[I was glad to receive help from Marcel Hoang, one of my buddies who worked with me at the Daily 49er newspaper at Cal State Long Beach. He really helped me refocus my article on what I really loved about this game.]

At the time it was first released for the NES, Bionic Commando was a silly war fantasy where players actually managed to obliterate Adolf Hitler with a fatal bazooka shot. Yet it was surprisingly difficult for a side-scrolling game. People actually had to use their bionic arm in just the right fashion so that they could swing safely from platform to platform.

Rearmed brings back those fond Tarzan memories with an added twist. When you shoot the soldiers, they actually die. I don't mean that they fall away and turn into bullet power-ups. They scream and their limp bodies fall to the floor.

Honestly, I was afraid that the Swedish developer, GRIN, would sacrifice the classic platform-swinging tactics with grim realism. I didn't want to experience extreme hardcore 3D action, like in the new Ninja Gaiden games. Thankfully, GRIN managed to keep all of the precise controls of the old Bionic Commando. They also added plenty of new features to keep players on their toes.

The new weapon system now forces players to choose their weapons wisely. I now have plenty of new ways to kill enemies. I can now grab and throw barrels and soldiers with my bionic arm. I can throw grenades to kill people hiding behind obstacles.

However, I really had to plan out the proper time to shoot the bazooka. It no longer shoots round plasma balls as in the original game. This bazooka could kill me in a fiery explosion. I was amazed at how the developers turned these weapons into dangerous explosive devices.

I love how this game makes me cringe whenever I mow down soldiers with a machine gun. It no longer feels like a humanitarian game of saving the world from an evil overlord. It’s an unnerving portrayal of modern warfare.

I'm glad that Capcom didn't slap in any unbelievably bloody fights. I can only take so many decapitated bodies in a video game and Rearmed is free of all that epic gore. Yet, it is one of the few side-scrollers that actually made me think twice about whether I should really enjoy killing people in war fantasy games.

The developers also did an amazing job in updating all the incoherent dialogue which plagued the original game. The new version now engages players into a dark, mature story which combines technological experiments with the chaotic destruction of war. Although part of this game still involves a goofy Hitler-like villain known as "The Leader," it still surprised me with all the violent twists and turns in the final levels.

This time, I was really afraid of blowing up The Leader in Rearmed. This isn’t a grotesque human explosion like in the anime "Akira." This is a bloody, exploding death sequence in computer-generated glory. Fortunately, GRIN gave me enough good reasons to hate this guy in the last scenes of the game.

Best of all, the very last battle isn’t a generic fight with a boring robot thingy. The main character, Nathan Spencer, engages in a reasonably challenging battle with his evil robot-armed nemesis, known as Gottfried Groeder. If he ever appears again in the sequel to Rearmed, I’ll eagerly take on Groeder anyday.

There’s so many other excellent new features in this game. I love the difficult final level. I love the computer hacking minigame. I love all the unlockable achievements. I love the massive boss fights. I even love running into trucks in the world map, so that I can fight soldiers on the battlefield with my heavy arsenal of weapons.

I can’t say enough about how this game made me fall in love with Bionic Commando all over again. Rearmed is a classic side-scroller that I’ll treasure for a long time.