Welcome to my Bionic Commando shrine! Here I will proceed to nerd out about Bionic Commando, a game for the NES. (Though I mean like technically there's an Arcade game too but it's sorta like a Super Punchout situation, don't worry about it basically I'm just talking about the NES one.)
Haha get it? This game does not have a jump button. In-fact, it has a hook, and a damn good one!
This is by far one of my favorite grappling hooks in videogames, it really captures that "stiff yet complex" game-feeling some games of the era had, like Mike Tyson's Punchout for example.
Once you learn how it works, every little second you're grappled to a surface is a decision to be made. There's a bunch of little details to think about constantly.
For example:
When you hold left or right while swinging while at their respective peak of the arc, you practically fly in that direction out of a jump of sorts. However, if you simply press "down" instead, you make a short 'hop' of sorts from your current position of the hook in the direction you're facing, and you can use that instead of holding left or right to instead make a small distance if you don't wanna overshoot.
I could talk about the grappling mechanics all day though, and that's not what I'm here for. I'm about the whole game, baybee, so let's continue!
I know, crazy concept. This game... lets you choose which levels to tackle first?? Crazy, I know. Never been done before.
Really though there's like three different "sections" of the map that are gated off by different requirements and (player is never told but none the less) essentially that means some levels are optional and you can tackle every level in a 'section' in any order you want.
The sections of the map are: every level before area 8 are part of the 'beggining region' which all use either the Alpha or Beta communicators (though I suppose you could maybe further section them off to the beginner levels and the intermediate levels based on whether it uses Alpha or Beta communicator though nothing blocks you from going to Beta Communicator areas without beating the Alpha Communicator areas so I don't personally consider them their own 'regions'). Then area 8 and onward is the 'advanced' region all using the delta communicator, and finally areas 10, 11, and 12 are all sectioned off as the 'final region' which you can only get to after completing a few missions in the advanced region.
Personally I've found a surprising amount of replayability in the fact that you can just go straight to the harder areas before the easier ones.
I think the level design is some of the most unique I've seen in general. It's very open for a Capcom platformer-shooter, at-least from what I've played I suppose.
This is one of my favorite parts of the game as well because it gives the game a very different feel than most other platformers I've played? Makes the whole thing more about exploration at times and exploration is always one of my favorite parts of a game (one of the reason I'm a big fan of classic-designed doom levels rather than newer-designed doom levels). Always a fan of that Exciting Action to Calming Exploration gameplay loop (though I suppose I shouldn't abuse the term 'gameplay loop' lest a certain avant-garde game-design friend of mine get annoyed) (though I'm not sure if I can complain having been indoctornated into that same avant-garde game-design philosophy by said friend lol).
You wanna know one of the most underlooked part of this game? That would be the weapons.
99% of people just pick up the Rocket Launcher as fast as they can and then just play through the ENTIRE game with just that, which is fair considering how godawfully unbalanced the Rocket Launcher is, but at the same time the other weapons are REALLY FUN to use (except the 3-way, we don't talk about the 3-way).
The regular rifle is underlooked for obvious reasons but the auto-fire item you get about at the tail-end of 'region 1' (which only works with the regular rifle) is surprisingly fun to use. It transforms the rifle into a machine-gun of sorts which firest quick spurts of bullets (which you COULD argue turbofire is for, but like... I ain't no stinkin' cheater and you shouldn't be either) and those kinds of weapons are usually my favorite in a game (second only to massive-damage single-shot weapons... like the Rocket Launcher, but you already know why I can't like that in this game lol)