Retro gaming. Some people hate it, saying the classics should be left alone and not screwed up. Some people love it unconditionally, with a rabid obsession that borders on some kind of clinical psychosis.
I guess I fall somewhere in between. For me it's not about the concept of revamping the classics, it's how well it's done. It's not enough, these days, to simply put a new coat of paint on an old game and call it a day. You need to add new features - expanded content, multiplayer, extra difficulty levels, and perhaps extra characters.
But Peter, you say, where can I find such a game? Well, fortunately for me and you, Capcom has heard our cries. With the release of Bionic Commando: Rearmed last Thursday, the company has demonstrated how to do retro properly (in addition to the Commando and 1942 remakes).
I've had a chance to play it through all the way now, and I have to say, I am very impressed. My hope is that BC: Rearmed will set the standard for retro gaming in the future. There's a goldmine of classic NES and Super NES games that are just ripe for remake. And with XBox Live Arcade, Playstation Network, and Wii Games, the distribution channel has never been simpler for the publishers or easier for the consumers.
So what makes Rearmed so great? Since "everything" is not a very good descriptor, I suppose I'll go into a little more detail.
Graphics
If you had any imagination as a kid at all, then that imagination (like mine) probably filled in the blanks left by the NES's rather plain graphics. I'm pleased to say that the brains behind Rearmed have filled in those blanks, and then some. For example, the first level doesn't just have a slick 3-D recreation of the original, but it fills in the background with interesting and beautifully rendered objects - in this case, a series of oil platforms (which is a great way of explaining the barrels).
The main character has been rendered in 3-D as well, with a crazy looking arm attachment that makes him look much more bionic than the original. All of the enemies have been re-done, and look very nice. But they didn't just get new skins - there's great animation, a cool physics model, and nice particle effects on the weapons. In all, the presentation is wonderful, and the graphics are rich and beautiful. The FSA camps (what used to be the Neutral Areas in the original) look especially nice.
Sound
Most sounds are all new, but listen closely, and you'll hear spiffy new versions of sounds from the old game. In addition, the music has been re-created, and is surprisingly faithful to the original beeps and boops of the good ol' NES. I find some of it to be a little too electronic, though. But that's a plague that has overtaken the general population of developers. I don't know what their fascination is with crappy synth-techno-Euro crap, but the sooner they get over it and get back to guitars and symphonic scores, the better.
Gameplay
This is where things get interesting. Rearmed isn't just a spiffy version of the original with 3-D graphics. The whole game has been overhauled. Control is tighter and allows for a greater variety of moves. The story is more coherent. The set pieces themselves make more sense (midgets on giant locomotives? Gone, replaced with tiny tanks inside bigger tanks). Weapons are different, better, and more useful (in the original you really only used the bazooka and the pea shooter) and can be upgraded with secret items.
I'd be happy with just these changes. But Capcom really went the extra mile. Inside each area are one to three secrets. These are either upgrades for your weapons, yashichis, or secret challenge rooms. Most of the levels are built identically to their 8-bit counterparts. However, if you were like me, you tried to get to some places in the original that weren't quite accessible. It's in these locations that Capcom has placed its new secrets. If you've played the original, you know the places I'm talking about. As a kid I was always thinking, "What if they just put something over there, wouldn't that be cool?" It's almost like they read my mind. Fun!
The biggest surprise is the end. Not content to just re-do the final boss sequence, Capcom has re-engineered the entire Albatross super weapon into its own level. Awesome.
But perhaps the best thing about Bionic Commando: Rearmed is the price. At 800 Microsoft Points (around ten bucks), it's a steal, and totally worth it. Like all XBox Live Arcade games, it has a few achievements, and so far I have two. That means fantastic replay value, aside from the challenge rooms (think VR training from the MGS series).
While I do have a few niggling issues with the game, they are far too small to take away the joy of playing this fantastic remake. More of the old classics need to be dusted off and given this treatment, and one can only hope that if Capcom is successful, perhaps other companies (I'm looking at you, Konami) will get into the act as well.
