There are two versions of Bionic Commando for the Commodore 64 – a British version, developed by Software Creations and published by GO!, and a US version, developed by Pacific Dataworks International and published by Capcom. Both were released in 1988.

The game shown here is the British version, which – in my humble opinion – is by far the better of the two releases.

Bionic Commando on the C64 features chunky, but characterful graphics. Using the grapple hook to swing across platforms does take some getting used to, but once you’ve had some practise with it, it’ll no doubt become second nature.

Shooting enemies can be a little tricky at times. It depends on which weapon you have equipped, as to the effectiveness of your shots, although sometimes the gun doesn’t seem to want to fire, and it can occasionally lead to a frustrating death.

The time limits on the levels are also pretty tight too, so it’s worth moving forward (and upward) as quickly as you can to reach the exit before the clock reaches zero.

Driving the game along is Tim Follin‘s brilliant (and bonkers) soundtrack, which is rightly regarded as a classic and is worth playing the game for – just to hear a great example of superb 1980s video game music.

Famed hacking group, Nostalgia, re-released Bionic Commando in 2011, with bugfixes, enhancements, and a trainer. If you’re going to play the game now, I’d recommend that version.

More: Bionic Commando on Wikipedia
More: Bionic Commando on CSDb