[In this in-depth Gamasutra postmortem, Capcom's Ben Judd analyzes work on 2D downloadable update Bionic Commando Rearmed, which debuted on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and PC in 2008, examining everything from pricing to online play decisions.]
Bringing a franchise back
from the dead is never an easy thing. There are probably more cases of games
that have gone horribly wrong than games that have done it right. In the case
of Bionic Commando, we knew it was a franchise that had a small cult following
but wasn't even really financially lucrative back in the late '80s when it was
originally released in the arcades and on the NES.
Before development on the
3D game even began I know there would be two major groups of consumers that we
needed to consider:
1)
Hardcore fans
By "hardcore" I
mean people who would be so caught up in the nostalgia of the original game
that any minor change from the original scenario, design, or graphics would
immediately incur their wraith on message boards and throughout the gaming
community.
2)
Average (not-so-super) Joe gamer
Since the series is over
20 years old, most gamers who started gaming in the PlayStation era would have no
idea what Bionic Commando was or why the people in the first group were
so fond of it. Trying to convince these consumers that Bionic Commando
would be a great experience would be very similar to pushing an original title
(i.e. the name brand value wouldn't help out much).
Unfortunately, there just
aren't enough fans of the original to make a full-fledged AAA 3D Bionic
Commando a "can't miss" success, so we needed to make choices
that would get someone excited about the game from the ground up.
Too many inside jokes
would alienate the people who were considering picking up Bionic Commando.
Too few would alienate the fans. So the big question was "what line do we
walk in order to get both sides excited?"
The answer ended up being
a very reasonably-priced digital download title based totally on the original
game -- Bionic Commando: Rearmed.
What Went Right
1.
The Announcement Trailer
Sometimes if a trailer is
good enough, it can get everyone excited about a game right from day one. It
was the perfect example of Capcom Japan
and GRIN working together in the best way possible. Ideas on both ends were
considered and in the end I still think it is one of the best digital download
trailers you will find.
We started with the key
idea of showing a transition of the original game into Rearmed. The
obvious thing that makes Bionic Commando special is the swing mechanic
so we asked GRIN if they would be able to do a transition from the original
game into Rearmed in mid-swing.
Not only did they pull it off with flying
colors, but Simon Viklund, the director and sound director, blended the
original music into the new remixed music so well that we received requests
from fans asking for that version of the stage 1 music.
Also, I'd like to say
that even though we made the initial game announcement at IGN, both 1UP
(bows head in moment of silence), and GameSpot allowed us to put the taglines
from their reviews of the original game into the trailer as well which really
helped the trailer stand out.
Of course, the other
thing I'm happy about is the final communicator text, which talks about being
able to use the retro costume in the 3D version if you own Bionic Commando
Rearmed. We knew the trailer was going to get a lot of views, so we wanted
to get the word out that for those fans who were having a problem with the 3D
version's character design that there was a way to play as the classic Spencer.
Ultimately, if you are a
fan of the original game then you would most likely buy Rearmed, since
it is total fan service. So this way, if you bought the 3D version you'd get to
play it "retro-style" as well. Getting that information out to all of
the Bionic Commando fans was key, and this trailer allowed us to do it
in a really great way, including the classic "Get the heck out of here you
nerd" line.