Bionic Commando first hit the arcades in 1987, but most people remember the NES sequel a year later. Players took control of Rad Spencer, a soldier with a bionic arm that could shoot a tethered claw out that allowed him to swing through levels and throw stuff at enemies. The new Bionic Commando is set a number of years after the NES game and the use of bionics has become outlawed, leading to Spencer being thrown in jail. This slightly contrived back story seems to exist purely to give Spencer a chip on his shoulder and become the generic bad ass hero that we all know and love. Now, pro-bionic terrorists are detonating nukes and Spencer is the only one who can stop them. The plot is somewhat basic and completely bland right up until the twist at the end which comes out of nowhere and is somewhat baffling.

Bionic Commando is not a game to be played for the plot, though. The strength of the game lies in the use of Spencer's bionic arm, which will see him swinging through cities, ripping pilots out of mechs, throwing rubble and knocking soldiers off the side of cliffs. Initially, the swinging mechanic feels stunted and difficult to use after the Spiderman games, which allowed players to just press a button and swing even if there was nothing for the web to stick to. Bionic Commando's swinging mechanic is a more thoughtful affair, however, and the player will have to make harder decisions about where they start swinging from and picking a viable path over chasms. The grapple is easy to pick up but has a degree of complexity in its mastery. After a while the player's confidence in its use grows, and by halfway through the player will be pulling incredible manoeuvres through the world and chaining swings and attacks that are far more satisfying than swinging in other games.

What good is a metal arm with a grappling claw if all Spencer can do is swing on it, though? Fortunately for our gruff hero he can really mess a terrorist's day up with his bionic arm. It must be said that the gun-play is weak and, whilst functional, isn't enough to carry the combat. This is where a liberal application of claw to face comes in. One of the more unique ways to take down a group of enemies is to zip combo a group of them. By targeting an enemy with the bionic arm, the player can attach to the enemy with the claw and then retract the cord and 'zip' into them causing a fair amount of damage. Spencer will then jump back from them, allowing the player to choose a new target and zip into them. Clearing a stretch of level with a perfect chain of swings and then killing an entire group of enemies without ever touching the ground is immensely gratifying. Combat with the bionic arm isn't just limited to zip combos, the player can use it to throw anything that isn't nailed down, rip monorail carriages from their tracks and onto enemies, smash the ground as they land from a large drop and scythe through enemies by whipping the extended claw 360 degrees around them. The enemies are not particulary challenging and function more as toys and playthings for the player to experiment and have fun with.

The major problem the game has comes from the level design. The levels are incredibly linear and don't really offer a choice of paths or exploration to progress. Grin's engine obviously doesn't stream and so sections of level are small and contained, with the player being herded down a particular path. In another story contrivance, the nuke that went off in the city has left blue radiation all over any building the designers don't want the player to go near and venturing too close to radiation will result in a pretty quick death. Another obstacle for Spencer is water, due to the fact he wears close to a tonne of metal between his arm and his iron boots. When (not if) the player falls in the water, they must quickly try to grapple on to a nearby object and pull themselves out. This can be incredibly frustrating, because the camera is often worthless when the player is in water and frequently there will be nothing in range to grab on to, leading a writhing Spencer to drown. Complaints about insta-death areas and linearity aside, the levels look amazing and the path through them is interesting and allows the player to spend time perfecting their swings.

Bionic Commando is a very focussed game that is built around a small number of mechanics and, as such, the experience is over quickly and lacks any incentive to play through it again. There are a great deal of collectibles scattered around the level but, through a bizarre choice, they do not appear in levels when they are replayed individually. That means that if you miss only one of them on your play through, you will need to go through the entire game again to get all of them. On the flip-side, the challenge system is an excellent addition and provides players with a number of challenges, which promote different ways of playing the game to earn rewards. These are generally 'Kill X enemies with the pistol' or 'Kill 3 enemies with one rocket whilst swinging', but function as a great way to earn in-game upgrades, such as more accurate weapons or greater ammo capacity.

Capcom's Keiji Inafune recently said that every game now is expected to include a multiplayer component, but as games such as The Darkness and Condemned 2 have proved, this isn't necessarily true. Bionic Commando continues this trend of tacked-on multiplayer with the entirely forgettable offering included more out of obligation than any real worth. The game features a host of unbalanced maps for eight players to swing around on in the standard deathmatch, team deathmatch and CTF modes. Some enjoyment can be gleaned from the multiplayer as the swinging mechanic is always good fun, but one has to wonder how the single-player campaign might have benefited if resources hadn't been used to develop a multiplayer component that will have no longevity and simply isn't compelling to play.

Bionic Commando is a flawed game that suffers at the hands of engine limitations and tacked-on multiplayer. The game is immensely enjoyable for players who put the effort in to master the swinging and combat, but sometimes the frustrating sections threaten to overwhelm the rest of the experience. There are some outright thrilling battles that allow the player to put everything they have learnt into practice in almost a ballet of grappling claws, death-defying leaps and explosions. The game is a solid action game that offers new mechanics and some amazing scenes and, whilst it may not be a 'game of the year' contender, it is an experience Capcom action fans should thoroughly enjoy.