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Capcom, Grin's Bionic Commando Sells A Meager 27K in U.S.

Cmagus said:
probably one of my favourite games this year I don't see where all the hate and complaining is coming from for this game.

Yeah the game is not crap but it's old school hard. Once you get the hang of grappling you almost feel invincible. I think most people were not willing to put with the steep learning curve. The average rating at gamefly was like a 5, which to me tells me most people probably gave up early on after one too many falls.
 
A great foundation for a potentially great game utterly ruined by the most absoloutely bizarre design choices I could possibly imagine.

Also the achievements are complete shit. No new game + to mop up challenges? Really? Get the fuck out of here.

I far from regret my purchase, but, god damn it Grin, design has moved on, you should have too. Fuck.
 
Akia said:
I bet there's a lot more pressure on the devs of Capcom's Dark Void now. Its up to them to bail out Capcom US western outsourcing strategy. Causalities so far being: Bionic Commando and Age of Booty.

Dark Void only has a shot if the marketing is more like Dead Rising, Lost Planet ect. and less like Bionic Commando, which had horrible marketing. They didn't even bother releasing a single player demo, which is something that can greatly help games like BC. Dark Void is another one of those games that should have a demo, so we'll have to see if they do that.
 
eznark said:
Booo!!



This is bigger news to me, as it's a good game selling shitty.

In regards to this, I went to the store looking for Boom Blox 2 and I overlooked it about 10 times because the box just says "BASH PARTY!". Boom Blox is written down the side and practically unnoticeable to anyone not looking for it, so anyone who might've bought the first game on a whim and would probably buy a second one might not even know the sequel is right in front of them.
 
UnholySpectacle said:
Yep,
you are told at the end of the game that in order for anyones bionics to work with their body, it has to be "fused with someone close to them." I remember speaking to the TV at that point: "WTF, so they poured my wife's soul into my arm, huh?"

Jesus Christ. Metal Gear: Bionic Commando.
 
Rlan said:
Makes me wonder what's going to happen to Ben Judd after all this.

I remember him back when he was a PR minion posting on gamefaqs.

Even GRIN's high-risk strategy of making multiple "next-gen" but very short games aren't to blame for this. They're just crap at making fun games. The best they ever did was GRAW for PC and even that was fairly torturous and filled with basic design mistakes.
 
jmdajr said:
Yeah the game is not crap but it's old school hard. Once you get the hang of grappling you almost feel invincible. I think most people were not willing to put with the steep learning curve. The average rating at gamefly was like a 5, which to me tells me most people probably gave up early on after one too many falls.

E-FUCKING-XACTLY!!!

I too was a bit "eeeh ...this is kinda jank" for the first hour and a half or so ....but once you get it down and being elaborate and throwing in flair with your combat/playstyle, it's some of the most "AAAW SHIT!!!" inducing gameplay I've experienced in quite awhile

Only other title in recent memory that comes close is Lost Planet and Red Faction Guerilla
 
I rented Terminator: Salvation yesterday on free points from the video store. I played for 3 hours last night. I'm a little over two thirds of the way through the game, and I'm taking it slowly and playing on the Hard difficulty.

*shakes head* GRiN.

I was going to buy Bionic Commando day one. Then all the sketchy reviews came in. Then I was going to wait a little while. Then I found out about the in-game advertising and the fact that you couldn't replay any of the challenges or double back to get collectibles. Now I'll be picking it up for $10 used. It's gotten decent word of mouth in the GAF thread and elsewhere, but I've got plenty of better stuff to play.
 
eznark said:
I know, but did it start this slow?

I think so.

I remember people were laughing at it originally, then like 3 months later it was announced that it sold like 300 - 400k.

I think it was the game that allowed gaf to come to the conclusion that Wii games aren't front loaded.
 
So I suppose that we won't see a sequel? I mean,
The ending has like, no closure at all. Spencer just falls out of the sky...and credits roll. :lol
WTF.
 
I don't see how reviewers and people are complaining about the controls and difficulty.This game doesn't even have a steep learning curve play the first few levels and your good to go it's not much harder then that.

The game visually was incredibly polished, the enemy designs were fine no different then most games, the soundtrack is also incredible the remixes of the Bionic Commando theme are amazing.

Story wise is it the best you'll experience? no but it is nowhere near as bad as these reviewers are making it out to be yeah it's somewhat cheesy but so was the original.

Sad to see these number more people should pick it up and play it
 
For the record re: both Bionic Commando and Boom Blox, how many people here actually knew ahead of time when they were releasing? I sure as hell didn't.
 
AgentOtaku said:
E-FUCKING-XACTLY!!!

I too was a bit "eeeh ...this is kinda jank" for the first hour and a half or so ....but once you get it down and being elaborate and throwing in flair with your combat/playstyle, it's some of the most "AAAW SHIT!!!" inducing gameplay I've experienced in quite awhile

Only other title in recent memory that comes close is Lost Planet and Red Faction Guerilla


Glad someone agrees. By the end of the game I felt like a real bad ass.

I dont know if this place likes giantbomb , but they gave it four stars. It did get good reviews in several places.
 
Maybe if the main character didn't look like complete ASS, more people would have drawn to the title.

I mean, really? Is this REALLY who YOU would want to play as?

BionicCommandoBoxArt.jpg
 
dammitmattt said:
No. It sold ~66k out of the gate.
Even given the industry slump, the sequel is selling significantly worse, which is a shame since the game is much better than the first.
 
Dizzle24 said:
So I suppose that we won't see a sequel? I mean,
The ending has like, no closure at all. Spencer just falls out of the sky...and credits roll. :lol
WTF.

There was more after the credits, from what I gather Spence is dead but the arm is still up and kicking meaning it could easily be used for another person
 
Cmagus said:
I don't see how reviewers and people are complaining about the controls and difficulty.This game doesn't even have a steep learning curve play the first few levels and your good to go it's not much harder then that.

The game visually was incredibly polished, the enemy designs were fine no different then most games, the soundtrack is also incredible the remixes of the Bionic Commando theme are amazing.

Story wise is it the best you'll experience? no but it is nowhere near as bad as these reviewers are making it out to be yeah it's somewhat cheesy but so was the original.

Sad to see these number more people should pick it up and play it

Indeed, even the visuals have some weak points, most of the time I was slowly CONSTANTLY panning around the awesome enviroments. Also really appreciated alot of Spencer's animation

Also the music is fucking amazing
 
Cmagus said:
There was more after the credits, from what I gather Spence is dead but the arm is still up and kicking meaning it could easily be used for another person

Spencers wife is a whore confirmed.
 
Always looked like a second rate game to me. Not surprised at all. Still, I'm looking forward to renting it or picking it up on the cheap.

Sucks for Ben Judd though. Rearmed was superb too...
 
Second said:
what :lol

Grin obviously seen people lapping up that bullshit in MGS and wanted a pie of the pie :D

It's a tough game to judge though, the swinging and more surprisingly the combat were great. However the design, loading, and instant death; not so much.
 
Pyrokai said:
Maybe if the main character didn't look like complete ASS, more people would have drawn to the title.

I mean, really? Is this REALLY who YOU would want to play as?
although I don't usually think this matters, here I tend to agree. The main character design is so hillariously bad it's not even funny. You look at the box and are like, no thanks.

Anyway, I'm not sure this would have sold no matter who made it, but clearly it would have been better off in the hands of a better developer.
 
GitarooMan said:
although I don't usually think this matters, here I tend to agree. The main character design is so hillariously bad it's not even funny. You look at the box and are like, no thanks.

Anyway, I'm not sure this would have sold no matter who made it, but clearly it would have been better off in the hands of a better developer.

Only thing I'll agree on about the design of Spencer is indeed the dreads are pretty damn stupid.
Everything else about his costume is fine with me
 
A shame, I really enjoyed the multiplayer demo, and I think they definitely nailed the 3D swing mechanic, maybe a much cheaper multiplayer only release would've worked. Who knows.
 
AgentOtaku said:
Only thing I'll agree on about the design of Spencer is indeed the dreads are pretty damn stupid.
Everything else about his costume is fine with me

It's cool that you can go around in the old costume. I dont know if he looks like ass but he sure acts like one :lol
 
I hope this is seen as a sign of the game's quality and not the IP.

Hopefully a good (and not developed by GRIN) Strider remake can still be on the cards.
 
Perhaps Grin just bit off more than it could chew. Perhaps its niche lay in PSN/XBLA games instead of full retail products. Perhaps people only care for what Capcom's Japanese developers produce. Could you blame them?
 
I personally thought Mike Patton did a admirable job ...It's cheesy fun that consistantly got chuckles outta me

and of course superjoe

"Ok Spencer ...You're gonna have to fuck it!" :lol :lol :lol
 
A game built around, or involving really awesome transport modes really needs to be open-world.

Also, the multiplayer demo was awful.
 
I was looking forward to it. Then i played the demo. Its not fun learning how to use the arm while people are shooting at you. And really i was looking forward to the single player part. So i quickly deleted thr demo and never looked back. Im guessing others did the same
 
webrunner said:
A game built around, or involving really awesome transport modes really needs to be open-world.

I don't think so ...it was always meant to be a ol' school 2D game experience at it's core with a linear progression ala Lost Planet

Open-world would not have added really anything and would have takin' away from that direct, progressive action. Your character is a dude with a mission ...not spidey, running around the city saving pedestrians
 
I will buy it when i see it at $30 or less. I want to play it. I think we are not the ones to blame when this companies try to sell average games at $60 and then call it a failure.
 
McBradders said:
Boom Blox was a slow, but consistent, seller. I have no doubt the sequel will do the same.
The problem I think is that Wii titles like this have a hard time selling sequels, as people are not looking for iterative upgrades. I think My Sims:Kingdom is another good example from EA, where they released a pretty successful first iteration, but the sequel failed to build on that success, because people already had everything they needed.
 
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