8th December 2005, 5:27 PM
Bionic Commando: Elite Forces
for Game Boy Color
Developed by Nintendo Software Technology
Published by Nintendo (with liscence from Capcom)
Released in 2000.
Review written 12/8/2005
Bionic Commando: Elite Forces is a fantastic remake of one of the great classic platformer serieses. The original Bionic Commando, for the arcade and now available on PS2 and Xbox in the Capcom arcade collection, is supposedly not as good but I have not played it. Bionic Commando on the NES, though, was a great game and is one of the great NES classics. Bionic Commando for the original Game Boy was similarly fantastic, and improved on the NES title in many ways (Note that those three games are each completely different games, despite all sharing the same title). This game brings back that series, which had gone without a game in eight years (since the GB version's release in 1992), with a game developed by Nintendo's then-new American division, made up to a large extent of Digipen (game design college part funded by Nintendo) graduates. It is faithful to the series, and anyone who liked the NES or GB Bionic Commando games will love this one.
The Bionic Commando serieses most unique feature is the bionic arm. Other games have tried to emulate this, but none have quite matched the briliant simplicity of the arm as seen in these games. In Bionic Commando, you cannot jump. Yet, it is a platforming game with a heavy focus on the platforming, as opposed to the enemies, who often feel somewhat incidental to the point of the game. The key to the game, and the series, is the bionic arm. It works like an extending swing, so you can attach to any celing or box or platform-bottom and swing. As you get better, you can swing endlessly on the celings, letting yourself go and then reattaching in front of you, swinging forward. The game throws trickier and trickier jumping puzzles at you too as you progress, so you have to work your way between tiny swing platforms suspended over nothing or swing along the underside of a plane, just a fall away from certain doom. It can be hard at first, but as you get better at the game all but the hardest jumps will become mostly routine -- though that is not to say that they become less fun. The bionic arm swinging is the best part of the game, and the kind of stuff you can do with it is great -- where else have you swung between lampposts or dealt with a bottomless pit that suddenly stretches into the horizon by simply swinging across the celing?
How much you like Bionic Commando: Elite Forces, like the Bionic Commando games before it, is entirely decided by how much you like the bionic arm. I loved it, and have replayed the game again and again over the years mainly because of how fun the bionic arm is. It's a unique gameplay concept and one that does not appear with such purity of purpose in other titles -- one common complaint about Bionic Commando is "Why can't you jump over little boxes or tiny pits?" My response is, "Because that would ruin the entire point of Bionic Commando!" The game exists because of the bionic arm. Bionic Commando with jumping would not be Bionic Commando, for it would not make you use the one thing that makes this game noticably different from the others. Jumping has no place in this game. Gameplay gets a 10 out of 10.
Bionic Commando: Elite Forces has sixteen levels along the main path in each game. Two of those levels are exclusive to each of the two characters (a male and a female commando, who are otherwise essentially identical except for looks). There are two additional bonus levels that are a bit harder to find (and change the colors of your costume when you beat them, a nice bonus), and top-down stages accessed by running into trucks on the overworld map. The topdown stages are short and easy (though you can die) and mainly exist as your main way of getting extra lives, but for that purpose they are very useful. Each time you beat a normal level you will usually get some kind of item, like another weapon, or a special item, or armor to protect you from hits, or a keycard that lets you access further levels. Generally though, you will want to take with you your best weapon, the health pills (they refill your health when used -- absolutely invaluable), the correctly colored card, and the best armor you've got so far. There is one level that forces you to take an item other than the health pills, making that one a bit harder, but it's not too bad. The game goes by quickly -- the first time I played the game, during vacation in 2000, I beat it in two days (and then played it again and beat it again within the week) -- but perhaps that is as much because of how much fun it is as because of its length, as Game Boy games are often short. In addition, I've found that the game is highly replayable, as I've played through it at least five times. The single player game gets a 9/10 (10/10 in my opinion, but I must do something to show that some people don't like the bionic arm game mechanic, so there it is...).
There is no multiplayer in this game.
Bionic Commando: Elite Forces has good graphics for a Game Boy Color game. Because of the small screen there are a few times when you have to throw yourself forward into the unknown, but they are rare, and you can look up and down for the cases when it is that way that you think you must go. Bottomless pits are often marked with skull images, making it clearer 'do not fall here'. The character art is great. The game has very colorful still cinema scenes that use a trick of the GBC in order to show many colors on screen. The ingame graphics are also pretty impressive, though, and the animation especially is fantastic. The swinging animation is very smooth and it is clear that a lot of time went into the animation. Very good. Graphics get a 9/10.
The music and sound just improve the presentation of the game. The sound is simple, but has voices -- when you select items before entering a level a voice says the name of the item, enemy bosses scream out when you defeat them, etc. It's low quality, but you can only expect so much from a Game Boy Color... The music, though, I loved. It is true that there are a limited number of music tracks in the game, but even so, I thought that all of them were great. I've often found myself watching the introduction every time I launch the game in a large part because of how much I like the music.
Sound and music gets 9/10, one point off for the average sound effects (though if they were seperated I'd give music a 10 and sound an 8).
Plusses
+Amazingly fun
+Endlessly replayable
+Two exclusive levels for each character
+The bionic arm is awesome!
Minusses
-Somewhat short
-Once you get good the game's difficulty drops
-The Bug
-Some people dislike the bionic arm game mechanic
Gameplay: 10/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 9/10
Singleplayer: 9/10
Multiplayer: N/A
97% (not an average). Second best game on the Game Boy Color after The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages.
for Game Boy Color
Developed by Nintendo Software Technology
Published by Nintendo (with liscence from Capcom)
Released in 2000.
Review written 12/8/2005
Bionic Commando: Elite Forces is a fantastic remake of one of the great classic platformer serieses. The original Bionic Commando, for the arcade and now available on PS2 and Xbox in the Capcom arcade collection, is supposedly not as good but I have not played it. Bionic Commando on the NES, though, was a great game and is one of the great NES classics. Bionic Commando for the original Game Boy was similarly fantastic, and improved on the NES title in many ways (Note that those three games are each completely different games, despite all sharing the same title). This game brings back that series, which had gone without a game in eight years (since the GB version's release in 1992), with a game developed by Nintendo's then-new American division, made up to a large extent of Digipen (game design college part funded by Nintendo) graduates. It is faithful to the series, and anyone who liked the NES or GB Bionic Commando games will love this one.
The Bionic Commando serieses most unique feature is the bionic arm. Other games have tried to emulate this, but none have quite matched the briliant simplicity of the arm as seen in these games. In Bionic Commando, you cannot jump. Yet, it is a platforming game with a heavy focus on the platforming, as opposed to the enemies, who often feel somewhat incidental to the point of the game. The key to the game, and the series, is the bionic arm. It works like an extending swing, so you can attach to any celing or box or platform-bottom and swing. As you get better, you can swing endlessly on the celings, letting yourself go and then reattaching in front of you, swinging forward. The game throws trickier and trickier jumping puzzles at you too as you progress, so you have to work your way between tiny swing platforms suspended over nothing or swing along the underside of a plane, just a fall away from certain doom. It can be hard at first, but as you get better at the game all but the hardest jumps will become mostly routine -- though that is not to say that they become less fun. The bionic arm swinging is the best part of the game, and the kind of stuff you can do with it is great -- where else have you swung between lampposts or dealt with a bottomless pit that suddenly stretches into the horizon by simply swinging across the celing?
How much you like Bionic Commando: Elite Forces, like the Bionic Commando games before it, is entirely decided by how much you like the bionic arm. I loved it, and have replayed the game again and again over the years mainly because of how fun the bionic arm is. It's a unique gameplay concept and one that does not appear with such purity of purpose in other titles -- one common complaint about Bionic Commando is "Why can't you jump over little boxes or tiny pits?" My response is, "Because that would ruin the entire point of Bionic Commando!" The game exists because of the bionic arm. Bionic Commando with jumping would not be Bionic Commando, for it would not make you use the one thing that makes this game noticably different from the others. Jumping has no place in this game. Gameplay gets a 10 out of 10.
Bionic Commando: Elite Forces has sixteen levels along the main path in each game. Two of those levels are exclusive to each of the two characters (a male and a female commando, who are otherwise essentially identical except for looks). There are two additional bonus levels that are a bit harder to find (and change the colors of your costume when you beat them, a nice bonus), and top-down stages accessed by running into trucks on the overworld map. The topdown stages are short and easy (though you can die) and mainly exist as your main way of getting extra lives, but for that purpose they are very useful. Each time you beat a normal level you will usually get some kind of item, like another weapon, or a special item, or armor to protect you from hits, or a keycard that lets you access further levels. Generally though, you will want to take with you your best weapon, the health pills (they refill your health when used -- absolutely invaluable), the correctly colored card, and the best armor you've got so far. There is one level that forces you to take an item other than the health pills, making that one a bit harder, but it's not too bad. The game goes by quickly -- the first time I played the game, during vacation in 2000, I beat it in two days (and then played it again and beat it again within the week) -- but perhaps that is as much because of how much fun it is as because of its length, as Game Boy games are often short. In addition, I've found that the game is highly replayable, as I've played through it at least five times. The single player game gets a 9/10 (10/10 in my opinion, but I must do something to show that some people don't like the bionic arm game mechanic, so there it is...).
There is no multiplayer in this game.
Bionic Commando: Elite Forces has good graphics for a Game Boy Color game. Because of the small screen there are a few times when you have to throw yourself forward into the unknown, but they are rare, and you can look up and down for the cases when it is that way that you think you must go. Bottomless pits are often marked with skull images, making it clearer 'do not fall here'. The character art is great. The game has very colorful still cinema scenes that use a trick of the GBC in order to show many colors on screen. The ingame graphics are also pretty impressive, though, and the animation especially is fantastic. The swinging animation is very smooth and it is clear that a lot of time went into the animation. Very good. Graphics get a 9/10.
The music and sound just improve the presentation of the game. The sound is simple, but has voices -- when you select items before entering a level a voice says the name of the item, enemy bosses scream out when you defeat them, etc. It's low quality, but you can only expect so much from a Game Boy Color... The music, though, I loved. It is true that there are a limited number of music tracks in the game, but even so, I thought that all of them were great. I've often found myself watching the introduction every time I launch the game in a large part because of how much I like the music.
Sound and music gets 9/10, one point off for the average sound effects (though if they were seperated I'd give music a 10 and sound an 8).
Plusses
+Amazingly fun
+Endlessly replayable
+Two exclusive levels for each character
+The bionic arm is awesome!
Minusses
-Somewhat short
-Once you get good the game's difficulty drops
-The Bug
-Some people dislike the bionic arm game mechanic
Gameplay: 10/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 9/10
Singleplayer: 9/10
Multiplayer: N/A
97% (not an average). Second best game on the Game Boy Color after The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages.