In 1987, Capcom released their first dedicated arcade cabinet, a rather middling platformer called Bionic Commando. Touted as a sequel to their popular Commando in the US, Bionic Commando was a somewhat unique, if unspectacular, platformer whose biggest gimmick was that the player character could not jump, but instead had to use his bionic arm as a grappling hook and swing across chasms.
One year later, Capcom redesigned the game from the ground up for release on the Nintendo Entertainment System. This new Bionic Commando bore little resemblance to its arcade progenitor, and it was all the better for it. Read on to find out why Bionic Commando remains one of the NES's most endearing games, while the arcade version is little more than a footnote in Capcom's illustrious history.
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