Showing posts with label bionic commando. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bionic commando. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
The Nintendo Power Retrospectives - Part 8
This time I'm taking a look at Nintendo Power #2, with the magazine's most controversial cover, and a few of the NES's controversial titles.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 OST - Mostly Complete
A couple months ago I recorded a few songs from Bionic Commando Rearmed 2, assuming that a more complete rip would surface. That hasn't happened to my knowledge, so I decided to do it myself...kind of.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6OHDRVFT
(Megaupload keeps giving me "file not available at this moment" messages, but I assure you it's there! If I can dig up my Mediafire account I'll see about posting it there, if it becomes an issue.)
This is not a complete rip - it's missing a few tracks, like the menu theme, the map theme, and some of the ending songs and cutscene bits. They're also improperly and inconsistently titled, because I neglected to catalog them properly when recording them. But I didn't get to complete it last time I had my PS3 hooked up to my computer and I just don't have the time at the moment to hook it up again to complete it, so I figured this was better than nothing, considering it was originally done just for my own sake. It should have all of the level themes, at least.
It's a great soundtrack - Simon Viklund is not only a great arranger but an excellent composer as well (though many songs are variations on themes from the original game.) It's almost as if the SID chip never went out of style. It's also rather unique from a cultural perspective - Bionic Commando is a Japanese property, but Viklund brought the feeling from the Commodore 64, a very Western (and particularly European) sound that is probably alien to the game's home land.
I love the game itself - I should get a proper review up eventually, but it really got the short end of the stick, for a number of reasons. The changes in the control scheme are off-putting for the first hour or so, but some of the acrobatics you can (and need to) pull off in the final stages make it all worthwhile.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
A few Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 MP3s
For some reason I'd thought the Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 soundtrack would be ripped by now, but I've been around the FF Shrine Forums all week and nothing's popped up. So, I decided to record a couple themes - namely, the first level song and the credits theme. I would've done more, but only my 360 is currently hooked up to my computer at the moment, and since I bought the PS3 version, this was all from the demo. It doesn't seem like there's an official soundtrack planned like there was for the first game, sadly enough. And yes, Simon Viklund, the composer from Rearmed returned to score this one, except the music is mostly all new. The credits theme is awesome - it rearranges the stage 1 song in several different styles, and it's over seven minutes long.
Level 1
Credits
Mediafire Download
Anyway, as it turns out the Joystiq review was hardly an aberration and a lot of the critics are pretty harsh on it. I'm still of the opinion that it's pretty damn good, but in the process of cutting all of the leftover cruft from the 8-bit original designs, they really didn't put anything else new and interesting in its place. Well, I guess the sniper rifles and helicopter segments, but those are kind of stupid. The biggest complaints (beyond the DRM crappiness) is that it removes the advanced enemy AI and enemy weapon stuff that was introduced in Rearmed, mostly on the higher difficulties...which I didn't care for much anyway, so hey. I actually saw one review called the enemies bullet sponges. Seriously? Have they never played a game from the 8-bit era? That's like calling Super Mario Bros stupid because those dumb mushroom things just walk forward waiting to be pounced. Anyway, it's always possible they can patch a harder mode in, though I actually thought the patch to the original Rearmed sorta screwed up the balance.
Level 1
Credits
Mediafire Download
Anyway, as it turns out the Joystiq review was hardly an aberration and a lot of the critics are pretty harsh on it. I'm still of the opinion that it's pretty damn good, but in the process of cutting all of the leftover cruft from the 8-bit original designs, they really didn't put anything else new and interesting in its place. Well, I guess the sniper rifles and helicopter segments, but those are kind of stupid. The biggest complaints (beyond the DRM crappiness) is that it removes the advanced enemy AI and enemy weapon stuff that was introduced in Rearmed, mostly on the higher difficulties...which I didn't care for much anyway, so hey. I actually saw one review called the enemies bullet sponges. Seriously? Have they never played a game from the 8-bit era? That's like calling Super Mario Bros stupid because those dumb mushroom things just walk forward waiting to be pounced. Anyway, it's always possible they can patch a harder mode in, though I actually thought the patch to the original Rearmed sorta screwed up the balance.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 First Impressions
One of the major complaints is that most of the weapons are superfluous in the face of the standard weapon - which isn't wrong, but the original Bionic Commando was also pretty much the same. It completely fails to mention how the level designs have been drastically improved over the NES' (and original Rearmed's) somewhat haphazard designs, including multiple paths through each stage. They write off the cheesy humor but apparently forgot to use the little Metroid Prime-like scanner thing, which has some pretty hilarious descriptions for the random things lying about. They also forgot to mention that the music is, once again, COMPLETELY BADASS, and if it weren't getting late I'd be lugging my PS3 next to my computer to record the soundtrack. About the only thing I can agree on is that the boss fights are indeed pretty lame.
Huh, I spent way longer than I wanted to complaining about some guy's opinion on the internet.
As for the jump button - I spent a good portion of the first level swearing not to use it out of principle, then I got over myself and found it pretty fun to use. It's rarely essential, but it does make navigating the levels easier - they do seem to have been built with the jump button in mind, but it's completely possible to navigate around them using the arm if you want. Jumping and then shooting at your arm has a fun rhythm, one which was missing in the original game since you couldn't jump without springs. It does feature some slightly altered physics which took me about an hour to fully get used to, especially since I had the original game's so deeply ingrained in my gamer conscious, but like the rest of the game, it's not really better or worse, just different.
The only other complaint I can muster is that it's only 30 FPS. (Give me my PC version, Capcom!) It uses nVidia PhsyX now (the PC version of the first game did, too) and it does look nicer (especially the jungle level), but I prefer smoothness over detail.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
In Defense of: Bionic Commando (The New One)
It's not technically up on the main page yet, since I'm still working on editing/formatting a few more pieces, but Sotenga's review of the new Bionic Commando is now part of the full article. He gives it a favorable review, despite a detailed deconstruction about how awful the plotline truly is, and his overall assessment is pretty spot on.
I actually really enjoyed this game a lot, although it's easy to spot where the issues are. It made the famous mistake of trying to appeal to everyone and completely failed in the process. Retro fans disliked the complete change in atmosphere and tone, while modern fans were somehow under the assumption that this was an open-ended game, and disliked its linearity, as well as its difficulty. I think two things caused this: GRIN shot themselves in the foot by making Bionic Commando Rearmed (unofficial HG101 Game of 2008) so awesome, so the change was made incredibly apparent, and it had the unfortunate situation of releasing next to Infamous and Prototype, two other games that satiated action gamers in ways that Bionic Commando didn't.
Personally, I'd like to think of this as this generation's PS2 Shinobi, another 3D revival from about six years back that also emerged to middling reception. Both have their own fair set of issues - the pits and checkpoints in Shinobi, the load times in Bionic Commando, the repetitive level designs in both of them - but the core mechanics are just so damned fantastic that, for me, at least, it completely overshadowed any of its other issues. For Shinobi, it was the air dashing and wall running; for Bionic Commando, it's (obviously) the swinging. It doesn't really feel like the older games, but there was never any way it could in 3D. So much of the platform swinging is automatic that it loses that aspect, but it more than makes up for it with its application in combat.
Any of the major battles are made much more exciting when you're surrounded and start getting pelted up bullets, when you can leap off the nearest cliff, turn around in mid-air, latch on to something (hopefully) and slowly regain some health while firing what few enemies you can see. It is, in practice, a variation of the cover system that's been popularized by Gears of War, but infinitely more interesting because it can be used almost anywhere, without having to duck behind designer-placed obstacles. It also makes important use of vertical space and the ability to traverse it quickly, greatly enhancing any strategic combat options.
And for me, latching onto an enemy, reeling in so I slam into them and send myself flying backwards into the air, while spraying fire towards any other enemies - well, that's just as awesome as the first time you launched an enemy into the air and juggled them with bullets in Devil May Cry. It has the same exact impact as not only looking cool, but serving a important function in the game itself.
A few weeks after its release, Gamestop dropped the price to $20, although it's back hovering about the $40 mark now. That'll probably drop again come the holidays, which hopefully will convince more people to give it a go. I know this is another one of those games that's going to be showing up in "LTTP" threads for years to come, and maybe it's only in time that it'll get the respect it deserves.
I actually really enjoyed this game a lot, although it's easy to spot where the issues are. It made the famous mistake of trying to appeal to everyone and completely failed in the process. Retro fans disliked the complete change in atmosphere and tone, while modern fans were somehow under the assumption that this was an open-ended game, and disliked its linearity, as well as its difficulty. I think two things caused this: GRIN shot themselves in the foot by making Bionic Commando Rearmed (unofficial HG101 Game of 2008) so awesome, so the change was made incredibly apparent, and it had the unfortunate situation of releasing next to Infamous and Prototype, two other games that satiated action gamers in ways that Bionic Commando didn't.
Personally, I'd like to think of this as this generation's PS2 Shinobi, another 3D revival from about six years back that also emerged to middling reception. Both have their own fair set of issues - the pits and checkpoints in Shinobi, the load times in Bionic Commando, the repetitive level designs in both of them - but the core mechanics are just so damned fantastic that, for me, at least, it completely overshadowed any of its other issues. For Shinobi, it was the air dashing and wall running; for Bionic Commando, it's (obviously) the swinging. It doesn't really feel like the older games, but there was never any way it could in 3D. So much of the platform swinging is automatic that it loses that aspect, but it more than makes up for it with its application in combat.
Any of the major battles are made much more exciting when you're surrounded and start getting pelted up bullets, when you can leap off the nearest cliff, turn around in mid-air, latch on to something (hopefully) and slowly regain some health while firing what few enemies you can see. It is, in practice, a variation of the cover system that's been popularized by Gears of War, but infinitely more interesting because it can be used almost anywhere, without having to duck behind designer-placed obstacles. It also makes important use of vertical space and the ability to traverse it quickly, greatly enhancing any strategic combat options.
And for me, latching onto an enemy, reeling in so I slam into them and send myself flying backwards into the air, while spraying fire towards any other enemies - well, that's just as awesome as the first time you launched an enemy into the air and juggled them with bullets in Devil May Cry. It has the same exact impact as not only looking cool, but serving a important function in the game itself.
A few weeks after its release, Gamestop dropped the price to $20, although it's back hovering about the $40 mark now. That'll probably drop again come the holidays, which hopefully will convince more people to give it a go. I know this is another one of those games that's going to be showing up in "LTTP" threads for years to come, and maybe it's only in time that it'll get the respect it deserves.
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