2D comeback

by ERIK LEIJON

I was recently perusing the Kokoromi Web site (Montreal’s finest collective of experimental indie gamers) and was fascinated (read: fanboy frothing at the mouth) by the idea of Demaking. To demake means taking a current video game and remake it as an old-fashioned, eight-bit to 16-bit-style title.

Imagine Halo as a 2D side-scroller, or the highly pixelated Katamari mini-game included in the PSP version of the popular series. It’s a great, self-aware way of rethinking gaming, since it fits a niche retro-gaming market that’s always clamouring for interesting content, and it returns developers to an old mindset before fun and creativity were trumped by hardware and technology.

Bionic Commando Rearmed (XBLA, PSN, PC/Capcom, GRIN) is not a demake, but similarly harkens to a lost era of simple gaming. An update to the legendary NES original from 1988, Rearmed is still a 2D action title where the protagonist uniquely is unable to jump, and instead relies on a grappling hook to rappel across vast gaps within each level.

GRAPPLE AND RAPPEL:
Bionic Commando Rearmed

There are guns and some highly simplistic enemies (including a few re-used bosses) that should prove to be no threat, yet learning and mastering the multitude of nuances surrounding the grappling hook should provide hours of tough, exhilarating and often frustrating gameplay.

Anyone who’s played games since the days of Mario and Sonic will be hard-pressed to fathom a non-jumping main character, but by simply taking away that ability, Rearmed doesn’t play like any other 2D side-scroller. Aesthetically, the game also plays on the retro theme, the music is a series of catchy eight-bit bleeps and bloops and the graphics are a mix of well-animated characters with intentionally old-looking icons (like extra lives) and a low-detailed 3D-level selection screen.

Even though the levels are remade versions of the NES originals, in Metal Gear VR-style, there are dozens of challenge rooms that serve as short time trial obstacle courses. This is where one truly learns to harness the power of the grappling hook, as it takes a lot of time to learn the exact time and swinging speed so as to not miss a grapple target or accidentally swing too fast into a wall of spikes. Some of the challenge rooms are insanely hard to beat, let alone actually get a hi-score to compete with the online leaderboard.

Later this month, Capcom releases the all-new Mega Man 9 for the new consoles, although it will look and play exactly like the old NES Mega Man titles (including the horribly drawn boxart). Odds are this trend of remaking, demaking, or simply paying homage will become the next big thing, and Bionic Commando Rearmed will kick-start the fad.

Madden at 20

Belated happy birthday to Madden 09 (Multi/EA Sports, EA Tiburon), the 20th in the famed series as essential to the new football season as an opening week loss by the Raiders.

The Madden series has been on autopilot for a few years—always solid with only a few minor tweaks with every new edition—but this year’s gridiron game takes all the ideas of recent editions and streamlines it in a way that could appeal to those who’ve been sitting on the sidelines.

Important game calling elements like audibles, line shifts and hot routes are finally easy enough for low Madden IQ-ers (an oft-used new term in the game) to use frequently. Throughout the game, the buttons used for all-control animation, sprinting, heavy-tackling and other super moves are displayed on the screen at the appropriate time, which is helpful considering how deep the controls have become.