TOKYO – Now that I’ve played Bionic Commando Rearmed 2, a sequel to the 2008 remake of a revered 1988 game, I find myself perfectly okay with the new jump button. It’s the other changes that will take time to accept.
Fortunately for me, I’ve got a few months to get adjusted before the downloadable game hits the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this spring.
Bionic Commando’s claim to fame has always been that its hero swings around using a retractable metal arm instead of jumping. The first Rearmed left that handicap untouched and even joked about it in the marketing materials, but now Rearmed 2 has ventured towards sacrilege by giving players the option to hop.
The good news is that jumping is entirely optional. The levels that I saw could be completed without breaking with Bionic Commando tradition, but I could see areas where a short hop could make things a lot easier. Jumping thus represents a shortcut available to players who need it, while the game remains focused on swinging that giant metal arm.
But it’s the changes to that bionic arm that really give me pause. A new upgrade system lets players add features to the arm. Suddenly it’s a weapon unto itself, as I could swat enemies and barrels away with an uppercut. It also regenerated my health when I stood still.
The controls have also been adjusted, which threw me off at first. Once you’ve latched onto something, pressing the arm button now releases your grip rather than retracting the appendage. The Capcom staff said these changes were to make the game “more intuitive,” but to someone who’s been playing the game one way for 20 years, that’s the exact opposite of how it feels.
However, I’m sure I can find time to adapt because the nuts and bolts of the game are still solid. Rearmed 2 retains the tongue-in-cheek humor of the first, embedding in-jokes in the backgrounds and character dialogue at every opportunity. The new scanning feature offers details about the environment that are often quite silly. Like the jumping, this is stuff that can be ignored, but I’m sure I’ll start scanning everything to hunt for gags.
Bionic Commando Rearmed was probably my favorite game of 2008, and yet the idea of a sequel to a remake didn’t appeal to me at first. Having tried Rearmed 2 for myself, my fears are at ease. It’s still all about the bionic arm and that’s all I need.
Images courtesy of Capcom