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Bionic Commando

aka: Bionic Commandos, Top Secret
Moby ID: 8779

Commodore 64 version

A cool platformer from the arcades

The Good
The hero got a gun in one hand, and the other is a bionic arm that can extend very far. It can kill enemies, pick up collectibles, and acts as a grappling hook. Instead of jumping, you use the grappling hook to climb higher. The swinging mechanic is fun!

The levels are very diverse, from tall forests, trough giant fortresses, to underground bases. It's good to look at, and each got unique gimmicks.

The game engine works flawlessly, there is 8-way scrolling that is butter smooth, unlike in any other home computer conversions.

Tim Follin handled the sound. There are no sound effects, but the soundtrack is so intense that I can't even mind it! The tunes are coming from the arcade original, but with unique twists. Tim really rocked off the SID chip here, wow!

The Bad
The sprites are small and somewhat ugly.

There are no boss fights, not even a proper ending.

This is not like the Japanese NES version where the main boss is a regenerated Hitler, and at the end his face shown in close blowing up. That is ridiculously awesome. It should have been included in every version!

There are two separate C64 ports of this game. The UK got this good one. The USA got the lame one. Poor americans.

The Bottom Line
Just wanted to point some of the wins out of the usual crud of arcade conversions.

by 1xWertzui (1135) on March 25, 2024

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