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• Terminator Salvation: The Videogame More Terminator-y Than Terminator Salvation: The Movie

  I’m in a bit of a pickle here. I do not think I can be trusted to make reasonable judgments of GRIN’s games. They made Bionic Commando: Rearmed. In a few months, they’ll have finished the new Bionic Commando. I can’t be trusted to talk about their games. I owe them too much. I apologize. Then again, I think I can give you a fair impression of GRIN’s Terminator Salvation. I got an early look at their tie-in, a prequel to the upcoming movie of the same name, at the beginning of the month. It doesn’t look like a bad game, not by any means. For a movie tie-in, it actually looks very good. But as a GRIN game, Terminator Salvation is a little disappointing. Read More... Posted Mar 23 2009, 08:30 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, capcom, bionic commando, grin, bionic commando rearmed, terminator 2, warner bros interactive, john connor, wanted weapons of fate, ghost recon advance warfighter, ulf anderson, terminator salvation

• Dr. Spock vs. The Watchmen vs. Terminator: The New Movie Tie-In

  Nostalgia, as Cole’s post on the ever-ubiquitous Final Fantasy VII so deftly illustrated, is a disease afflicting games criticism. It’s understandable why. The people writing about games today (not to mention the majority of people making them) came of age during videogames’ golden age. It’s no wonder fond memories color their perception of the entire medium. Nostalgia isn’t always a bad thing, especially when it inspires creativity. Just look at Bionic Commando Rearmed. But as Luc Sante says, “Nostalgia can be defined as a state of inarticulate contempt for the present and fear of the future.” Me, I love the future. I’m a ceaseless optimist, fueled by the promise of tomorrow, I am. When I feel the symptoms of nostalgia (itchiness, aquaphobia, uncontrollably defending Battletoads, frothing at the mouth) taking over my brain, I remember movie tie-ins. I think about going to Pompey Video and plunking down four dollars to subject myself to The Rocketeer on NES. I think about buying Die Hard Trilogy as one of my first Playstation games. Then I vomit and, like an exhausted drunk, I feel a little bit better. The movie tie-in is changing though. While you still see trash like Secret Level’s Iron Man game making millions, the big budget retail rush job isn’t the guaranteed success it used to be. Iron Man may have been a hit for Sega and Secret Level (providing the cash flow to finish the giant flop Golden Axe: Beast Rider), but The Incredible Hulk tie-in, released by Sega just a few months later, sold about as well as cans of Coke II. It isn’t just brand strength and high cost that makes tie-ins a greater risk. Read More... Posted Mar 10 2009, 08:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, bionic commando, grin, sega, the dark knight, bionic commando rearmed, warner bros, watchmen, golden axe beast rider, paramount, racketeer, die hard trilogy, the incredible hulk, iron man, superman returns, star trek

• Pole’s Big Adventure: Sega Rides the Retro Train, Takes Advantage of You

  A couple of weeks back, Sega Japan launched a countdown website sporting a peculiarly recognizable icon: a pixilated mushroom. Instead of the spotted red or green associated with the company’s one-time rivals, this mushroom was purple with yellow spots. It was an ugly little blighter and fueled all sorts of speculation as to what would be shown at the end of the countdown. An 8-bit style Sonic & Mario platformer where Robotnik has poisoned all the mushrooms! An 8-bit style game where Alexx Kidd and Mario open a day spa and compete for Birdo, Athena, and Dig Dug’s affections! Okay. Fair enough. I am the only man who thought Sega might be making either of those games. The 8-bit part was spot on though. The game turned out to be Pole’s Big Adventure, an WiiWare original aping early Famicom games in the spirit of Retro Game Challenge. The funky looking mushroom’s a big hint as to what Pole’s Big Adventure is all about, namely messing with preconceived notions based on Super Mario Bros. You don’t break bricks with your fist, you break them by shooting them, and the same goes for getting treats out of question boxes. Go down a pipe, immediately pop back up covered in… goo? The video isn’t clear on what you’re covered in. And when you do find that mushroom out there, it will make you grow until you die. Pretty clever there, Sega. Read More... Posted Jan 23 2009, 02:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, bionic commando, nes, sega, super mario bros, wiiware, bionic commando rearmed, famicom, birdo, Legend of kage 2, pole’s big adventure

• Infamous: Unsung Contender of 2009

  I don’t like lying. Lying tends to make me feel dirty on the inside, like I’ve broken my own New Year’s resolution and started eating topsoil again because it’s both moist and visually similar to cake. So I won’t lie and tell you that the games I am most excited about in the first half of 2009 are published by someone besides Capcom. It simply isn’t true. There’s new Bionic Commando. It is my topsoil. Everything else is dirt. But that’s not to say there isn’t a whole ton of excellent and appealing dirt on the way! Sega and Platinum Games’ goodies are going to start rolling out in the next few months. Killzone 2 is looking like it may actually deliver on its half-decade of ridiculous hyping. Muramasa: The Demon Blade? Fragile? These games will, hopefully, be sweet. Speaking of all things promising, Bob’s love for Sly Cooper reminded me that Suckerpunch is gearing up for their big Playstation 3 debut in just the next few months. But where is all the hype for open world superhero extravaganza, Infamous? Read More... Posted Jan 07 2009, 07:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, platinum games, capcom, bionic commando, sega, fragile, sly cooper, killzone 2, infamous, muramasa: the demon blade, suckerpunch

• Bionic Commando Rearmed Fan Trailer

  ”Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.” “This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” “Your number's up! Monster!!” I think we're all agreed on which famous quote deserves to echo through the generations. Sadly, Rad Spencer will probably never have his chance on the big screen, but at least artistic justice can be served through the Internet. A cool person named OzShadow put together a fan trailer for a Bionic Commando “movie” with footage and sound from Bionic Commando Rearmed. Read More... Posted Jan 05 2009, 04:27 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: capcom, bionic commando, trailer, bionic commando rearmed, fan stuff, nadia oxford, rad spencer, movie

• 10 Games Nadia Played In 2008 Instead Of Working: Bionic Commando Rearmed

  Having grown up with two brothers and personally scoring somewhere in the negatives on the official Femininity Chart, you would think that Bionic Commando would have found its way into my Nintendo library somehow. Alas, no. Though I was always aware of Rad Spencer and his important contribution to history (making Hitler's head and secret headquarters EXPLOD), I didn't adopt any fondness for Bionic Commando until I watched my husband do a playthrough. My eyes followed that swaying red-headed soldier like a pendulum. Where do I sign up for the Bionic Harem? (And what did I just say about scoring in the negatives on the official Femininity Chart?) I tried to take control of Rad. When my attempts to make him swing out of the television screen and into my lap failed, I decided I'd at least try to get him through his no-jump adventure. I couldn't get through Area 01. It was an embarassing disaster and Hitler won. I figured Bionic Commando was simply something you had to be born into if you wanted to stand any chance of finishing it. Time went by, stealing a drop of my life with every tick, and there dawned an age (Now) wherein game developers learned the value of nostalgia. Remakes and revamps of old classics, they reasoned, would send twenty- and- thirty-somethings running to Playstation Network and Xbox Marketplace like sows to the trough. Indeed, we sucked it all down, but there's no shame in indulging in a high-quality remake like Bionic Commando Rearmed. Read More... Posted Dec 12 2008, 09:14 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: capcom, bionic commando, 8-bit, nostalgia, bionic commando rearmed, nadia oxford, top 10

• Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Announced, Most Likely Awesome

  Let’s just get this out of the way right now. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is freaking great. It is the best game that Naughty Dog has ever made and it is an absolute delight to play. The stories in games like Gears of War 2 are often forgiven for being like “b-movies”, but Uncharted actually is a b-movie, a bitchin’ pulp adventure full of likable stereotypes, absurd feats of physical prowess, physics defying escapes from death, and more one-liners than you can shake a number of different sticks at. Its character animation is astounding, its shooting tight, and its environments are linear but convincingly natural. It is awesome. So awesome. Bionic Commando awesome. It didn’t sell that great though. It sold well, but not nearly what it deserved and there has been some question as to whether it would receive a sequel or go the way of Sony’s other first-party titles from 2007. (Rest in peace Lair and Heavenly Sword. May your makers learn their lessons. Particularly you, Ninja Theory. Next time you make a game that has Andy Serkis yelling about his “holy genitals”, you can expect a very stern phone call from the proper authorities.) But, lo, Nathan Drake has returned. Behold the trailer delights. Read More... Posted Dec 01 2008, 08:15 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, bionic commando, sony, naughty dog, uncharted, heavenly sword, lair, uncharted: drake’s fortune, Nathan drake, ninja theory, uncharted 2: among thieves, beyond good and evil 2

• Trailer Review: Wanted

  Being something of an equal opportunity nerd, I don’t limit myself just to videogame geekery. I am also known to enjoy a comic book now and again. Not graphic fiction, nor graphic novels. Comics, funny books, four-color rags. Some of them involve improbably proportioned men and ladies performing impossible acts of vigilantism. One of my favorite scribes of such material is Mark Millar, the Scottish gent best known for his summer event series called Civil War that saw Iron Man and Captain America punching each other. Millar’s also the latest comics writer to start selling damn near all of his properties to Hollywood studios for big screen adaptations, the first of which actually came out this past summer. Wanted the movie didn’t have a whole lot to do with Wanted the comic book outside of some basic premise and tonal elements, but it was still a decent flick to eat popcorn to. It was simply missing the comic’s bite. The videogame adaptation of Wanted, due out in early 2009, is notable for a couple of reasons. First, even in trailer form, it looks significantly better than the vast majority of movie-game tie-ins. It’s also a sequel to the movie as opposed to a direct adaptation, which isn’t unheard of, but it’s still an interesting choice for a game not releasing alongside a theatrical or even DVD release. Most exciting, though, is that the Swedish gunslingers behind Bionic Commando’s rebirth, GRIN, are making it. Read More... Posted Nov 24 2008, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, bionic commando, grin, comics, morgan freeman, Angelina jolie, Wanted, mark millar

• Achievements and Trophies and Unlocking, Oh Meh

  Amazing things are going to happen in 2009. In the first third of the year, we’ll be playing a trifecta of raw, unadulterated Capcom goodness in the form of Street Fighter IV, Bionic Commando, and Resident Evil 5, Killzone 2 will finally come out and not look anything like the concept footage shown at E3 2005, we might find out just what the hell Alan Wake is, and maybe, just maybe, it’ll turn out that Final Fantasy XIII is actually a videogame and not just a three minute clip of a chick with nice hair. Home might even come out! Instead of the adorable little freak version of you that putters around your Wii games – or your Xbox 360, which is the exact same little freak but with hands and a selection of shirts from Old Navy – you’ll get to have a version of yourself that is iPod commercial ready, with glossy hair sharp enough to cut a Nomura character. You’ll get to go bowling, wonder why no one’s playing Warhawk and show off all your trophies. And you will have trophies, rest assured. Come ’09, Sony’s making them an obligatory component of any and all PS3 games. I don’t necessarily think achievements and trophies are a bad thing, especially for the type of player who enjoys setting themselves inane goals outside a game’s explicit ones. I just don’t understand why they have to be a necessary feature in every game. Read More... Posted Nov 21 2008, 03:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: playstation 3, street fighter, xbox 360, wii, bionic commando, street fighter 4, mega man, gears of war, mega man 9, street fighter iv, mii, final fantasy xiii, resident evil 5, alan wake, achievements, killzone 2, trophies

• Go Commando With Your Lunch This Winter

  Hey, is anyone out there in the market for a new best friend? 'Cause I'm totally serious about pledging allegiance to anyone who pre-orders Bionic Commando from GameCrazy and gives me the bonus metal lunchbox. From the Capcom Unity blog: "Bionic Commando is all about the old school style. Neon red hair, awesome sunglasses, and now lunch boxes and patches! The lunch box is a part of a very limited run, and you can only get ‘em if you preorder at GameCrazy. The sides have Nathan swinging through the old school levels of the original BC, with the original box art on the top of one side, and the old com on the other." Like so:   Read More... Posted Nov 19 2008, 07:36 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: bionic commando, retail, nadia oxford, gamestop, bonuses, lunchbox, gamecrazy, rad spencer, pre-order

• Trailer Review: Yakuza 3

  Kazuma Kiryu and I are going to hang out. We’ll go out and he’ll show me the sights, take me to a hostess club, and we will laugh and laugh. Chances are, some dudes in puffy winter jackets will start some shit. I will hold their leader in a headlock and Kaz will drop kick that mofo so hard that Canadian children will say, “Ow” in their living rooms, thousands and thousands of miles away. We’ll high five each other then, before listening to a hardboiled detective tell us of intriguing and nefarious dealings in the Tokyo underworld. It’ll be sweet when the jazz rock starts playing. That heady day will only end when I’m woken up in my study, a firm bionic hand on my shoulder and a disapproving voice asking if I’m “dreaming of that Celestial roustabout” again. I will lie, of course. A white lie to soothe my beloved Commando’s Hooksexups. But I will treasure that dream all the same. Yakuza 3, as you can see from this trailer, looks totally frigging rad. Read More... Posted Nov 14 2008, 12:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, trailer review, bionic commando, sega, yakuza, yakuza 2, yakuza 3, kazuma kiryu

• Game Compilations: The Good, the Bad, and the Fugly

  Time was, I thought game compilations, museum, and anniversary collections, and anything else you’d want to call them were the cat’s meow. Greatest thing since sliced bread. The *ahem* tits. Then The Mega Man Anniversary Collection for Gamecube came out back in 2004. Fifty simoleons for all eight console Mega Man games plus an opportunity to finally play Mega Man: The Power Battle and Power Fighters? Sounds like a dream come true. Then I found out that instead of the A button making the little blue fella shoot and the B button making him jump, the buttons were reversed for the compilation. There is no way to change this control scheme. It turns playing Mega Man 1 through 6 into a personalized hell, the place where cheat code users go when they die. Compilations are dangerous business because, more often than not, the publisher puts no effort whatsoever into them and people buy them anyway. That’s how you end up with Mega Man’s jumping and shooting getting reversed, how Sega releases not one, but two Sonic the Hedgehog collections with fantastic unlockables that are almost impossible to unlock, and how Namco can release the same damn Galaga/Dig Dug/Pac-man collection nine-hundred times. Of course, they really can be a treat. Despite all the load times and inaccessible unlockables, the Sonic Mega Collection is still a great way to play Sonic at his best. Occasionally, budget numbers like the Capcom Classics Mini Mix, a no-frills GBA collection with Bionic Commando NES, Strider NES, and Mighty Final Fight, can come along and introduce you to games you’ve never ever heard of. (Seriously, Mighty Final Fight? When did that happen? It’s got mini Haggar!) They are a more palatable alternative to Virtual Console-style downloads too, as far as price is concerned. Sega’s just-announced Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection for PS3 and Xbox 360 comes with forty games, and for thirty bucks you get what Nintendo would charge $120 for on Wii. Plus, they wouldn’t even all fit on the Wii’s memory! But again, the production values are highly questionable. Read More... Posted Nov 06 2008, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, pac-man, street fighter, capcom, bionic commando, nes, sega, mega man, sonic the hedgehog, strider, mighty final fight, game boy advance, virtual console, dig dug, Capcom classics collection, Capcom mini mix, galaga

• Klonoa: Careful, Namco. You Tread On My Dreams.

  I’m not a purist. No, really. When it comes to classics being revisited, modernized, or remade, I don’t need every facet of the past perfectly preserved just the way I remember it in order to get a desperate nostalgic thrill. I delight in Mega Man 9 because it’s a great game whose presentation and technological limitations are carefully made design choices, not because it’s a new NES game. I’ll let you in on a secret: I actually like Mega Man 7 and 8. Yeah, that’s right. I think they’re good games. Not as good as their forebears, but all the same. When the new Bionic Commando was announced last year, even before Rearmed was revealed, I didn’t balk at Radd Spencer’s Adam-Duritz-makeover. I think the new look is cool, especially the way his dreads flow behind him like delicate willow branches as he soars through dystopian cityscapes and… oh! Excuse me. What I’m getting at is that not everything from yesterday is sacred. Some things, especially in games, should be changed. Final Fantasy III DS is a good thing. The NES original is just too slow now. Tomb Raider Anniversary preserves a revolutionary game’s best qualities while also making it, you know, playable. In with the new, out with the old may not be an all-encompassing maxim, but it’s more often than not good advice. That said, Namco, if you go through with this, I will hurt you. The Raw Meat Cowboy himself over at GoNintendo received a survey from Namco-Bandai today, the subject of which was their impending Wii remake of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. RMC has smartly inferred that Namco is testing the waters to see if Klonoa should be localized for North America. One of the questions in the survey asks which of these two character designs is preferable. Read More... Posted Oct 30 2008, 03:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nintendo, wii, capcom, final fantasy, bionic commando, nes, mega man, tomb raider, klonoa, mega man 9, namco bandai, mega man 7, mega man 8, namco, bionic commando rearmed, final fantasy III, poochie

• Yahtzee Presents A New Angle On Nostalgia (Sort Of)

  While Mr Constantine gets over his case of the vapours, I'd like to offer my own perspective on Yahtzee's scorn towards Mrs Rad Spencer. One bit in particular caught my interest. (::Pipe puff::) Most of North America had the honour of growing up alongside the Nintendo Entertainment System. A great deal of Europe, if my video game lore is up to snuff, did not. I remember my older brother coming home from a visit to Ireland and telling me about how everyone there still played Atari 2600. I was all like, "No waaaaay!" Then the UK's ultra-sweet take on Smarties rebelled against my stomach and I vomited everywhere. In his latest rant against Bionic Commando and all things fun, Yahtzee briefly mentions that his household was a Commodore 64 household--in other words, he didn't grow up with Bionic Commando or a lot of our favourite 8-bit treasures. Read More... Posted Sep 25 2008, 03:05 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: yahtzee, bionic commando, 8-bit, retro, nostalgia, bionic commando rearmed, nadia oxford

• Nobody Puts Bionic Commando in A Corner

  Late last night, I was sitting in my library, enjoying a nice cup of earl grey tea, a pipe, and the day's copy of The Times. It was the first night of autumn cool enough for a fire and I’d brought one to a crackling burn in my home’s blackened hearth. The evening was a picture of utter tranquility, the sort of convalescence one scoffs at in youth and longs for later in life when a day’s labors start to take their toll. But it was around 10pm when this harmony was shattered! My lover, Bionic Commando, burst into the room wailing, tears streaming from its eyes, its heavenly façade twisted and mangled by anguish! “My love, what ever is the matter?” I asked, alarmed. “It’s that awful man from the Sunburnt Country! He called me such terrible things!” “I’m afraid I don’t understand, dearest. Who is this rogue who dared question your honor?” “You know. Benjamin Croshaw. Yahtzee. The videogame critic from the island of convicts who walks about in a Justin Timberlake hat. He makes his trade nattering on about obese fellows being silly for liking terrible entertainments. Like me! Oh!” Bionic Commando swooned, its clawed hand against its forehead. Read More... Posted Sep 25 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, yahtzee, zero punctuation, bionic commando, the escapist, soul caliber, I am slowly going out of my mind, star tropics, best of 2008

• Design Resurrection: How Capcom Finally Proved That It’s Game and Not Graphics That Matters

  “Graphics Whore” is a term that I’ve never been comfortable with, that is, until I realized that I am one. I couldn’t give you the precise etymology behind the phrase, only that it’s rise to prominence in both game fandom and game journalism – there is a distinction, however slight it may be – coincided directly with the rise of 3D graphics in console gaming. What makes a person a graphics whore is their dismissal of games that don’t reflect the aesthetic (visual, audio, etc.) cutting edge of available technology. But in the 32-bit era, the term carried a more specific connotation, namely 2D games being inferior to 3D. This definition of graphics whore had something of a corporate background, especially in the battle between Sony and Sega; Sega’s great failure was building an overly expensive machine devoted to running 2D games and Sony took a hard line against publishing any 2D games outside of Japan. The future, as far as Sony and Nintendo were concerned, was in three dimensions. So, the term graphics whore was birthed alongside the now all too common mantra that gameplay, not graphics, is all that matters in a videogame. I used to agree. And while I don’t think that games are defined by being the prettiest and the bestest, I think that to downplay the importance of presentation is doing the medium a great disservice. It isn’t how advanced a game’s visuals are. It’s what they are. Capcom’s two most recent releases, Bionic Commando: Rearmed and Mega Man 9, are companion pieces to illustrate the point. Read More... Posted Sep 23 2008, 03:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nintendo, capcom, bionic commando, sony, sega, mega man

• Chiptune Friday: Bionic Commando - A New Breed of Hero

  I have to admit, I kind of got used to John's daily posts about the majesty of Bionic Commando, and while Rearmed has been keeping my DualShock3 rumbling with delight since then, I still feel something missing when I'm away from the game for too long. Thankfully, this little gem from the 1988 NES version was around to keep my headphones warm with hot lead. Read More... Posted Aug 22 2008, 01:00 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with no comments Filed under: derrick sanskrit, bionic commando, nes, chiptune friday, pitchfork, reformat the planet

• Whatcha Playing?: Final Ninja

  I reviewed some random Wii Worms sequel a while back. I considered its biggest downfall to be its glaring lack of ninja rope, the endlessly satisfying tool that allowed you to bounce and swing your worms around the screen very quickly. I often thought that Team 17 should make a spinoff platform game centering on this mechanic. They didn't, but someone else did. Let me be clear. Final Ninja is the finest platformer I have played in the last decade, easily. You can beat it in under an hour, but it's arguably the best 2D platformer since Super Metroid. Believe it.   Read More... Posted Aug 21 2008, 01:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: super metroid, bionic commando, cole stryker, watcha playing, final ninja

• Whatcha Playing: Cleaning House, Finding Roots

  It has been well over a month since my last Whatcha Playing here at 61 Frames Per Second. The vicious truth of the matter is that I haven’t been playing that much since the beginning of July. The summer will do that to you. When the weather is as nice as its been here in the northeastern United States (mild, sunny as hell, great thunderstorms), its hard to devote eight hours of a Saturday to grinding RPG characters, engaging in manic shoot-outs, or even just taking in some classics (especially if your apartment isn’t air conditioned.) Last Thursday, though, I finally downloaded Bionic Commando Rearmed, a game I may have mentioned anticipating. Those first delicious minutes I spent grappling around the vibrant world GRIN created signaled one undeniable fact: come the weekend, it was time to play some freaking videogames. But first I had to clean house. Read More... Posted Aug 19 2008, 04:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, whatcha playing, playstation 3, metroid, nintendo ds, xbox 360, capcom, bionic commando, grin, gamecube, too human, pixeljunk, pixeljunk eden, braid, lair, ninja five-0

• Bionic Commando is Love: Bionic Commando Rearmed is Out. It Matters.

  The moment of truth is upon us! For all of you out there who have been playing Bionic Commando Rearmed for the past twenty-four hours on your PCs and Xbox 360s, bully for you. The 360 in my home is currently offline due to some router issues and was not available for me to indulge in. Today is my day though, as the PS3 has no such issues with the router! My brain is bleeding with anticipation, dear reader. Bionic Commando Rearmed is exciting stuff, and not just because it’s a remake of a cult hit and one of my top five favorite games ever made in the history of stuff being made. Rearmed marks a momentous generational change in game development. Read More... Posted Aug 14 2008, 04:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, capcom, bionic commando, love

• Bionic Commando Is Love: Bionic Commando in Eighteen Minutes

  Just two more days and we’ll be together. Forever. Living in complete bionic harmony. Radd Spencer and I will swing on into the sunset, shooting Nazi despots in the head with rocket launchers, breaking the ceasefire in demilitarized zones, and hacking communication lines just for a laugh. I said that out loud, didn’t I? Dag… Read More... Posted Aug 12 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, capcom, bionic commando, love, speed demos archive

• Bionic Commando Is Love: The Bionic Commando Headquarters' Top Ten Bionic Arm Uses

  Can you feel it, dear reader? That slow vibration that pervades the air? That electric quality all around us here in the heart of August, where summer has started its easy descent into fall and the sun sits just a bit lower in the sky than it did only a few days ago? It means that Bionic Commando Rearmed is close. Very, very close. Yes, Bionic Commando’s imminent release has clearly caused me to have some kind of psychotic break. It’s cool, though. I’m sure I’ll be fine come Thursday. In the meantime, I encourage all of you to share my obsession. A good place to get down with the sickness is the Bionic Commando Headquarters. As of twelve months ago, the BCHQ was the only real fan page on the internet. A peculiar little hole devoted to the NES game that started up in the late ‘90s, it’s received only occasional updates over the last eleven years, and has hosted just over four thousand viewers in that time. My favorite part of the Headquarters is the Top Ten Bionic Arm Uses. The list actually brings on more nostalgia than the game itself because it reads like something a sixth grader came up with. I suspect this is where the list actually has its roots. Here, see for yourself. Read More... Posted Aug 11 2008, 03:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, capcom, bionic commando, love

• Bionic Commando Arcade and BC: Elite Forces Are Only Good Because They Are Called Bionic Commando

  Oh, Bionic Commando Rearmed. You are only six days away from me now, and yet, it seems as though eternity stands between us! Our love, pure as the driven snow, strains under this distance, this damnable time! I long for your mechanized embrace, the strength of your grappling hook grip. Ahem. Yeah, I love Bionic Commando. Everyone loves Bionic Commando. What most folks forget, though, is that they really mean they love Bionic Commando on NES. Yes, there are actually four Bionic Commando games out in the wild, three of which are just named “Bionic Commando”. Sadly, two of them suck. Kind of. Read More... Posted Aug 08 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, capcom, bionic commando, hg101, love

• Bionic Commando Rearmed: T-Minus One Week

  That’s right people. Bionic Commando Rearmed comes out in exactly one week. And until Thursday, August 14th, 2008 rolls around, we’re going to be talking about Bionic Commando Rearmed every stinking day. Get. Psyched. Today’s Bionic Commando Rearmed chatter is based around these spectacular “Behind the Scenes” videos from developer GRIN. Read More... Posted Aug 07 2008, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, capcom, bionic commando, love

• Emergency Rescue!! Super Joe!!

  If you're ever looking for a very poor lunch idea, might I suggest two Red Bulls and a package of dehydrated mango slices? One thing Americans need to be less shy about is singing along to superhero ballads. The Japanese, on the other hand, are really fantastic about belting out anthems for their heroes. Bear witness to any opening for any shonen anime or programme. Very few clock in at less than a minute and most of them go on for a minute and a half. All of them are enthusiastic: the singer is always a super-energetic Japanese guy who bellows as if this rubber monster-throttling knight sprang from his own loins. It pleases me to say that Capcom has captured the spirit of Bionic Commando perfectly with its sentai-flavoured trailer for Bionic Commando Rearmed. Are you ready to blow up Hitler's head, kids? Please pray for the success of Radd Spencer for best luck! Read More... Posted Jul 29 2008, 06:55 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: capcom, bionic commando, trailer, sentai, bionic commando rearmed, sing-along, shonen, super joe, radd spencer

• There is Nothing Funny About Bionic Commando Funny Books

  Have you ever been disappointed with your geek kung-fu? You go through life thinking, “Why, yes, I am a gigantic nerd. My nerd knowledge-base is vast and potent. No one can challenge the veritable wealth of useless knowledge I possess, the sheer brain real estate that I have devoted to media instead of human experience. Why, I could have been a physicist! Instead I know about Mega Man continuity.” And then something slips by you and you entire world comes crashing down! There’s a Bionic Commando webcomic that’s been running since March. How in the holy hell did I miss this?! Read More... Posted Jul 18 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, capcom, bionic commando, love, ben judd, comics

• The Ten Greatest Classic Mega Man Levels, Part 3

  Shadow Man As Pete said, Mega Man III started to strain the series' robot-masters-as-industrial-tool conceit. Silly as Top Man is, I have even more trouble getting my head around Shadow Man and his lair sitting at the bottom of a waterfall of lava. What was the civic-planning meeting like for this one? "Finally, we have used the remaining funds in 200X's robot-master budget to build a crazy-sweet ninja robot who lives in a rad fortress at the bottom of a lava flow. He will be protected by robot frogs and parachuting heads." "Madness! Why would you do such a thing?" "Because, sir. It is awesome." Know what? He's right. — JC Read More... Posted Jun 27 2008, 01:32 PM by Peter Smith with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, peter smith, street fighter, capcom, top ten, commando 3, bionic commando, list, mega man, keiji inafune, mega man 9, 1942 joint strike, top man, flame man, shadow man, toad man, elec man, metal man, mega man iii, mega man vi, gemini man, spark man, bubble man, crystal man, dr wily, street fighter iv, mega man iv, street fighter hd remix, mega man ii, tomahawk man, mega man v, the ten greatest classic mega man levels

• The Ten Greatest Classic Mega Man Levels, Part 2

  Metal Man More than your average Mega Man stage, Metal Man's feels collosal. Who knows why — maybe it's the giant screws and gears in the foreground, or the dense, heavily animated background (technically quite impressive) of pistons and cogs. Or maybe it's that Metal Man's stage actually has somewhat less variety than most of Mega Man II's stages, thereby suggesting a larger size. Whatever the reason, the scope seems massive. The stage itself is relatively short, but it feels like just a small part of a vast, rusted-out fortress of industry. — PS Read More... Posted Jun 27 2008, 01:31 PM by Peter Smith with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, peter smith, street fighter, capcom, top ten, commando 3, bionic commando, list, mega man, keiji inafune, mega man 9, 1942 joint strike, top man, flame man, shadow man, toad man, elec man, metal man, mega man iii, mega man vi, gemini man, spark man, bubble man, crystal man, dr wily, street fighter iv, mega man iv, street fighter hd remix, mega man ii, tomahawk man, mega man v, the ten greatest classic mega man levels

• The Ten Greatest Classic Mega Man Levels, Part 1

  Capcom, I don't really know how to say this. It's a little awkward, but damn it, it's the truth. We've known each other a long time, and you've always been a good friend to me, but this year, things have gotten more serious. With Street Fighter IV, HD Remix, Commando 3, 1942: Joint Strike and two versions of Bionic Commando, it's like you've gone out of your way lately to show me what I mean to you, and now that you've announced Mega Man 9, it's time for me to return the favor. Capcom, I. . . I love you. Jesus, I don't know what came over me there. But with Mega Man 9 just unveiled in all its eight-bit glory, my old-school-gaming glands are all swollen and red, and I think it's squeezing out the blood flow to my brain. The early Mega Man games are masterpieces of their era, and they feature some of the most unforgettable stages on the NES — a series of giant constructions that, high-tech though they may be, maintain a playground-like innocence. World-building obsessives that we are, we couldn't let this glorious day go by without commemorating the ten greatest classic Mega Man levels of all time. — Peter Smith Elec Man Keiji Inafune's first attempt at Mega Man was promising but ultimately half-baked. The play was there but the world itself was still confused, its six core stages shuffling back and forth between "gamey" abstraction and eerie pastoral. Elec Man's tower was one of the series' first real successes, an ascent that felt like a true structure and not a background for a sprite to jump about, a dangerous place pulsing with energy that could obliterate our diminutive hero using the very power that fueled his mechanical innards. — John Constantine Read More... Posted Jun 27 2008, 01:30 PM by Peter Smith with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, peter smith, street fighter, capcom, top ten, commando 3, bionic commando, list, mega man, keiji inafune, mega man 9, 1942 joint strike, top man, flame man, shadow man, toad man, elec man, metal man, mega man iii, mega man vi, gemini man, spark man, bubble man, crystal man, dr wily, street fighter iv, mega man iv, street fighter hd remix, mega man ii, tomahawk man, mega man v, the ten greatest classic mega man levels

• Gone Vertical: Hands-on Bionic Commando

  Seeing, as the kids say, is believing. As I said just a few weeks back, I’ve been impressed with the forward thinking at work in Capcom’s upcoming action titles Bionic Commando and Dark Void. Preview footage of both games has emphasized their unique hooks - a grappling hook and jetpack respectively - but they’ve also implied an approach to level design that could elevate those hooks beyond gimmickry. I got my hands on Bionic Commando at Capcom’s preview event in New York yesterday and, at fifty percent complete, the jury’s still out on whether it can deliver on its ambitions. Commando’s grappling hook is exhilarating stuff, more demanding and nuanced than the stick-and-swing play of Treyarch’s Spider-man games, but far more satisfying and tactile as a result. It’s tricky to get a hang of at first since the game does none of the work for you. Read More... Posted Jun 12 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, capcom, bionic commando, dark void