The original Bionic Commando released in the 1980's and drew a strong fan base that continues today. Bionic Commando Rearmed remakes of the 2D sidescroller using 3D graphics. Although there are other updates, like a new techno-based soundtrack, the core of the Rearmed stays true to the original game. The story involves an elite soldier named Spencer sent in to infiltrate an evil empire and rescue a captured agent named "Super Joe," but Spencer's no ordinary special ops soldier. He's got a bionic arm that allows him to swing from place to place.

One of the first things new players will notice, besides the fact that Spencer appears to be wearing a bright green gym suit with orange stripes, is that there's no jump button. He relies on his bionic arm, equipped with a tether and grappling hook, to get from place to place, but there's no actual jump button for getting to a higher platform, getting a better vantage point, or avoiding bullets. Similarly, there's no way to drop down to a lower platform except to fall off an edge and hope that there will be something to land on. After years of playing platform games, this kind of gameplay can take some getting used to, especially since it's so easy to overshoot landings while arm swinging. Other than that, the controls are remarkably tight and responsive. However, we were surprised to find out that grapple arm can't be used as a secondary weapon except when picking up explosive barrels to throw or knocking people away during overhead sequences.

We played the game using an Xbox 360 controller and a plan keyboard, and surprisingly enough, found the keyboard to be easier to use. The analog stick on the Xbox 360 controller was a little too imprecise for our liking. Trying to fire the grapple arm diagonally usually required a few extra tries as Spencer alternated between shooting horizontally or straight up. Difficult areas like the darkened caves, where players can't see anything that's going on, became murderous when we couldn't rely on our controls. We ended up using the D-pad, but that also required some getting used to. Players will settle for whatever controller works best for themselves, but for us, it's the keyboard.

The game is pretty straightforward. Players swing from platform to platform, shooting anything that gets in the way, and occasionally hacking computers before confronting a giant boss. Spencer then gets picked up by a chopper to move to a new area. Although the hacking minigame is relatively simple, players maneuver a ball into solid blocks in an effort to get it into a green one, it often interrupts the game with its slow pace and text-based communications dialogue that conveniently reveals the upcoming boss's weaknesses. This becomes more apparent in the two-player co-op mode, when one player is left to wander around while the other plays the hacking game. Unfortunately, there's no way to get around the hacking bit. The door to the boss room won't open unless all computers are hacked first. It's ultimately not a big deal, but it noticeably slows things down.


Bionic Commando Rearmed packs in a lot of action for a game that costs under twenty dollars. In addition to the two-player co-op campaign mode, there's four player same screen competition with different modes using different characters, including Super Joe. This is where the action really speeds up, since players must use their grapple arms to both get around and pick up items such as weapons and health packs. Unfortunately, multiplayer modes don't have any LAN or online support, so players will have to crowd around the computer screen. Since the game could very easily run on most laptop system, this could have become a great party game.

The PC version of Bionic Commando Rearmed costs about five dollars more than the console release, but there will be a patch in the future that will add more challenge rooms. Challenge rooms are pretty much minigames where players must use all their bionic skills solve puzzles and complete objectives. The PC version will have the strongest amount of content after the patch releases, but for now, it's practically identical to the Xbox 360 version. The biggest problem with buying the game comes from its method of distribution. At the time of this writing, Bionic Commando Rearmed is limited to three places for download and purchase, none being Valve's Steam service. While Direct2Drive, Gamersgate and Capcom's online store are all excellent options, we imagine a large number of gamers will pass this game up because they'd want it associated with their Steam profile.


Whether you're playing for nostalgia or to see what the big deal about Bionic Commando was all about, this inexpensive game is well worth the asking price. The controls and lack of jumping take some getting used to but don't break the game. Our biggest gripes are with the lack of LAN/online support and no distribution on Steam, but those factors don't directly impact our enjoyment of the game. Bionic Commando Rearmed has a wonderful retro feel, the campaign levels are very challenging even by today's standards, and everything (especially the boss battles) look fantastic using 3D graphics. We prefer playing on the PC using keyboard controls, but this is clearly a game worth owning on any platform.

Download the Bionic Commando Rearmed HD Launch Trailer (93 MB)