Bionic Commando: Rearmed

I came to Bionic Commando: Rearmed expecting a nostalgia cash-in and got something that genuinely made me rethink what a movement system can be. The whole premise is built on a single design choice that sounds like a bug: there is no jump button. None. What you have instead is Nathan 'Rad' Spencer's bionic arm, a grappling hook that doubles as your traversal toolkit, your shield, and your primary way of closing distance on enemies. Mastering its arc and release timing is the entire skill gap in this game, and it is steeper than it looks. The arm can grab oil barrels and use them as throwable projectiles or temporary cover, and once you internalize the rhythm of swing-fire-swing, the side-scrolling levels start to feel almost fluid. Almost. The game does not let you forget that it was built on NES logic. The combat layer is lean but functional. Spencer picks up new weapons by defeating bosses, and you can swap between them freely mid-stage, a quality-of-life change from the original that matters in practice. Each boss fight is built around a specific weapon or arm mechanic, which keeps the encounters from blurring together. The redesigned bosses in particular are a highlight: bigger, more telegraphed in pattern, but still mean enough to punish sloppy positioning. Difficulty is old-school in the sense that a limited life pool and no mid-mission checkpointing will remind you what accountability feels like. The challenge rooms are a separate, optional gauntlet of pure swing puzzles ranked on online leaderboards, and if precision platforming speed-runs are your thing, those rooms alone justify the download. Multiplayer is local-only, which in 2009 was already a compromise and today it is just the reality of the game. The 2-player co-op campaign runs on a dynamic split-screen system that separates the view when players drift apart, which is a smarter solution than most contemporaries managed. Competitive modes support up to four players locally, including a mode called Don't Touch the Floor that translates the swinging mechanic into a frantic arena brawl. It is fun in short sessions. Do not expect it to replace your regular shooter rotation. There is also a top-down Enemy Encounter mode inherited from the original, and I will be honest: it is the weakest part of the package. Imprecise aiming, flat layouts, and a feeling that you are being punished for a map navigation mistake rather than playing a designed level. It is mercifully brief. The bigger practical concern for PC players in 2025 is compatibility. Getting this game to launch on modern Windows requires hunting down a legacy Nvidia PhysX driver (the 9.13.0725 build specifically), and some users report additional issues tied to CPU configuration. That is a genuine friction point and not a minor one. The 2.5D visual style, which was polished for 2008, has aged to a point where some will find it cheap-looking next to Capcom's later retro revivals. The remastered soundtrack by Simon Viklund, however, holds up without qualification. It is a contemporary rework of the original chip tunes that manages to feel energetic without being irritating, which is harder to pull off than it sounds. Bottom line: if you can get it running, Rearmed is a tight, mechanically distinctive action platformer that earns its Metacritic 86 through genuine design craft rather than nostalgia credit. The no-jump gimmick is not a gimmick at all once you stop fighting it. If legacy PhysX drivers and local-only multiplayer are dealbreakers for you, that is fair. For everyone else, the arm feels good.

Fred · Scout Team

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