Commodore 64 Longplay [088] Bionic Commando (EU)

http://www.longplays.org

Played by: Mad-Matt

Bionic Commando, Converted to the Commodore 64 by Software Creations and published by Go! In 1988.

“Ten years have passed since the devastating war when the enemies secret Zargon missiles destroyed our civilisation. The only hope we have of regaining our home world and rebuilding our lives, lies in the hands of our own elite force of Bionic Commandos. With their telescopic limbs, sophisticated weaponry and bionic power, they must infiltrate the enemy bases, destroy the deadly foe and neutralise their doomsday weapons. Your skill and their bionic powers are our only hope ….”

Capcom's arcade game was converted to most 8/16 bit platforms of the time and I think most of them came out pretty good given each machines limitations. While there are many platform games around at this time, this one is a bit different given that you have a telescopic arm that can be used for hitting enemies, grabbing weapons and swinging across platforms. The game can be quite challenging as the enemies move at a brisk pace and can drop down on you at any time as well as firing at you the moment you land on their platform.

I think what keeps me coming back to the game, the C64 version in particular is the fantastic soundtrack by Tim Folin. The same is true for the Spectrum version I have previously longplayed. It's just the title screen which makes you go ….eh? I'm not sure what the musician was going for their. Collision detection is suspect at times. It often feels like you can't shoot if the enemy is shooting and ducking doesnt always work.

Anyway, I think this is one game that every C64 owner should have played as it's one of its standout titles released at the time. There also exists a US release of the game which is not that good and serves to show how different a game can be between developers that knew their way around the C64 and all the hardware banging tricks and those that …. Didn't.

00:00:00 Title Screen music
00:01:00 Level One
00:03:07 Level Two
00:04:50 Level Three
00:08:15 Level Four
00:10:32 Level Five