An NES Classic gets a new lease on life with the release of Bionic Cammando Rearmed, for both the Playstation Network and X-Box Live Arcade download services. Is this remake worth your time and, more importantly, your money? I played the PSN version to find out. Read on for my verdict

Let’s get this out of the way now. Bionic Commando Rearmed is haId. In fact, in some parts, it is REALLY hard. Even on Easy, it is hard. But, more than that, it is unforgiving. And, ultimately, that is it’s best and worst quality. And, in the end, this is what will be the deciding factor as to whehter or not you purchase the game. Because Bionic Commando Rearmed is the perfect nostalgia title. It recreates the experience of playing a classic 80’s NES platformer.

Just as you did in the original game 20 years ago, you play as Nathan “RAD” Spencer, a commando whose first mission is to rescue the hero Super Joe, who has been kidnapped by the Imperials. The Imperials, led by Generalissimo Killt, are trying to resurrect their Leader, who has been dead since WWII, and bears a passing resemblance to Adolph Hitler. Nathan has a “bionic” arm, which shoots out and allows you to latch onto and swing from most ledges and ceilings. in his other arm, he holds any one of a series of weapons, ranging from a pistol to a plasma rifle, to a bazooka.

Controls are as simplistic as they can be. You move with the left ananlog stick and shoot with the x button. That’s really all there is to it. You will notice I did not mention a “jump” button. That’s because there isn’t one. You must use your bionic arm to swing and drop wherever you need to go. This is excruciatingly exacting paltforming at it’s nastiest.

The game is mostly 2-D side scrolling action. The stages are selected from a Map screen. You select a stage by moving your helicopter over the numbered box. Enemy helicopters and trucks also roam the map. If one of them comes into contact with you, the game changes to a recreation of another NES classic, Commando, complete with top-down perspective.

Though the stages are mostly side-scrolling, the monotony is broken up by the incredibly fun hacking mingame, which occurrs whenever you enter a Communications room. On this minigame, you are shown a yellow ball inside a cube that can be roatated using the analog sticks. also in the square are several red blocks and a green block. The object is to use the red blocks to make a path for the yellow sphere to go into the green block. It’s addictive and very enjoyable.

The graphice are updated, but remain faithful to the original look and feel. The stages each have a particular theme and all aspects of the stage reflect that theme. Themes include an icy mountaintop fortress, a seaside dock and a lava fueled furnace. And, if you need to know just how much of an 80’s throwback this game is, consider this. After you defeat the last boss, you are confronted with the “escape before the level explodes” sequence.

Even if the main game isn’t enought to convince you to purchase it, Bionic Commando reamed comes packed with loads of extra stuff. Included with the game are upwards of 50 Challenge Rooms, which allow you to post your best times to a leaderboard. In addition, there is at least one secret room in every stage. There are also four levels of difficulty to the main game.

This is the best downloadable game I have seen come out for the PSN or XBLA. The main game is amazing. The extra content is icing on the cake. This game is well worth the $9.99 fee. There is nothing else I can say to you. Go buy it now.

Bionic Commando Rearmed gets 5 Super Joe dolls out of 5.