Key events
23rd January 2012
20th April 2010
19th June 2009
26th August 2008
13th August 2008
Bionic Commando dev Grin worked on Strider reboot, Streets of Rage remake
CGI teaser trailer, screenshots, artwork unearthed.
The developer behind Bionic Commando, Wanted and Terminator: Salvation worked on a Strider reboot and a Streets of Rage remake before it closed down.
Capcom Digital Collection release date announced
Xbox 360 exclusive out in March.
Capcom Digital Collection launches in Europe on 30th March, Capcom has announced.
The Xbox 360 disc-based exclusive includes eight games previously available on Xbox Live.
The games included are: 1942: Joint Strike; Bionic Commando Rearmed; Final Fight Double Impact; Flock!; Rocketmen: Axis of Evil including Rocketmen: It Came From Uranus expansion; Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix; Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix; and Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3.
Cry Engine 3 game in the works.
The creators of Bionic Commando Rearmed, Wanted and Terminator: Salvation have opened a new studio and started work on a game it reckons will blow gamers' socks off.
Plus: Okamiden in 2011, lots of DLC news.
Capcom has lifted the lid on three titles it's got lined up for a 2011 release.
Topping the bill is Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, as reported earlier.
Then there's Bionic Commando Rearmed 2, which sees Nathan Spencer facing a new, "technologically sophisticated" foe named General Sabio. He'll have upgraded powers, including the ability to jump. The game will be released via Xbox Live and PlayStation Network in Q1 of next year.
Bionic Commando dev shuts down
GRIN founders blame cashflow situation.
Swedish studio GRIN has officially closed.
Trophies, rejigged difficulty, squirrels.
Capcom has announced that it plans to update the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade versions of Bionic Commando Rearmed in response to feedback.
Judging by the change-list, said feedback mostly consisted of "where are the sodding Trophies" and "this is too hard you unimaginable bastards".
According to the Capcom Unity blog, Trophies will be added on PSN, and Easy and Normal difficulty levels have been rejigged quite a bit.
XBLA Wednesday: W&G, Yosumin, Boggle
Plus, BC Rearmed price cut for Gold subs.
Microsoft has said to expect three new games on Xbox Live Arcade tomorrow, including the first of the Wallace & Gromit episodes from Telltale Games.
Heather Mills nearly in Bionic Commando
But it would have cost an arm and a leg.
Heather Mills was approached by Capcom to star in Bionic Commando, according to The Sun.
PSN Bionic Commando going cheap
Cut to four pounds for a week.
Capcom has lowered the price of Bionic Commando Rearmed on PlayStation 3 for a limited amount of time.
Bionic Commando Rearmed sells 130k
"Consumers voted with their dollars."
Capcom has sold over 130,000 copies of Bionic Commando Rearmed via digital distribution, and producer Ben Judd reckons the sales are a message from consumers.
"That may not seem impressive compared to package titles that sell in the millions but compared to other digital titles that is a friggin JUGGERNAUT!" Judd wrote on the BCR blog.
"Consumers voted with their dollars. They basically have sent the message loud and clear: We are tired of meta-emulated crap. We want the titles of yesteryear to be paid the proper respect. We want them done right. And if the price is right, we'll buy," he added.
BCR fan's Challenge Room revealed
Check out design, play through level.
If you haven't played Eurogamer's Bionic Commando Rearmed Challenge Room, then get right to it - and while you're at it you can also play through one designed by a Capcom fan.
Along with the A-to-Z search tool.
When Thursday came and went without Bionic Commando Rearmed appearing on the PAL PlayStation Store, we all anticipated another agonising week of twiddling thumbs and cursing the rigours of multi-language localisation - ever the bane of PSN releases in Europe - but lo and behold! Capcom and Sony have finished early and posted the game on the Store tonight.
Capcom/Valve can't get comfortable.
Capcom has been unable to release Bionic Commando Rearmed on Steam after all.
Bionic Commando Rearmed Eurogamer Challenge Room!
Beat us at our own game.
If you haven't played Capcom's impressive remake of Bionic Commando, now's the time! Well, any time from now on is the time. When you've got a few minutes or something. It's on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and PC. Check out our 8/10 review for more reasons to transcend apathy.
A bit of a stretch...
Capcom has been riding the download train pretty hard this past month or so, offering up rejigged remake-sequels to both 1942 and Commando. This latest jaunt to Do-Over City is perhaps its most faithful yet - while also deviating most from the source material.
In both gameplay and structure, Rearmed is a spruced up remake of the NES version of Bionic Commando, almost down to the last detail. Click those blue words and you'll see what I mean. You play, somewhat predictably given the title, as a soldier equipped with a mechanical arm. This can be used to swing across gaps, pull yourself up to higher platforms and to grab distant objects. You can also use it to clobber enemies, although your arsenal of weaponry is considerably better suited to this task.
Levels are selected by guiding a helicopter over a map, with the option to touch down in enemy territory to start the action, or at a friendly base to restock and learn new actions. In every case you make your way up and across the level using your arm. Doorways in enemy levels lead you to communications rooms where you can opt to hack into their system, via a new and rather fun maze-style mini-game, or report back to base, essentially acting as a checkpoint. These communication scenes are utterly faithful to the 1988 original, although the cheesy dialogue is now deliberately tongue-in-cheek, and boasts at least one cheeky dig at Metal Gear's lengthy codec scenes. Indeed, the whole tone of the game is slyly humorous, playing up to the bombast of gaming history without ever feeling disrespectful. "Isn't this silly?" the game seems to ask, "But also awesome fun?"
Capcom explains Bionic PC pricing
USD 15 "an appropriate price" for PC.
The PC version of Bionic Commando Rearmed costs an extra five dollars because of "different business terms/expectations in that sector and, more importantly, generally prevailing pricing of PC digital games versus their console counterparts".
14th August in US but "TBC" in Europe.
Capcom has stuck a "TBC" note on the PlayStation 3 version of Bionic Commando Rearmed, which we had hoped to see on 14th August.
Grappling with promise.
The original Bionic Commando may be nearly old enough to rent a van and buy fireworks without ID, but don't let that put you off this modernised and expanded 2D remake: the 20-year-old game's bionic arm, which latches onto things with a grappling hook and allows you to swing from them like Spider-Man, was ahead of its time, and Swedish developer GRIN gives it a new lease of electromechanical life in Rearmed for XBLA and PSN.
Out mid-August on XBLA/PSN.
Capcom has announced that Bionic Commando Rearmed will be released on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network in mid-August.
Bionic Commando Rearmed date TBC
Despite Japanese report. Plus, Trophies.
Capcom "will be announcing the exact release date for Bionic Commando Rearmed really soon", the publisher said today, after a Dengeki interview in Japan suggested it would be out on 30th July for Xbox Live Arcade and 31st July for PSN.
BC Rearmed PS3 has rumble support
With more surprises to come.
The PlayStation Network version of Bionic Commando: Rearmed will support Remote Play and rumble, producer Ben Judd has confirmed, with more surprises to come.
Bionic Commando stories tie together
Rearmed to tease elements of 3D game.
Bionic Commando producer Ben Judd has told Eurogamer to expect elements of the re-imagined XBLA, PSN and PC game, Bionic Commando Rearmed, to fill out the back-story of next year's 3D game.
Bionic Commando Rearmed in July
Pricing for PC, 360 and PS3 inside.
Capcom's remake of NES game Bionic Commando, subtitled Rearmed, will hopefully be released on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and PC in July.
Bionic Commando multiplayer detailed
Capcom rearms Live, PSN, PC.
Capcom has lifted the lid on the multiplayer modes available in Bionic Commando: Rearmed.
Capcom exceeds XBLA file-size limit
Microsoft says it's a specific "exception".
Microsoft is letting Capcom go over the 150MB Xbox Live Arcade game file-size limit to ensure "complete feature and graphical parity" between the XBLA versions of Bionic Commando Rearmed and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and their counterparts on PlayStation Network.
Design a Bionic Commando level
Live forever in downloadable Rearmed.
Capcom can't be bothered to design its own games any more and wants you to do it. Well, to design a level in Bionic Commando Rearmed. It was only a matter of time [and distortion - Ed].
Bionic Commando Rearmed in May
Simultaneously on 360, PC, PS3.
Capcom is aiming at May for its remake of the NES shooter Bionic Commando.
Street Fighter IV playable at GDC
So is Bionic Commando. Shiny.
Both Street Fighter IV and the remake of Bionic Commando will be on show at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco next week behind closed doors.
The NES one. Not new one.
NES classic Bionic Commando is being tidied up for a PSN and Live Arcade release.
