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Why is Bionic Commando's plot twist so hated? (Unmarked spoilers)

Wonko_C

Wonko_C

Member
Due to the recent comments in this other thread I got a little inspiration. So here is another one of my "Ready to Backfire" threads, and let me get this out of the way: I liked Bionic Commando 2009's Wifearm plot twist. The "Human soul inside a weapon" trope is fascinating to me ever since I played E.O.E.: Eve of Extinction back in the early PS2 days.

Which begs the question: Would Bionic Commando's plot twist be more acceptable if the catalyst was any other person instead of Spencer's wife?

And in the sequel that we are never going to get:
I wanted some kind of "Cortana X Master Chief"-style relationship with Wifearm talking to Spencer and helping him.
*ducks*
 
Because it's dumb, and the whole story leading up to it was dumb, and the betrayal at the very end was even worse. It was a terrible, terrible story all around.
 
The word "wifearm" should really be telling you all you need to know.

And I actually enjoyed EoE, though I don't think I know why.
 
Another sad example of game "reviews" killing off a good game. This industry is fubar when it comes to writers/critics/journalists. :/
 
I played the game a few years ago and yeah it was a pretty ridiculous twist that had no substance behind it and it had pretty much no effect on the story at all (other than finding out where your wife went). It's not like there was any consciousness of the loved one in the prosthetic, it was no deeper than saying "HEY GUESS WHAT? WE GROUND UP YOUR WIFE AND POURED HER GOO INTO YOUR ARM SO IT WOULD WORK RIGHT!" Would using a beloved pet work just as well?
"WHERE'S MY DOG?!"
"Your dog IS YOUR ARM!"
TWIST!

As it was in the game there was no real deep explanation or exploration of the concept (as far as I remember). It was just a random twist meant to shock the audience and ended up backfiring horribly because they failed to make the concept NOT seem stupid.

It was a pretty fun game, though. Got it for like $8-10 a few years back and enjoyed my time with it.
 
BIONIC-ARRRMMM!! said:
No one actually played the game to talk about it brah, it's mostly a shitty meme that people tossed around.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I thought it was a silly twist that failed to pay off ("OK, she's in my arm, what do I do with that knowledge? Nothing, just play the game a little more and then watch credits? That sure wasn't worth a thousand memes...",) but it's hardly the craziest thing a Japanese game company has ever done. (Maybe it's the craziest thing a Swedish game company working for a Japanese game company under the direction of a red-head American has ever done... but before I'm dead and gaming no more, I expect to be able to compose a Top Ten list on this

subject or else gaming will not have progressed in the directions that make me happiest.) After all the negative hype, I expected more, alls I got was a regular game that I mostly liked and sort of bitched about that had a bonkers bit of dialog at the end (was there even a cutscene? I know you saw your wife in flashes but the wifearm thing I thought just was introduced by Colonel Spike Spiegel before the rocketshow with little fanfare.) I was more outraged that there was no level chooser unlocked at the end to go get the tokens I didn't pick up in earlier levels, the whole storyline could have been nothing but wifearm shockers and I would have been happy if I could have just Platinumed the damned thing without having to play it all over again.
 
LiveWire said:
Another sad example of game "reviews" killing off a good game. This industry is fubar when it comes to writers/critics/journalists. :/
Click to expand...
Nah, the game was pretty bad. From the confined areas surrounded by death fog, to the collectibles not saving if you die, and putting some of those right next to the death fog. To the terrible story, mostly repetitive fighting, bare-bones multiplayer it was ho-hum at best. The swinging was pretty cool, but you could never get a good run going like Spider-man 2. Also dreadlocks. Don't forget about the dreadlocks.
 
I actually kind of loved it, and I loved the dour "Maybe-everyone-is-dead" ambiguity of the final moments.

This is one of my favorite games, mostly for the swinging, which is my favorite since Spider-Man 2.
 
A soul inside an arm is just as dumb as it was in MGS2... but that game had other things going for it.
 
I knew the game was going to be bad when they changed the characters design to try to be "brodude" and appeal to a mainstream casual COD audience.

Seriously what was up with those dreads and roid muscles?
 
Aaron said:
Nah, the game was pretty bad. From the confined areas surrounded by death fog, to the collectibles not saving if you die, and putting some of those right next to the death fog. To the terrible story, mostly repetitive fighting, bare-bones multiplayer it was ho-hum at best. The swinging was pretty cool, but you could never get a good run going like Spider-man 2. Also dreadlocks. Don't forget about the dreadlocks.
Click to expand...

The game has a lot wrong with it, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it for some of the set pieces, the boss fights, one of the best soundtracks this gen, the visual direction, and I even think the controls and the abilities you could perform were handled well.
 
Aaron said:
Nah, the game was pretty bad. From the confined areas surrounded by death fog, to the collectibles not saving if you die, and putting some of those right next to the death fog. To the terrible story, mostly repetitive fighting, bare-bones multiplayer it was ho-hum at best. The swinging was pretty cool, but you could never get a good run going like Spider-man 2. Also dreadlocks. Don't forget about the dreadlocks.
Click to expand...

Right, a game can be "bad" and enjoyable too. I find GodHand to be a disaster in style and structure, but I respect its insanity and addictive challenge, I would recommend it to very few people and don't like it myself but I like people who like it, oddly enough.

They made a ton of mistakes with Bionic Commando 2009, but it's a game that was made with great passion and it's worth your time to investigate the wrongs and rights of the game if you're interested in its thought process. And if nothing else, it should be celebrated for spawning its sister game, BC:Rearmed.
 
I NEED SCISSORS said:
The game has a lot wrong with it, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it for some of the set pieces, the boss fights, one of the best soundtracks this gen, the visual direction, and I even think the controls and the abilities you could perform were handled well.
Click to expand...
For me, it was great controls locked in a terrible game. You could do so many cool things, and the whole game was structured around limiting your ability to do it. Soundtrack was amazing for sure though.

CamHostage said:
Right, a game can be "bad" and enjoyable too. I find GodHand to be a disaster in style and structure, but I respect its insanity and addictive challenge, I would recommend it to very few people and don't like it myself but I like people who like it, oddly enough.
Click to expand...
I was referencing the lament against reviewers. I think this was one instance reviewers were right on the money. Usually scores are overinflated.
 
Because it came off as painfully contrived. Not that that kind of twist can't be effective, but (Evangelion)
in the case of Evangelion it was using the pilot's mother's soul as a way to let that pilot synchronize with a GIANT CYBORG, so even if it's still crazy it makes some sort of sense.
As a purely cybernetic ARM though? I dunno, couldn't they have just either A. scanned her brain, or B. made an ANDROID with her memory to replace her if robotics were that far? That's assuming they'd need to kill her to scan her brain fully, of course.

Though I think I'm more offended by taking a classic (but forgotten) Capcom hero and making him into a villain, that only really works well on a meta level, or maybe if you were to go more Metal Gear, rather than using a character from a series where cloned Hitler was the final boss.
 
Anticitizen One said:
I knew the game was going to be bad when they changed the characters design to try to be "brodude" and appeal to a mainstream casual COD audience.

Seriously what was up with those dreads and roid muscles?
Click to expand...

The designers wanted to give Spencer long hair so you could visually see the character be affected by the swinging momentum. They thought that would look pretty dumb with red hair, so they went with black. And puh-lease at the brodude shit, I don't think Spencer is even carrying a gun in the fucking cover.
 
Read that post again.
Now, focus on the wifearm.
Focus on it real good.
You see it?
It's terrible.

Now, stop.



I did like the character design, though.
 
BIONIC-ARRRMMM!! said:
The designers wanted to give Spencer long hair so you could visually see the character be affected by the swinging momentum. They thought that would look pretty dumb with red hair, so they went with black. And puh-lease at the brodude shit, I don't think Spencer is even carrying a gun in the fucking cover.
Click to expand...
One of the artists commented in a previous thread that the design was chosen based on focus testing. They weren't allowed to put forward the original red hair design, though I could be misremembering.
 
Also, people should know that the game was on a shoestring budget by Capcom. It was originally supposed to a 20 hour game, but they cut it down to 12. Do you really think the narrative wouldn't suffer with something like that? I'm amazed that the core game turned out to be excellent despite all that to be quite frank.
 
It's not unplayable, some of the mechanics are decent. Story is laughable.

I do like to consider Wife Arm to be the best worst plot twist in years, even though I never finished the game. Gave up on it like 5 or 6 hours in, too much other cool shit to play at the time. I've since watched YT videos of the ending missions of the game and it's as bad as everyone says it is.
 
Aaron said:
One of the artists commented in a previous thread that the design was chosen based on focus testing. They weren't allowed to put forward the original red hair design, though I could be misremembering.
Click to expand...

The thing that was focus tested was his first name I think. Supposedly Nathan is a pretty crowd pleasing name. (See: Nathan Drake, Nathan Hale, etc.)

I'm not saying that you're lying, but the only BC designer I know of that posted on GAF was Simon Viklund. If you have the guy's username, or the name of the thread he posted in I'd appreciate it.
 
Because its pretty obvious from the get go but I think people careless about the twist and more about the really lame final final scenario.
 
Having just heard of this plot twist, my reaction is LOL.
 
I enjoyed the game for what it was but it has an awful story, it butchered the few characters that universe had and that ending was simply awful.
Also, dreadlocks.

It was a stupid and unnecessary plot twist with no build up. For all that mattered the wife could have been dead in any other way and it wouldn't have changed the impact of that revelation in the slightest. Heck, the wife could have been shrink and been stuck on his hair all long.
 
The arm thing was dumb, but as an old time Capcom gamer making Super Joe - hero of Commando, Mercs, etc. - a villain was retarded. For me it was like making a sequel to Link to the Past where Zelda decides to join up with Ganon.
 
it's extremely dumb it the context of the series. Bionic commando is about mindless fun, heavy action and blowing up techno nazis in the face with a bazooka.
Spencer is supposed to be duke nukem's wisecracking brother , not some angsty tormented Fabio lookalike
 
Title says "unmarked spoilers". OP marks spoiler anyway.

Anyway, I had no idea people were actually paying attention to the story in this awful game. I agree with the majority: it's silly and dumb.
 
Vitten said:
it's extremely dumb it the context of the series. Bionic commando is about mindless fun, heavy action and blowing up techno nazis in the face with a bazooka.
Spencer is supposed to be duke nukem's wisecracking brother , not some angsty tormented Fabio lookalike
Click to expand...

Did you actually play the game? He constantly talks shit about enemies after he kills them. He also talks back to his mission handlers all the time.
 
The wifearm twist in Bionic Commando isn't particularly bad, it's just another stupid story beat in a game filled with stupid story beats. The concept itself isn't awful, but since the player has no relationship to Spencer's wife, it comes too late for the character to ever grapple with its implications, and you can't really do anything about it, it's just meaningless. It's a stupid way to resolve a plot point that they spent time setting up back in Bionic Commando Rearmed. I liked it more when it was just a part of his background.

I'd say the Super Joe twist was worse, but at least some thought was put into it. Either way, Bionic Commando's story was a total mess from top to bottom. It was a waste of good voice talent and a waste of the lighthearted retro story vibe they had going in Rearmed. It might be the worst story I personally experienced this generation.

A shame about the game's flaws, because the swinging was fantastic.
 
Wonko_C said:
Due to the recent comments in this other thread I got a little inspiration. So here is another one of my "Ready to Backfire" threads, and let me get this out of the way: I liked Bionic Commando 2009's Wifearm plot twist. The "Human soul inside a weapon" trope is fascinating to me ever since I played E.O.E.: Eve of Extinction back in the early PS2 days.

Which begs the question: Would Bionic Commando's plot twist be more acceptable if the catalyst was any other person instead of Spencer's wife?

And in the sequel that we are never going to get:
I wanted some kind of "Cortana X Master Chief"-style relationship with Wifearm talking to Spencer and helping him.
*ducks*
Click to expand...

No it wouldn't have been more acceptable if the catalyst for his bionic implant was another person. It would have been equally as bad an idea.

Did you forget that he fought a certain Nazi who was like 90% bionic as the last fight? That very character made no sense considering how you get bionics to begin with. The power of love makes the bionic not reject the host? Thats not how biology works.And who the hell loved that Nazi? Worshipful brainwashed soldiers I guess... Worse there are a TON of bionics in this game's story. They claim there is a whole buttload of retired bionics the government didn't wanna deal with after the war and thats where the whole fight begins when they rebel just for the right to exist. That is a MASSIVE body count that had to take place to give that many dudes bionic replacement limbs.

"Whoops. A soldier lost a limb. Better go kill one of their loved ones to give them a bionic pair of legs."

You see if what happened to Spencer is the reality of how ALL bionics work then it completely ruins the immersion of the game, because ALL those other bionic soldiers mean that a ton of innocents were butchered to make them too. Its so contrived it comes across as ludicrous.

Body farming? Sure. Butcher folks for parts and use those to make bionics. But the bionics only keep from being rejected if they were made out of someone who cared personally and deeply for the recipient of the implant? Bullshit.

I wrote a huge thing on this game praising it for how close it came to greatness and listing all the papercuts that stopped it from fully reaching its potential. I still wish squenix hadn't managed to kill off Grin just so I could see them do the sequel, retcon the babbling about wifearm as the madness of a failed clone, and get down to some serious story and Bionic Gameplay, but it wont happen now.

I like Bionic Commando for what it was and could have been, but I wont make excuses for such a bad twist story gimmick. No one should.
 
Story was super dumb, but I kind of enjoyed it because of that.

What really kills the game are all the constant loading screens. It would have been so much better if they were able to have larger, extended areas without everything being so sectioned up.
 
Sojgat said:
Story was super dumb, but I kind of enjoyed it because of that.

What really kills the game are all the constant loading screens. It would have been so much better if they were able to have larger, extended areas without everything being so sectioned up.
Click to expand...
Theres more faults than that.
  • Load screens
  • underpowered pistol with too few ammo drops before you actually gain Bionic abilities suited for good combat plagued the first half of the game
  • the most difficult bionic sections in the game all happen in minefield swinging which ABOUNDS in the first early stages before you are more proficient with the tool
  • you level via achievement hunting but have no ability to go back later to areas suited for the next level's requirement task since you can only move linearly through the story and if you save and play a previous stage you lose anything you had after that stage
  • collectibles abound but are worthless to hunt for unless you get all of them in every stage in one run since you can not backtrack through stages for the ones you missed
  • no radiation meter like Metroid Prime often leads to sudden instant deaths during swings since you cannot detect radiation being too high fast enough if you are moving at high speeds. The radiation will suddenly read red and you die. It needed a meter BADLY to alert you that radiation was thicker nearby so you didn't slingshot yourself too close.
  • glitchy walls that enemies could get stuck in that slowly eat their bodies (hell I liked this part! I treated folks like lawn darts and watched the flailing commence :) )
  • enemies having RIDICULOUS damage and range on their weapons. You could literally be killed in only a few shots in the first half of the game and your radar would only tell you if your enemy was behind you but NOT if they were above you or below or whatever. Pistol packing dudes in camo at long distance blend into scenery of rubble REAL easily and you would be dead due to 500 yard pistol sniping from grunts before you could even tell where the hell they were at. Many deaths were repeated simply trying to map out where enemies were located.
  • Radiation could penetrate INSIDE of buildings and kill you due to bad clipping of walls. This could cause problems.
  • Close quarters combat inside of buildings was frequent in early stages before you were equipped with many good Bionic arm maneuvers. This meant you were reliant on the pistol which was garbage and that generally had NO ready ammo available for it. Close quarters combat does not allow for easy dodging or handling of armed crowds of soldiers.
  • Sniper level was so brutal that many players quit there and immediately afterwards the game gets good sadly.

Dont get me wrong though. Once you get out of the tunnel and get the ability to kite objects, and do all the throwing and such you are combat evolved. When the game is on its fucking on and it had some of the greatest combat during the second half of the game of ANY game this gen. The swinging is perfect, the bionic maneuvers once you have them make the game sing. But death by papercuts killed it. They should have given you ALL the bionic maneuvers from the get go, saved all the mine fields for later, put radar spotted enemies in a glow on the battlefield to detect whether they were above or below you, added a radiation meter, and made the game so you could backtrack to grind for level requirements and to find collectibles. Plus for the love of god if you are not gonna give a man ammo early on then give him health enough to deal with it. No health, ammo OR hand to hand skills worth a damn versus crowds in tight quarters was murder. Start him with all the bionic maneuvers and a bit more health next time than the starting tissue paper durability Spencer had.

I pray for a feedback based sequel to this someday that clears up its mistakes. It was damned close to becoming something incredible. Stick it out till after the subway tunnel and the game explodes with awesome. Sadly though it was literally ruined by papercuts...and wifearm was a contrived bullshit twist that wasn't a payoff so much as an insult to your intelligence.
 
The reasoning for the wifearm was just awful. He had to get it because they couldn't sync an arm otherwise. Are you kidding me?

Any how the game was ok. Swinging around got old quickly not to mention that crap with the two robots on the harbor level.
 
It makes for a great meme.

It's like some reveal in a bad movie.

yourwifeisinyourarmbitnjw2.gif
 
I haven't finished the game, but I was more upset to learn that Super Joe becomes the bad guy.

I think the game had a lot of potential, if it weren't for the damn radioactive fog. I thought the multiplayer was awesome.
 
Do you see anyone talking shit about the very same elements in Rogue Trooper? No, because they handle it well there.

In Bionic Commando it was just the most ludicrous "reveal". Terrible.
 
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