An Amazing game for your Gameboy.

User Rating: 9.2 | Bionic Commando GB
Spiked hair, check. Can’t jump, check. This is the 3rd Bionic Commando on his first adventure on the Gameboy. To those who are unfamiliar to the series let me explain, to those who are please skip ahead. Bionic Commandos’ defining characteristic is that the main character has a bionic arm that is heavy enough that he cannot jump. That’s right you cannot jump. You have to overcome every obstacle by using your bionic arm. It is a very fun concept because you swing from place to place kind of like Tarzan. You can also hit your opponents with it knocking them back. As the game progresses you become more reliant on your arm. Bionic Commando GB is no exception. By the end of the game you will have to be a master of the bionic arm swinging from object to object with nothing but an empty abyss below you. The format or the game is that you travel from stage to stage on an over world map. You chose where travel to. The stages are numbered so you never need to question where to go next. If you decide to bypass a stage you may miss an important item you will need later on. Once you pick your stage you will enter into a menu where you will pick from your available weapons, items, and communicators. The stages themselves are done from a profile view (AKA vertical/horizontal sidescroller.) When you are on the over world map there are trucks traveling around. If you come in contact with one of them you will go to battle with it. The trucks in this game are handled a bit differently. In this version you go into a sidescrolling battle rather than a top down one. If you defeat the difficult enemy on one of these stages they will cough up a continue. This is the only place you can obtain these. You will be reliant on getting continues on a regular basis to make it threw the game. If you make it to the other side your helicopter will move on toward the next stage.

One great upgrade from the Nes is the ability to save your game. (I just recently played Capcom Mini Mix and had to finish the game in one sitting.). Taking a password sheet with your Gameboy or having to start from scratch every time really hinders the concept of gaming on the go. The save function makes this a great title to take on the go

Bionic commando also functions somewhat like an RPG. Enemies drop paint cans. If you collect enough of these you will gain an extra health container. Gaining these will greatly increase your odds of getting threw stages alive. With enough of these you will be able to survive a hit from almost anything. Falling to your death or not being able to escape a pit of spikes will be your only fear. If it is your first time playing a Bionic Commando game I suggest getting a few levels right away.

This is very much the Bionic Commando on the NES slimed down and bumped up a notch. Many of the stages are very familiar and a little shorter than they were on the NES. Also the number of stages are a bit fewer but this does not stop it from being a great game. Included are a slime/sewage stage, a seaport stage, a vertical stage, and a maze stage.

The first thing people will notice who played the Nes game is the speed is bumped up. You run and swing faster. It seems very fast paced compared to most games on the system. The graphics are pretty good; I can’t think of a game that does a significantly better job. The selection of weapons and items are very much the same as well. You will eventually get a three-way gun, a machine gun, a spread shot, and a bazooka. You can also get armor for your head, body and feet. This will protect you from some shots. An improvement from the last one is you can change your equipment at any of the com points. This prevents you from having to press A,B, +Start to escape stages. If you can find it most stores sell this game for less than ten dollars. It is one of the few games still worth playing from the original Gameboy. This game rocks and I encourage more people to go and check it out.