Bionic Commando Rearmed

In Bionic Commando Rearmed, the player controls Nathan Spencer, a soldier who has been given a bionic arm. The arm is equipped with several features including a grappling hook which can be used to reach distant objects. The player uses Spencer's bionic arm to swing across gaps or climb to higher ledges. Often, the player must make a series of grappling actions in a row to successfully traverse hazards such as a wide gap or an electrified floor.

Spencer earns a variety of weaponry and items by defeating level bosses. Some items and weapons must be acquired before certain areas can be entered: for example, the player must locate flares that can then be used to illuminate dark areas. Levels are presented to the player as an overworld-style tactical map showing friendly and enemy areas. The player controls a helicopter to move between areas, and can then select to infiltrate that area on foot.

Bionic Commando Rearmed borrows its plot largely from the NES version of the game. In keeping with the North American release of that version, the references to the Nazi party found in the original Japanese title are not featured in Rearmed. However, as is the case in the original, the final boss of the game resembles Adolf Hitler, and is referred to as "The Leader".

Rearmed centers around two warring factions: the Federation and the Empire. It begins with the Imperial forces discovering classified documents regarding the development of a secret weapon known as the Albatross project, originally started by an organization known as the Badds, but never completed. Killt, Generalissimo of the Empire's forces, decides to complete the project himself. When the Federation learns of the Empire's plot, they send in their national hero, Super Joe to infiltrate the Empire.

Bionic Commando Rearmed developer Grin made it a priority to preserve as much of the original gameplay and visual stylings as possible. Screenshots were taken as a reference, with designers keeping the same color schemes when creating the 3D worlds. Programmers had to reverse engineer the original gameplay to accurately reproduce it. They had to "measure how fast the arm goes out, how fast you swing back and forth, how fast you run across the ground, at what speed you fall down and everything," said Simon Viklund, Creative Director for the game.

The level editor was integrated in the engine, which allowed developers to view creations in real time. Lead Gameplay Programmer Håkan Rasmussen expanded on this concept, stating "Since BCR is built on the same engine as the next-gen BC we can also reuse the editor [which] lowers the time before we can start using levels."

Rearmed sold over 130,000 copies across all three platforms during the first week of its release. As of year-end 2010, Bionic Commando Rearmed has sold over 113,000 copies on Xbox Live alone. That number rose to over 119,000 at year-end 2011.