My NES loving Retro side never wanted to allow me to say it... But I never really got the original Bionic commando. Before you decide to hate me, read on and worry not.

I never played BC when I was younger, during my NES years I never knew a kid who owned it, and for some reason, it never jumped off the shelf at the rental store at me, so I didn't get to experience it when I should have.
I didn't play it till later in life, when I started to hear buzz from new friends about how great it was and how they couldn't believe I had never played it, so I gave it a try, fully expecting to love it.

I didn't.

Which was strange, because I had set myself up to love it so hard, to be blown away with it, and to add it to the list of games I would defend with my life. So why didn't I? I was as puzzled about my meh feelings towards it as anyone else.

After playing BC: RA I think I know why I didn't like it.

I downloaded Rearmed mostly so my friend, who is a huge Bionic commando fan, could play it, and in doing so, figured I'd play it some myself. Because I knew I had to like it, I HAD TO! My retro life depended on it!

Played it, put the controller down after several deaths, still was not a fan.

The following days I would come back to it now and then, I don't know why, I still didn't like the game. I think it had something to do with wanting so badly to enjoy it, that I wouldn't let myself not play it.

There was nothing not to like, the graphics on both the NES and 360 are nice, I love old school 2D games, the music is amazing, the controls are fine(So no, I wasn't one of those "NO JUMP BUTTONS?! WTF" people), everything added up to a great game, but I wasn't enjoying it.

But then it started to happen, as I played it and started to beat levels, I found myself sitting and playing it more and more, hating it less and less, my apathetic emotions towards dying in the game turned into fury that I had missed such an easy grapple.
Until a whole Sunday was spent playing it with little to no breaks... Screw you underground tunnels, screw you for killing me so many times.

So what was it that kept me from enjoying the original all those years ago? And also kept me from enjoying this one for the first week of playing it?

Patience.
Games have changed so much over the years, that I can't be bothered to learn how to be good right away, I want a learning curve, I want a puppy to guide me down the first hallway and show me what to do, and if he does bite me, it's only a nibble, cause he's a freaking puppy.

The last 10 years of consoles made me into a gaming wussy.
I'm sad to say it.
Gone are the days where I would sit for hours and hours playing a Mega Man game, trying to beat a level without getting hit. Or trying to find every hidden item in a game, just because knowing it was there drove me to find it. And worst of all, gone are the days when a game was so hard the first level drove me crazy, and I was still set on beating it.

When I was 10 or 11, I would have played the living hell out of Bionic Commando, beat it every which way, and loved it. Since I came to it later in life, I wasn't so lucky, but thankfully for some reason I stuck with it and am now enjoying myself.

With Mega Man 9 coming out soon, I hope that me and balls hard games keep getting along, because there's a list of other games from the NES I never managed to beat, even with the hours and hours I put into them (Solstice I'm looking at you... You too Blaster Master).

So I finally get why my friend liked BC so much, and what I had been missing out on, of course.. I can't admit that to him.. He'll gloat like a son of a bitch... Of course... He hates Bioshock... So I have that to hold against him.