Largely because it was the multiplayer component to a game that bombed and received a tepid critical response and whose community moved on after three weeks. Or at least, I like to think it was because most people weren't exposed to it and not because most people didn't enjoy it.
And while it's clear that the multiplayer wasn't where the development team was pouring most of their energy, it was a perfect storm of a beautiful mechanic intended for a single player complimenting some simple multiplayer ideas and fun map layouts to create something special.
So, what's so great about it?
Simple Controls With Great Flexibility: Bionic Commando is as vanilla as they come. It's basically a Quake styled weapon/health pick-up game with a swinging and zipline mechanic. The character models are all brightly colored Sentai knock-offs that stand out well with their environments and the swinging, after a small adjustment period, is easy enough to get a hang of. Weapon pick-ups come in your typical rocket launcher, shotgun, machine gun, etc flavor and, outside of CTF, the game doesn't ask you to do much other than to roam the maps and kill your enemies.
The real trick, though, comes in getting the most out of the grappling arm. When you can manage to get the most momentum out of your swings or the furthest reach out of your zipline, that's when the game really comes into it's own. Picks-ups suddenly become faster to reach and the maps suddenly feel smaller and faster to traverse despite their size. The arm in BC is what elevates those good players that are capable of zoning the pick-ups, chasing players down and getting the clutch escapes.
Truly Vertical Combat: There's a reason BC has a map that's comprised of a singular, tall building surrounded by an ocean. Sometimes, the best way to play Bionic Commando is to have two players hanging on the side of a skyscraper and trying to kill each other while also trying to prevent the onset gravity. Remember the Dubai sequence in Ghost Protocol? Think that, except with guns and players constantly lunging at each other. This usually leads to some incredibly awkward, incredibly stupid, yet incredibly hilarious mid air firefights that are truly unique to the game. And sometimes it's not even about fighting on the side of a building. Sometimes the best option is to fight at the edge of a roof, two players constantly jumping off and rappelling back up, using that 90 degree angle as a form of improvised cover.
Either way, the game facilitates this too in it's weapon pick ups and level design. Weapon and health pick ups are generally strewn across the various elevations of most maps(sometimes even hanging off the sides of buildings) and with ruined cities being the name of the game, that often means a whole lot of upward traversal to get what you need, whether that be a pick up or an enemy's head.
A Goofy Animation System: This is sort of a personal aside and speaks more to the game's presentation, but one of the best feelings in the world is running towards the camera and hopping off a building only to have your character do a little backflip. Even better if that backflip is immediately followed up in mid air by a grenade launcher shot that hits one of your pursuers. Or when you're locked in a chase with someone who decides to jump off a building themselves, causing you to chase after with a swan dive(which retains full aiming control). Or that little twirl your character does mid air after a well done, high momentum release of the grappling hook. It's these little flourishes that go a long way to giving the player the sense that this is a game that places a high priority on movement.
Zipeline Kicks: The game lets you attach your grappling arm to your enemies, reel towards them and dropkick them. Even when both players are mid-air. It doesn't do much damage and it's often dangerous depending on the situation.
But it's fucking hilarious. And sometimes, on the right map, in the right scenario, it's basically a Smash Bros.-esque ringout to either the ocean or a bottomless pit.
Some (large) gifs for your amusement:
Back Flip
Swan Dive
Verticality
So why am I bringing this up now? Because Bionic Commando is 2.50 on Steam and the chances of it going any lower are probably kind of slim. And while online multiplayer no longer works through the game's interface proper(Capcom or Grin for some reason opted out of using GFWL or Steam and decided to run their own authentication servers. Which means these servers that checked for player logins were shut down years ago), online play is possible with a program such as Hamachi as Grin fortunately decided to include a LAN option and it works reasonably well.
So if you can convince some buddies to go through the small hoops to get the game up and running, I'd highly recommend it. It's a barebones port, but it runs really well on any semi-modern rig and it's an incredibly fun game unlike anything else.
And while it's clear that the multiplayer wasn't where the development team was pouring most of their energy, it was a perfect storm of a beautiful mechanic intended for a single player complimenting some simple multiplayer ideas and fun map layouts to create something special.
So, what's so great about it?
Simple Controls With Great Flexibility: Bionic Commando is as vanilla as they come. It's basically a Quake styled weapon/health pick-up game with a swinging and zipline mechanic. The character models are all brightly colored Sentai knock-offs that stand out well with their environments and the swinging, after a small adjustment period, is easy enough to get a hang of. Weapon pick-ups come in your typical rocket launcher, shotgun, machine gun, etc flavor and, outside of CTF, the game doesn't ask you to do much other than to roam the maps and kill your enemies.
The real trick, though, comes in getting the most out of the grappling arm. When you can manage to get the most momentum out of your swings or the furthest reach out of your zipline, that's when the game really comes into it's own. Picks-ups suddenly become faster to reach and the maps suddenly feel smaller and faster to traverse despite their size. The arm in BC is what elevates those good players that are capable of zoning the pick-ups, chasing players down and getting the clutch escapes.
Truly Vertical Combat: There's a reason BC has a map that's comprised of a singular, tall building surrounded by an ocean. Sometimes, the best way to play Bionic Commando is to have two players hanging on the side of a skyscraper and trying to kill each other while also trying to prevent the onset gravity. Remember the Dubai sequence in Ghost Protocol? Think that, except with guns and players constantly lunging at each other. This usually leads to some incredibly awkward, incredibly stupid, yet incredibly hilarious mid air firefights that are truly unique to the game. And sometimes it's not even about fighting on the side of a building. Sometimes the best option is to fight at the edge of a roof, two players constantly jumping off and rappelling back up, using that 90 degree angle as a form of improvised cover.
Either way, the game facilitates this too in it's weapon pick ups and level design. Weapon and health pick ups are generally strewn across the various elevations of most maps(sometimes even hanging off the sides of buildings) and with ruined cities being the name of the game, that often means a whole lot of upward traversal to get what you need, whether that be a pick up or an enemy's head.
A Goofy Animation System: This is sort of a personal aside and speaks more to the game's presentation, but one of the best feelings in the world is running towards the camera and hopping off a building only to have your character do a little backflip. Even better if that backflip is immediately followed up in mid air by a grenade launcher shot that hits one of your pursuers. Or when you're locked in a chase with someone who decides to jump off a building themselves, causing you to chase after with a swan dive(which retains full aiming control). Or that little twirl your character does mid air after a well done, high momentum release of the grappling hook. It's these little flourishes that go a long way to giving the player the sense that this is a game that places a high priority on movement.
Zipeline Kicks: The game lets you attach your grappling arm to your enemies, reel towards them and dropkick them. Even when both players are mid-air. It doesn't do much damage and it's often dangerous depending on the situation.
But it's fucking hilarious. And sometimes, on the right map, in the right scenario, it's basically a Smash Bros.-esque ringout to either the ocean or a bottomless pit.
Some (large) gifs for your amusement:
Back Flip
Swan Dive
Verticality
So why am I bringing this up now? Because Bionic Commando is 2.50 on Steam and the chances of it going any lower are probably kind of slim. And while online multiplayer no longer works through the game's interface proper(Capcom or Grin for some reason opted out of using GFWL or Steam and decided to run their own authentication servers. Which means these servers that checked for player logins were shut down years ago), online play is possible with a program such as Hamachi as Grin fortunately decided to include a LAN option and it works reasonably well.
So if you can convince some buddies to go through the small hoops to get the game up and running, I'd highly recommend it. It's a barebones port, but it runs really well on any semi-modern rig and it's an incredibly fun game unlike anything else.
And the single player's pretty good too.
[Not sure why thread got necro-bumped but I'll sing praise whenever the opportunity presents itself]