Retro Trip – Bionic Commando

Bionic Commando. Overlooked gem? This retro trip points to yes.

I dug deep into the vault and pulled out a forgotten gem of a game to retro trip with, Bionic Commando. Bionic Commando is one of those titles for the NES that appears to often be overlooked by many gamers but has gained somewhat of a cult following over the years. A retro remake was made in 2008 and a modern reboot of the series followed, but the series just didn’t seem to have the mass following that other Capcom franchises like Mega Man and Street Fighter have had over the years. 

You can’t jump in Bionic Commando, so get used to swinging.

Bionic Commando is kind of an odd game at first. It’s an action platformer that is unlike any other. You aren’t able to jump, your knees are seemingly locked. Instead, you use your bionic arm to swing and climb your way through different stages to destroy the main system at the end. This mechanic makes certain areas quite challenging at first before you get used to the art of swinging. Once you figure it out though, it becomes natural. Along with the other game strategies, this is a game that is beatable by those with the gumption to fight the ultimate evil at the end, Master D (aka Hitler resurrected if you’re familiar with the JP version). Do so and you will be rewarded with the story’s conclusion and some sweet end credits.

There’s Master D. Look familiar? Yeah, it’s Hitler. Power up and kick his ass.

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Run into an enemy convoy and fight your foes in an overhead view.

While most of the game is presented via a side view, there are points in the game where you will encounter an enemy convoy. These events are presented in an overhead view much like another Capcom game, Commando. Side note: Super Joe, the soldier you are tasked to rescue, was the hero of Commando. Just a fun fact for all you retro fans. 

Overall, this game ranks up there as one of my favorites. It has a fair amount of challenge with non-linear progression to mix it up a bit. It even has a few secrets to keep the replay value up there. The story is pretty good as well once you dig into it a bit as the game translation seems a bit off and a few key statements seem to be left out, but nothing was game breaking as far as that goes. Find yourself a copy and give it a shot! It’s a good game for a great Retro Trip!

Mission accomplished. Super Joe is safe.

NES A to Z – M: Monster Truck Rally

Monster Truck Rally wasn’t great, but I still had fun with it.

Welcome back! We are halfway through the alphabet at the letter M! Up for the letter M is Monster Truck Rally. Let’s take a quick look into the game:

The name of the game pretty much says it all, it’s a monster truck game with several different events such as Car Crush and Bog Race. The game is played from an isometric view similar to games like R.C. Pro Am. As for the graphics, they’re okay but nothing special. The sound, however, was not great and music was non-existent. You’ll go nuts listening to the drone of your truck engine so I had to put some tunes on in the background while I played. The controls were alright, shifting gears wasn’t very intuitive and was easy to forget to do while playing. Overall, I thought it was a pretty average game.

Despite the game being extremely average, I had some good dumb fun with the game. Have you ever played a game that wasn’t great but somehow you had a fun time with it? That’s what happened to me with this game. For some reason, even though I never once beat the AI, I had fun just messing around playing this game and going through the events. I can’t really recommend it though, unless you want to waste an hour of time you’ll never get back. 

That’s all I have for Monster Truck Rally! I’m thinking about trying to get another four games down this weekend so keep it locked in for more NES action soon!

Coming Up This Week!

Check back later this week for some sweet 8-bit gaming action!

Hey everyone! Hope you all had (and still are having) a great weekend wherever you are. The past couple of weeks have been eventful and I’ve been having a great time getting back into the gaming scene! With that being said, I’m going to shift my focus from Cyberpunk a little bit to get started on a retro games project that I’ve had sitting on the shelf for months. Starting tomorrow I’m going to take a trip back to the 8-bit era with a look at some random titles for the NES from A to Z (don’t forget the #!). So that’s 27 titles, A-Z plus one title with a number, randomly chosen. I’ll give them a play, take a few notes, and let you know what I think. I also plan on recording some gameplay clips to give you all a look at the games in action. If you like retro games or just games in general, make sure to check back later this week for some exciting new content!