Bionic Commando Rearmed

Developer Grin

Publisher Capcom

Format 360, PC, PS3

Release 2008

The first hurdle to overcome in Bionic Commando is your instinct. You arrive at the edge of a platform, merely a short hop from the next, or find your path blocked by an unassuming crate. What you do next should be obvious, but Nathan ‘Rad’ Spencer is the rare platform game star who can’t jump, can’t even lift both feet off the ground without assistance from his extend-and-retract bionic arm. When there’s no girder or spotlight above for him to latch on to and swing himself over, you have to sheepishly turn and find another way around.

With , Capcom and Swedish developer Grin may have been tempted to relax these artificial limitations, set by a 1987 arcade game and its 1988 NES successor, their two-button controllers fully occupied by multidirectional shooting and grappling. In 2008 the Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers certainly had room to afford a cybernetic