Prosthetic's potential beyond reach

The original Bionic Commando was a fan favourite for the original Nintendo system. It followed the same classic action like others of its time like Contra and Ghosts‘n Goblins. But the addition of a retractable, mechanical arm added a new dimension to the game play, using the arm both as a weapon and to grapple and swing your way to new heights.

More than 20 years later, the resurrection of Bionic Commando hoped to capture those moments of mechanical wonder but in a rich, souped-up, battle-hungry world. Unfortunately, if you were a fan of the original or if you’re hoping for mind-blowing action, a riveting story and a smooth interface, you’d better keep your expectations at arm’s length.

Visually, the game is impressive. The world looks incredible in both its textures and its scope. But looks are deceiving. While at first glance it seems very much alive, you won’t be able to interact with the world like you can in Grand Theft Auto. Tragically, the game is much too linear. Fires, rubble and radiation all keep you running, grappling and swinging along the straight and narrow, with the beautiful backgrounds always staying tauntingly out of reach.

Hoping instead to go vertical and to use your new bionic buddy to scale those beautiful skyscrapers a la Crackdown? Guess again. Supposedly random pockets of radiation coincidentally keep you from reaching for the stars. One would expect that playing a protagonist with a retractable, mechanical arm would allow greater mobility. I, however, felt greater freedom when playing the original Spiderman on the first PlayStation back in 2000.

And if you’re hoping to be swinging along with the same ease, precision and grace as Spidey, or to be able to battle bad guys with the same strength and stamina, get ready for another disappointment. The controls in Bionic Commando require a patient hand and sensitive timing in order to grasp the intricacies of your newly acquired prosthetic.

Once you have the timing and aiming down, there will be moments of blissful fluidity as you swing from sign to lamppost, or as you dispatch a group of enemies. But these do not make up for the amount of frustrating moments when you miss your mark and land in an ambush, lasting but seconds before your sorry excuse for resilience runs out revealing `Game Over` and a frustrating restart. And though you technically have the option of defeating foes from afar with firearms, the guns are as uninspired as the plot. By default, and to avoid the pace of the game slowing to the speed of molasses running in January, you will battle most bad guys using bionics.

You can use your bionic arm in a variety of interesting ways such as powerful combos, zip-kicks and even flinging scattered debris and vehicles towards your enemies. Some of these options prove rewarding, especially the ability to fling cars at bosses. But considering the streets are littered with shattered cars, the ability to throw cars only at certain points, begs the question, “Why can’t I do that all the time?”

It seems the developer put all their eggs into one mechanical basket and while visually the game delivers, one unique component cannot sustain an entire gaming experience. This resurrection should have been left on the shelf as another example of the old gaming adage, “if you can’t do it right, don’t do it at all.” Leave this one on the shelf and choose instead to download Bionic Commando Rearmed, the 2-D resurrection of the classic version. Its simplicity worked then and it still works today.

When he’s not teaching junior high, St. Albert Catholic High alumnus Derek Mitchell spends his free time connected to his video game consoles.