io9: Bionic Commando

Fans Demand Post-Nuclear Earth Be Pretty

Graeme McMillan — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 14:23:38 PST

Who said that post-nuclear dystopias have to be dull and colorless? Previewing their upcoming Bionic Commando videogame here at Wondercon, Capcom representatives talked about the fact that the game will be much brighter than early previews had made it look.

We thought that if a city had been hit by a megaton bomb, it would be kind of dark and grey, but the fans wanted color and games should be pretty, so here you go.
The preview animations showed a game that mixed Terminator-esque destruction with Spider-Man-style dynamics, but Capcom reps want you to know that the game will be much better than any old webslinging:

We've been compared to Spider-Man, which is great, but the 3D swing mechanic on this game works really well, it takes swing mechanics to the next level.
While they couldn't announce a release date at the con, the platforms for the game were announced as Playstation 3, XBox 360 and high-end PCs.

Robo Supply Units Can Harm Or Heal

Kevin Kelly — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:20:59 PST

When an intrepid visitor smuggled some shots of the concept artwork for Bionic Commando out of the bowels of one of Capcom's development pods, little did he know he'd be providing a glimpse of the future of civil service. One of the coolest pieces he smuggled out is this sketch showing two different sets of mecha-armor suits: one full of .50 caliber ammunition replenishment, and the other sporting a red cross and a massive needle. Although if you were lying prone on the battlefield in need of a kickstart, would you want someone trying to find a vein with that thing?

We love the idea of multipupose bot-like armor suits, and these perfectly juxtapose the images of life and death in war. You might have some massive bionic titans slugging it out and destroying the landscape, but these little suckers will be scurrying around everywhere, filling up guns and patching up wounds. In fact, why don't they put them to work in every facet of life? You could have a little mailman suit of armor, policemen, firemen, pizza delivery, and even Jehovah's Witnesses with backtanks full of copies of Watchtower.

New Bionic Commando Concept Art [Capcom Unity]

Bionic Arm Meets Desolate City

Kevin Kelly — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:00:04 PST

Capcom is releasing a new Bionic Commando game this year, which marries its main character with a bionic arm. However, this isn't your dad's bionic arm, or even a modern-day Jaime Sommers' nanobionic arm. This arm is a lot more rugged and testosterone-charged than her svelte limb. Check out what it can do down below, and just look at the desolate environments it'll be featured in.

Bionic Commando was originally released back in 1987 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in Japan, featuring "Rad" as the bionically gifted hero. He had to use his arm to fend off scored of Neo Nazis and defeat a resurrected Adolf Hitler as the final boss. When they brought this game over to American, however, they changed the Nazis into "Badds" and Adolf because "Master-D," who sounds like a rapper.

Capcom's updated version of the game features the return of Nathan "Rad" Spencer, his arm and a real backstory. It's ten years later, and he's been betrayed by his government and sentenced to death. The game will be fully 3D and features Mike Patton, the former lead singer of Faith No More, as the voice Rad. If Rad ever once says, "You want it all but you can't have it," then I swear to god I'm hurling my controller through the window.

Anyhow, here's what Rad's bionic-upgrade arm can do:

It has a grappling hook attached, letting him swing across gaps a scale buildings. Which comes in useful because in the original game, you couldn't even jump. Maybe those bionic arms are really heavy.
He can whip barrels, crates, debris, and other things you find scattered around in video games at his enemies, using that hook-arm attachment like Indy.
He can deflect bullets with the arm, Wonder Woman-style.
In the original game he could use it to tap into the enemy's lines of communication, but it's not clear if they'll be bringing that over. It's either that, or slip a tire iron inside, in case he needs to tighten anything up.
In the novelization of the original game, the arm could do a lot more, like throw flamed and get people to tell the truth. Although it's unclear how he did that, except maybe by threatening to crush their balls with his steel hand.

And that's all they've let loose, so far. We'd really like to see Rad's arm have the ability to upgrade along the way, maybe as he finds essential electronic components and such. BioShock had such a cool steampkunkish approach to weapon upgrading, and we want to apply that in other games as well.

The environments in this game look especially pretty, in a sort of interstate dystopian freeway in disrepair kind of way. According to the developers, "On the very day of Spencer's execution, terrorists detonate a massive experimental weapon in Ascension City, unleashing an intense earthquake that has turned the city into rubble and wiped out its population." In other words, traffic is really going to be a bitch.