly.
• Year X: Project Albatross was uncovered by The Federation in the late 1980's (specifically "198X"), leading to the Imperial Incident; however, in Rearmed, this was updated to the year 2029.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In both the original and Rearmed, Killt, having activated Albatross without the help of "Master-D"/"The Leader", decides he doesn't need him anymore. Unfortunately, Master-D then wakes up and kills Killt, declaring that Killt, having allowed him to waken, no longer needs to be kept around. Rearmed has "The Leader" say the phrase word for word upon his arrival, aimed at both Killt and Spencer.
• Your Head A-Splode: Hitler (aka "The Leader" or "Master-D"), when you destroy the helicopter he attempts to escape in at the end of the game. Quite gory, really, considering the Bowdlerization to the rest of the game. This is the only reason the Rearmed release has an "M" rating, as there's surprisingly little blood elsewhere.