Description
A playthrough of Capcom's 1988 action-adventure for the NES, Bionic Commando.
Bionic Commando on the NES is a liberal reinterpretation of Capcom's popular 1987 arcade game of the same name, which served as the direct sequel to 1985's Commando. Ten years have passed, and the world is once again teetering on the brink of disaster. As explained by the manual:
"I'll talk about a person which I've met when I was young.
In 198X we've found Nazz's top secret material called Abatros, a plan which never was put to practice.
Imperial forces Generalissimo Killt had never seen this plan, and decided to materialize this plan.
The federation decided to stop his attempt by sending our hero Super Joe, but lost contact with him.
Our brave man (you the player) was sent to the empire with a special mission to rescue Super Joe, this story begins from here..."
"Our brave man," Ladd Spencer, is a bionic supersoldier with an extendable mechanical arm that can do all sorts of useful things on the battlefield. He can use it to latch onto surfaces and propel himself across gaps, pull himself up to otherwise unreachable platforms, grab objects, and stun enemy soldiers. This arm (and the resulting lack of a jump button) is Bionic Commando's defining feature, and it provides for more freedom and mechanical complexity than you'll find in most action-platformers. It takes practice to get the hang of using it effectively, but before long, you'll come to appreciate how intuitive and empowering the controls are, and how central they are to the game's identity.
The controls are similar to the arcade's, but Capcom invested a lot of effort in expanding the core game for its NES version, much like they did with https://youtu.be/xeYqwr-0STM. Bionic Commando's home adaptation is a semi-linear adventure that places more emphasis on its narrative and introduces a few minor RPG and puzzle elements. The additions make for a more substantial and satisfying experience overall, and the horrendous translation gives it a quirky charm that's difficult to resist.
Finally, though the English version is censored, it doesn't do anything to meaningfully obscure the intent of the original Japanese version, named ヒットラーの復活: Top Secret (lit. The Resurrection of Hitler: Top Secret). Nazi symbols were scrubbed and some names were changed, but the connections are blatantly obvious. The cutscene at 1:07:15 says it all, I think.
Bionic Commando is an amazing game and a must-play for any NES fan.
(I also highly recommend the Game Boy remake, which improved on the NES game in just about every way possible. https://youtu.be/g4R8VNVsq9I)
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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