Bionic Commando

Bionic Commando is a platformer in which the player controls Ladd, whose mission is to rescue Super Joe and to stop the Albatros project. The game begins on an overworld map, where, Starting at Area 0, the player can move Ladd's helicopter to any connected Area on the map in a nonlinear fashion. Each time Ladd's helicopter moves, the enemy ground vehicles will also move. Once the helicopter reaches its destination without crossing over the path of an enemy vehicle, the player can choose to "descend" upon that area or to "transfer" to a different Area.

If the helicopter is intercepted by a vehicle, Ladd must engage the enemy in an overhead shooter level similar to Capcom's Commando. Ladd, armed with a weapon and his grappling hook that he can use to swing around in a circle to deflect bullets and enemies, must defeat the soldiers and make it to the end. These are the only stages where the player can earn a continue.

Bionic Commando takes place sometime in the late 1980s and centers on two warring states: the Federation and the Empire. Federation Forces discover top secret documents about "Albatros", an unfinished project developed by the Empire's predecessor, the "Badds" (also called the "Nazz" or Nazis in the Japanese version). Imperial leader Generalissimo Killt decides to complete the project himself. Upon learning the Empire's plot, the Federation sends in its national hero, Super Joe (the main character from the 1985 Capcom game Commando) to infiltrate the Empire, but he is captured.

The Federation then sends in a second operative named Ladd to rescue him and to uncover the secret behind the Albatros project. Ladd is a member of the FF (Double Force) Battalion, a team of commandos specially trained to use wired guns to infiltrate enemy bases.

For the release of the international version, several changes were made. Most references to Nazism in text and imagery were removed for the English localization. The Empire in the Japanese version was actually a neo-Nazi nation and the Imperial Army's insignia was a Nazi Swastika with a thunderbolt behind it. In the English version, the Nazis are referred as the "Badds", though the backstory in its manual refers to them as the "Nazz".

The Imperial Army's Swastika insignia was changed to a symbol resembling the eagle emblem used by Nazi Germany; and the leader of the villains, originally called Weizmann in the Japanese version, was renamed Killt, although the soldiers and characters keep their same Nazi-like appearance. The difficulty of the game was rebalanced and some of the areas were made less difficult.

According to Capcom employee Ben Judd, the game did not sell well in Japan. In 1988, Nintendo Power featured it on the cover of its second issue with an 11-page "monster review" plus foldout poster. In 1997, Electronic Gaming Monthly ranked it the 32nd-best console game of all time, writing that having to swing instead of jump added unexpected depth to the platform genre. In 2003, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) version was inducted into GameSpot's list of the greatest games of all time.

In 2008, Nintendo Power ranked it as the 17th-best NES game, describing it as one of its most original action games due to the ability to swing. GamesRadar ranked it the fourth-best NES game. The staff called it a classic and praised its grappling mechanic. The Japanese magazine Famitsu gave it 26 out of 40.

A portable adaptation of Bionic Commando was released for the Game Boy in 1992. The Game Boy version is based on the NES game, featuring the same gameplay and stages, and a similar plot, but alters the present day setting into a futuristic one. A second remake, Bionic Commando Rearmed, was developed by Grin and released in 2008 as a downloadable game for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows. The NES version was re-released as one of three NES games in the Game Boy Advance compilation Capcom Classics Mini-Mix, along with Strider and Mighty Final Fight.

The game was novelized as Bionic Commando by J. B. Stamper as part of the Worlds of Power series of novels based on the NES version. The main character is identified as Jack Markson, who loses an arm when ninjas attack his hotel room and kidnap Super Joe.