E3: Best in Show- Downloadable Delights, Bionic Commando Rearmed and Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2

For Best in Show, Tech-Gaming is highlighting all the outstanding games
shown at E3, 2008. For us, these are the must-play titles, that we had a hands-on
experience with, at the show.

Swedish developer GRIN seems to have given a retro game a near perfect high-def
make-over, with Bionic Commando: Rearmed.  Available for the Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation
Network, the game features a protagonist, who with a mechanical arm is able to
swing and elevate himself from platform to platform. This arm allowed the NES
version of the game to stand out among a plethora of run and gun side-scrollers,
letting the player perform sweeping gymnastic maneuvers around the more sedentary
enemies.

GRIN has been diligently faithful to the source material, from the
chirpy remixes of NES songs, reimagining of 8-bit graphics and fonts, and the recreation
of the game’s colorful levels. While we thought the swing mechanic was a
dead-on reproduction of the original game, Retronaut Jeremy Parish, told us
that it wasn’t quite exact. Still, after a few minutes of play, we were
swinging from edge to edge like we did twenty years ago.

Mutiplayer was handled especially capably. When both players are on-screen,
the camera assumes its default position. When one player begins to move further
away, the camera moves back, to show a wider angle of the action. If the gamers
separate even further, a split-screen is utilized to display the action, with
no effect on the game’s framerate.  

Overall BC:R has shaped up quite nicely; it’s readily apparent that a
lot of thought has gone into this recreation. We’ll be downloading this game
when it becomes available at the end of July for very reasonable price of ten
dollars. Let’s hope enough gamers purchase Bionic Commando: Rearmed to make Magic
Sword, Black Tiger, and Ghosts and Goblins remakes feasible for GRIN and Capcom.

 
Geometry Wars 2: Retro Evolved 2 takes the masterful additions of the Wii’s
Geometry Wars: Galaxies, and integrates them into six new play types. Fans of
2005’s GW:RE will notice the addition of the multiplier system; when enemies are
destroyed they will leave yellow triangles that multiply the player score. This
adds a distinct risk/reward model to the game, as players are lured into dangerous
areas of the board, in hopes of increasing their scores.

Specially, GW:RE2 adds six play types to the gameplay model: Deadline,
Evolved, King, Waves, Sequence, and Pacifism.  King was one of our favorites; it this mode
circles appear on screen. Players can only shoot while inside one of the
temporary circles. Play favors clearing a section, then high-tailing it to the
next circle. Co-op play on this mode was an amazing experience, with gamers anxiously
yelling directions to one another.

Pacifism, on the other hand, turns normal Geometry Wars play on its
head. In this mode there is no shooting and no smart bombs, instead gamers try to
lure enemies through gates that explode when you fly through them. It’s particularly
satisfying to entice a large horde of adversaries through the gate, who then
explode just a moment before your impending death.

Xbox 360 owners will be able to enjoy Bizarre Creations latest work on
August 6^th, for the price of ten dollars. The one downside of this is
that GW: RE2 will offer only local co-operative play, meaning you’ll have to
coordinate your attacks with friends beside you, not across the ‘net.