Now, those that know me, know that I'm a 2D gaming fiend. I love anything 2D infinitely more than I love 3D games, but BC is one of those games where I think I might have liked it about as much as the original. I liked it so much, I played it and beat it 3 times in 3 days, and have every achievement except beat on Commando mode (hard was hard enough, thanks) and find every collectible (Just... No), and loved almost every second.
I'm not going to pretend it's flawless. You NEED to play with the retro suit to give the story it's suitably cheesy, tongue in cheek vibe it has. Fortunately that only requires buying the supreme Bionic Commando ReArmed and putting in an unlock code that game gives you. Very old school with the cheats, I love it.
Also, the story is ridiculous as hell. But what most people don't seem to get is that it's intentional. There are a lot of funny moments within as well as clever one liners and over the top action sequences to make even the stupidity of Metal Gear Solid blush. (How come MGS gets away with having a retarded story and not BC, by the way? BC's story is at least not taking itself seriously)
The game is rather challenging and full of trial and error old school difficulty. This can be a plus or minus if you like. There are a few technical issues like screen tearing, but they really are minor.
The 'radiation of death' complaints (the blue borders around the levels to keep you from leaving) are extraordinarily overblown. They killed me a handful of times during my three playthroughs and were mostly the result of me trying to get a collectible (hence my previous comment of not bothering to get them anymore), it was really such a non-issue I don't understand why people kept bringing it up. It's not an open world game, you're not supposed to wander off. I mean, it's an issue that could have easily been resolved with putting the radiation on the overhead map, but it doesn't affect anything much.
Despite that stuff, I had a lot of fun playing through it an had one of my favorite gaming experiences of 2009 with this game. I really could not imagine a better way to make a Bionic Commando game in 3D. It retains all that stuff Bionic Commando for the arcade and NES was famous for and puts them in a 3D game. I mean, it's not AAA or anything, but none of the Bionic Commando games are.
If you want something a little different like Dark Void to play through, I can't recommend playing this enough. It's also like $19 now. Just give it a shot, don't expect the world (Bionic Commando is too much of an odd concept for perfection), and you'll probably be pleasantly surprised.
