It was only announced yesterday, and already opinions are highly divided on Capcom's Bionic Commando remake. So far voices tend to fall on either side of a binary split, either gushing with the misty-eyed enthusiasm of a nostalgic cockney Blitz-survivor, or becoming instantly disheartened and holding fast to the "emo game is emo" maxim as they gaze upon the update's new dark and gritty (yawn) stylings.
That latter camp have certainly got a point. There's a small happy shard of light still left in a corner of my heart that remembers when games were like, you know, fun, and as such I'm sick to the back teeth of this current self-defeating need to appear "mature" via the use of inherently juvenile obsessions with violence and dark, grizzled anti-heroes. But who knows, maybe I'm just a big frilly ponce.
Either way, BC's trailer - which first apeared earlier today before being hastily pulled - provides us with all the necessary ticked boxes. Over-acted, gruff and despairing voice-over? Check. Scenes of gray urban destruction? Check. The same clunky, lived-in, militaristic sci-fi art style as around eight million other games out there right now? Check, check, check.
But it's not all bad. While what I assume to be the gameplay sections in the trailer's second half positively reek of a re-skinned Spider-Man game, some of the wrecked city architecture looks pretty epic in places, the forest areas on show towards the end are suitably lush, and you can't completely hate a trailer that ends with a giant robo-snake fight. Just please Capcom. let's get out of the grey city and into the countryside quick, and ideally, could you throw in a few song and dance routines and/or kittens in clown suits too? That'd be great.
[Golden Donut, you're invited to Christmas dinner at my house this year]
Dollars to donuts says that the Spiderman games were the proof of concept the bigwigs wanted before greenlighting this. And I hope to God they're going with a better VA than that. You want a voice that sounds like Solid Snake, go get freakin' Hayter and not an intern with a chest cold.
Still, hearing the strains of the original theme song ran chills up my spine... If anything, I approve of the music.
It's not as exciting as I expected it would be, but let's not give up hope just yet. Capcom's next gen track record has been great so far, so I have high hopes they can pull this one off without ruining my childhood memories of the the original. And you're right about the dark anti-hero thing. Everybody is modeled after Solid Snake or Kratos these days. Can't blame the developers, as these types of characters are big hits with the gaming populace. It only makes me appreciate games like BioShock even more. The silent protagonist approach can be used to great effect if done properly.
OMG yes! I figured something like this was coming after the success of Lost Planet, the whole grapple hook apparatus in that game reeked of Bionic Commando. I don't care about what the haters say, I'm down for this game like Britney Spears's Ham Sandwich.
It's not Mike Patton, but if Patton somehow signed on for this, I'd suddenly be a lot more interested. His voice was one of the coolest parts of The Darkness.
Jesus. Seriously, that's the best they can do? We waited how long for this? RIDICULOUSLY derivative. Apparently they weren't watching Warrior Within's reaction when it took the same turn. Yay for Emo Spider-Man and yay for next-gen brown...
at the very least, they kept the red uniform of the bads...er, imperials. i'm not sure why they needed to make his bionic arm cartoonishly large. and i can't get excited about a jungle level...as that was in the japanese version of the original, and looks like it seriously sucked donkeys.
so gears of war meets spidey. i guess they simply forgot that what made the original spectacular was it's innovation. glad that in the next-gen arena of gaming, they couldn't come up with any type of originality.
I mean, he is a Bionic Commando. Short of making it anime style and side scrolling, I don't think there's any way not to get grit on a character concept that's one part extendo - arm swinging guy and one part single person army.
Mario's the only character that made the retro to modern jump without all this emo-retro lament, and that just because his 3D title laid the ground work for how the whole 3rd person 3d platformer thing would work on a console.
Looking forward to the retroforcego! podcast after this :D
I think you're all being silly. It looks intriguing and it has potential. I'm all for the revamping and updating of retro games for the new gen. Hopefully it won't end up being a total rehash of, well, everything else out there. The gritty, emo stlye is overdone, but it can work if the game itself is good.
"so gears of war meets spidey. i guess they simply forgot that what made the original spectacular was it's innovation. glad that in the next-gen arena of gaming, they couldn't come up with any type of originality."
but . . . its a remake . . . if you want originality, I'd suggest Hostess or Sara Lee!
I'll... reserve judgment till I play it. I mean it sounds like they're really trying this time (did you hear the remix of the old BC music?) I just wonder how much of Lost Planet's engine they borrowed for it :P
"Dormant since long?" Nice bit of english thar. Poor grammar aside, thought it looked pretty fucking spiffy. I see little wrong with post apocalyptic cyborg spiderman rip off's. Sure I'm sick to death of this "maturity" bullshit too, but as long as the underlying game is fun, sure fuck it.
In the future, when you lose an arm. You get stuck with something that looks like a forklift, crossed over with a riding lawnmower, and a Nintendo Power Glove? :(
Here is an idea Capcom, make a 2D version for DS and Wii so that you can actually make money on this design-by-committee bullshit that is going to end up ruining one of your best franchises.
But blech at the environments and what we could make out of what the plot will be. Sure it should be industrial and slightly futuristic, but this gritty bullshit is bullshit. And what about the red nazi eagle army?? Where are they? And zombie Hitler? This is their chance to have zombie hitler in the non-japanese version damn it. He better be in it!
Yeah...I was just thinking how few post-apocalyptic games with super-soldiers there are in the world and how we definitely need to see more games with this theme. Too it be cool if the main protagonist swung around this post-apocalyptic world like Spider-Man. That would be really original.
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Contest:
6:03 PM on 10.17.2007
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Do not want, until proven otherwise.
Still, hearing the strains of the original theme song ran chills up my spine... If anything, I approve of the music.
I can has true successor to Bionic Commando, pleez?
Bionic Commando in name only.
Do not want.
I guess I just dont get so misty eyed for retro gaming.
so gears of war meets spidey. i guess they simply forgot that what made the original spectacular was it's innovation. glad that in the next-gen arena of gaming, they couldn't come up with any type of originality.
Its actually about how I pictured it to be.
I mean, he is a Bionic Commando. Short of making it anime style and side scrolling, I don't think there's any way not to get grit on a character concept that's one part extendo - arm swinging guy and one part single person army.
Mario's the only character that made the retro to modern jump without all this emo-retro lament, and that just because his 3D title laid the ground work for how the whole 3rd person 3d platformer thing would work on a console.
Looking forward to the retroforcego! podcast after this :D
but . . . its a remake . . . if you want originality, I'd suggest Hostess or Sara Lee!
Much darker n gritier feel, I LOVE IT!!!
I respect those of you who are holding out some optimism, and I hope you're right.
But as of now this looks like Final Fight Streetwise all over again.
He's fucking Back Alley Brawler from City of Heroes.
The gameplay looks pretty fun, i'd just think it would get repetitive.
Capcom... fail.
And yeah, it's pretty terrible. Yikes.
But blech at the environments and what we could make out of what the plot will be. Sure it should be industrial and slightly futuristic, but this gritty bullshit is bullshit. And what about the red nazi eagle army?? Where are they? And zombie Hitler? This is their chance to have zombie hitler in the non-japanese version damn it. He better be in it!
Looks like it could be fun to me, but until there's some hands-on impressions on how it actually plays who knows?