Capcom Rebuilds Bionic Commando

Publisher reaches way back for a cosmopolitan remake of the NES classic.

By Capcom's own admission the original Bionic Commando, which was released on the NES in the '80s, was more popular in the US than in Europe and in turn than in Japan. For its new remake of the game, the company is hoping for more global success.

To do this, Capcom has put the remake of Bionic Commando, coming next year for PC and consoles, into the hands of a cosmopolitan team of creators. The project is being led by an American and a Japanese, with a team of developers at Swedish studio Grin (Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter PC) doing the bulk of the work.

Most of the superficial features of the original game have been jettisoned for this new version of Bionic Commando but the core parts remain. You'll play as Nathan Spencer (voiced by Faith No More's Mike Patton, last heard in The Darkness), a man cut from military cloth who is wrongly imprisoned for more than three years by his own government.

As the story goes, a terrorist organisation has destroyed the game's location, Ascension City, with a terrible new weapon, conveniently leaving ruined buildings for Nathan to swing, rappel, climb and wall-walk on and from with his massive bionic left arm as he attempts to deliver his own brand of extensible justice.

Capcom has not said yet when we can expect the game, which is coming for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. You can find out more about it at www.bioniccommando.com.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo