Bionic Commando Rearmed - Development and Marketing

Development and Marketing

Bionic Commando Rearmed developer GRIN made it a priority to preserve as much of the original gameplay and visual stylings as possible. Screenshots were taken as a reference, with designers keeping the same color schemes when creating the 3D worlds. Programmers had to reverse engineer the original gameplay to accurately reproduce it. They had to "measure how fast the arm goes out, how fast you swing back and forth, how fast you run across the ground, at what speed you fall down and everything" said Simon Vilkund, Creative Director for the game. The level editor was integrated in the engine, which allowed developers to view creations in real time. Lead Gameplay Programmer Håkan Rasmussen expanded on this concept, stating "Since BCR is built on the same engine as the next-gen BC we can also reuse the editor lowers the time before we can start using levels."

Developers found that adjusting the original gameplay to a 3D engine required dismissal of conventional physics. For example, the player cannot walk past a barrel placed in their way, however they are able to swing through the object. "The swing mechanic based on the original totally physically incorrect" noted Gameplay Programmer Bertil Hörberg. Hörberg stated that the character always swings at the same speed and releases at the same angle regardless of player input. Weapons were also redesigned, with each weapon being rebalanced. "In the original the rocket launcher and for the rest of the game" stated Vilkund. All of the weapons were redesigned to be useful in some form, and can now all be taken into combat, whereas previously only one weapon could be selected per area. Boss characters received not only a visual redesign, but the fights were redesigned as well to make use of Spencer's bionic abilities and weaponry. Vilkund noted players "need to use the arm to beat the boss".

Challenge rooms were born of a desire to enhance the game's neutral zones. "The neutral zones in the original game weren't that interesting, so I starting thinking we could add an obstacle course in each one", Vilkund said. "The bionic arm is such an unconventional mechanic that we really wanted to explore everything that it could offer", added Level Designer Victor Vilkund. Victor Vilkund cited inspiration from several Nintendo Entertainment System games, including Solomon's Key, Wrecking Crew, and Ice Climber, adding that the concept was "very basic, very short stages." The game's soundtrack consists of remix versions of the original Nintendo tracks, arranged by Simon Vilkund. He described the arrangements as "the same melodies and harmonies but with a more modern sound."

In redesigning the game's protagonist, Nathan Spencer, GRIN cited the characters Iceman from the movie Top Gun and Marty McFly from the Back to the Future series as visual influences in the update. For the character Super Joe, designers looked to the cowboys of the American Old West, citing actor Sam Elliot as an additional source of inspiration. 3D artists noticed early in development that due to the far distance of the camera, certain details in textures would not be noticeable. "We had to think 'less detail and more color bigger shapes'" stated 3D Artists Wendy Young and Peter Stråhle. All of the 2D character art was designed by Shinkiro, an illustrator and conceptual artist, famous for his work with the Art of Fighting and The King of Fighters series.

Bionic Commando Rearmed - The Soundtrack is the soundtrack of video game music from Bionic Commando Rearmed. It was released on May 27, 2008 by Sumthing Else Music Works. The music was composed by Simon Viklund, who later provided the arranged soundtrack for Final Fight: Double Impact. The music is largely remixed from the original game. Vilkund took the original tracks written by Junko Tamiya and rearranged them in Buzz, a freeware virtual studio program. A Japanese trailer for the game was revealed at San Diego Comic-con 2008, done in the style of an anime opening with a theme song sung by Ichirou Mizuki, titled "Go Go Bionic".

On February 19, 2008 the official Bionic Commando website ran a poll asking gamers to decide between two possible prices for Rearmed —ten or fifteen dollars. Producer Ben Judd stated, "Personally, since the goal is to make this game for the fans and to get the world to see what makes Bionic Commando so special, I want to sell it for about US$10." However, more senior Capcom employees believed that the game has enough features and polish to sell well enough at US15 to warrant that price. Final pricing was settled on US10 for the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network versions, and US15 for the Windows version. The PlayStation 3 version supports Remote Play on PlayStation Portable and trophies. The PC version features additional PC-only challenge rooms added with a patch to compensate for its higher price.