History YMMV / BionicCommando

* LoveToHate: "Master D"[=/=]"The Leader" a.k.a. ''UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler''. [[YourHeadASplode Blowing his head up]] is one of the most well-known scenes in the NES adaptation.
* MoralEventHorizon: [[spoiler:Super Joe must really love those Bionics.]]

* NightmareFuel:
** Master-D has his [[http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Reviews/BionicCommando/Wiki/images/thumb/f/f1/TheLeader.jpg/300px-TheLeader.jpg Rearmed potrait]].
** When his head exploded in the [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O9cLVvVx9n4/TjdzBy70mZI/AAAAAAAAAEM/ylIdjvMRXAk/s1600/hitler_master_d.jpg original NES game]] and [[http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/explodinghitler.jpg its remake]].
** Groeder has his [[https://icon2.cleanpng.com/20190704/ktt/kisspng-artist-bionic-commando-deviantart-character-tg-traditional-games-search-5d1ddb5cb94150.1170216315622377887588.jpg mechanical body]].

* ScrappyWeapon: The machine gun from the NES version - the game acts as if it is important or powerful, when it is neither. It only shoots bullets, and they have a pretty short range. Your regular weapon, that you ''start the game with'', is better in almost every way -- it has long range, and with a "turbo" button-equipped controller (or Turbo feature in an emulator) fires just as fast. The fact that the machine gun is kind of out of the way, and a little tricky to actually get if you don't know how, makes it even worse.
* SignatureScene: [[YourHeadASplode Master D's head exploding]], from both the NES and the ''Rearmed'' remake.

* MemeticMutation: The 2009 sequel's plot twist has become this to some, due to how out there and confusing it is.

* ThatOneLevel:
** Area 6, easily. Introduces bouncing mines and a {{Mook|s}} who spawns helicoptering mines in the first area, has some of the hardest climbing and swinging in the game at the beginning of the second area, and then a really tough and annoying rolling mine segment where {{Giant Mook}}s throw mines which roll down horizontal shafts, ''which you can't jump over -- you need to use the arm to hoist yourself up (which takes time) or use springboards to go over them.'' Yeah, this level is hard, what gave you that impression?
** This level was actually made ''easier'' in ''Rearmed'', with the mines being replaced by non-damaging barrels.
** Although harder difficulties ups the ante to ''damaging'' barrels, including [[NintendoHard one-hit instant kills on Super Hard]].

* AntiClimaxBoss: In most of the original games, the bosses are poorly-designed--it's a bad sign when the typical end boss is a wall that you just shoot over and over. In the new console sequel, the bosses are much easier than the rest of the game--even the final boss and the ending sequences. However, in Rearmed, the bosses are just right.
** Often, it was easiest in the NES version to just run around the boss and blow up the reactor with a few rockets without killing the boss.

** The platoon leader bosses in ''Rearmed'' have their main strength (immunity to front attacks) nullified by using the Iron Boots, which damage enemies when swinging.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqZE4ERq4EY The main theme,]] all games.
** The Power Plant theme, both the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRZswpGr0Hs original NES]] and ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPtHTroVWPM Rearmed]]'' versions.
** From the sequel, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKouJEBuFzs "The Gauntlet."]]
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZNbz56ZkBo "Preparations,"]] especially 1:12-1:47. When you go to face [[spoiler:Super Joe]], that part repeats as you make your way to him, as he engages you in mocking conversation. It's one epic build-up.

* AnticlimaxBoss: In most of the original games, the bosses are poorly-designed--it's a bad sign when the typical end boss is a wall that you just shoot over and over. In the new console sequel, the bosses are much easier than the rest of the game--even the final boss and the ending sequences. However, in Rearmed, the bosses are just right.

* CatharsisFactor: Killing Hitler / Master-D / The Leader. In the NES version, it's one of the few cases of licensed NES media to feature such a bloody scene of someone's [[YourHeadASplode head exploding]]. ''Rearmed'' doubles down on this: You get a RepeatCut of his exploding head rendered in 3D as he screams in defeat.

* HarsherInHindsight: Of all things, the ''Literature/WorldsOfPower'' novelization has an instance of this. Early in the book, Rad Spencer has trouble working the bionic arm, but pulls through. When he gets through the area he speaks to the arm, telling it he'll take care of it, and it'll take care of him. Fast forward to the 2009 sequel, where Spencer's arm [[spoiler: is his wife]]...
* LoveToHate: "Master D" / "The Leader" a.k.a. ''UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler''. [[YourHeadASplode Blowing his head up]] is one of the most well-known scenes in the NES adaptation.

* MoralEventHorizon: [[spoiler: Super Joe must really love those Bionics.]]
* MorePopularSpinOff: To an extent. The ''Rearmed'' remake was meant to promote the sequel, but ''Rearmed'' is often considered the better game, to the point of getting its own sequel (by a developer made from the remnants of the ''Rearmed'' team after GRIN went kaput) in the same style.

-->'''Joe:''' I hope this story will be told for a long time...

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: That Master D in the NES game was actually Adolf Hitler using a pseudonym, and that the Badds were actually the nazis in disguise. We also never see the final boss call himself Master D, so it could be further implied that General Kilit was just calling him Master D to conceal his true identity.

** The rocket launcher in the NES version, which is obtained about 40% of the way through the game. It kills virtually everything, bosses included, in one hit, and travels through enemies too, so you can kill several at a time. Needless to say, the game becomes drastically easier once you acquire the rocket launcher and there is no need to use any other weapon for the rest of the game.

* SignatureScene: [[YourHeadASplode Master D's head exploding.]]

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: One of the common criticisms leveled at the 2009 game. Spencer is a ''massive'' dick, and the game generally has a bleak atmosphere, revolving around a conflict between a totalitarian government and a gang of [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized murderous terrorists]]. [[spoiler:TheReveal that Spencer's wife [[HumanResources was killed and used to make his bionic arm]] is the icing on the cake.]]

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: That Master D in the NES game was actually Adolf Hitler using a pseudonym, and that the Badds were actually the nazis in disguise. We also never see the final boss call himself Master D, so it could be further implied that the commander from before was just calling him Master D to conceal his true identity.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: That Master D in the NES game was actually Adolf Hitler using a pseudonym, and that the Badds were actually the nazis in disguise. We also never see the final boss call himself Master D, so it could be further implied that the commander from before was just calling him Master D to make it a twist ending.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: That Master D in the NES game was actually Adolf Hitler using a pseudonym, and that the Badds were actually the nazis in disguise. We also never see the final boss call himself Master D, so it could further be implied that the commander from before was just using Master D to make it a twist ending.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: That Master D in the NES game was actually Adolf Hitler using a pseudonym, and that the Badds were actually the nazis in disguise.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: One of the common criticisms leveled at the 2009 game. Spencer is a ''massive'' dick, and the game generally has a bleak atmosphere, revolving around a conflict between a totalitarian government and a gang of [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized murderous terrorists]]. [[spoiler:TheReveal that Spencer's wife [[HumanResources was killed and used to make his bionic arm]] is the icing on the cake.]]

* AlternativeChatacterInterpretation: That Master D in the NES game was actually Adolf Hitler using a pseudonym, and that the Badds were actually the nazis in disguise.

** Groeder at his [[https://icon2.cleanpng.com/20190704/ktt/kisspng-artist-bionic-commando-deviantart-character-tg-traditional-games-search-5d1ddb5cb94150.1170216315622377887588.jpg mechanical body]].

* Groeder at his [[https://icon2.cleanpng.com/20190704/ktt/kisspng-artist-bionic-commando-deviantart-character-tg-traditional-games-search-5d1ddb5cb94150.1170216315622377887588.jpg mechanical body]].

* CompleteMonster: [[AliensAreBastards The Plutonium Boss]] is a sadistic PlanetaryParasite who feeds on a planet's radiation. Ingraining itself into a planet's core and slowly killing it as it feasts on the core's radiation, once the Plutonium Boss has had its fill, it arises from the ground and annihilates everyone on the planet. Doing this to Eve's home planet Signar-el before moving on to Earth, the Plutonium Boss [[PlayingWithSyringes experiments on organisms]] to make them its mutated warriors, including a teenage human named Alex. Kidnapping Eve to lure Jason Frudnick and Alex to its lair, the Plutonium Boss reveals to the trio the Psychlotron machine, which will speed up both the feeding process and the destruction of Earth at a much faster rate.

* CompleteMonster: [[TheGeneralissimo Generalissimo Kilt]] is the [[BigBad leader]] of the terrorist organization BADD who steals the plans for the Albatross, a deadly weapon which he'll use to destroy the world and rule over the remains. Kidnapping Super Joe and damaging Jack Markson's arm enough to have it amputated, Kilt plans to give Joe a [[CruelAndUnusualDeath slow, painful death]]. Once the Albatross is completed, Kilt and scientist Master Destructo decide to have it destroy North America as a way to test its power. After the Albatross perishes, Kilt leaves his men behind to escape with Destructo, but despite dying at the hands of Jack, Kilt posthumously reveals to have [[DeadMansSwitch programmed his lair to self-destruct should he perish]], gleefully preparing to take his own men with him to the grave.

** Spencer's youthful exuberance at swinging around hits a sad nerve when you realize why. [[spoiler:[[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory He's only a complete person with the one he loves.]] Subtle.]]

* ScrappyWeapon: The machine gun from the NES version. It only shoots bullets, and they have a pretty short range. Your regular weapon, that you ''start the game with'', is better in almost every way -- it has long range, and with a "turbo" button-equipped controller (or Turbo feature in an emulator) fires just as fast. The fact that the machine gun is kind of out of the way, and a little tricky to actually get if you don't know how, makes it even worse.

** When his head exploded in the [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O9cLVvVx9n4/TjdzBy70mZI/AAAAAAAAAEM/ylIdjvMRXAk/s1600/hitler_master_d.jpg NES game]] and [[http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/explodinghitler.jpg Rearmed game]].

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: One of the common criticisms leveled at the 2009 game. Spencer is a ''massive'' dick, and the game generally has a bleak atmosphere. [[spoiler:TheReveal that Spencer's wife [[HumanResources was killed and used to make his bionic arm]] is the icing on the cake.]]

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqZE4ERq4EY The main theme,]] all games.

* GameBreaker: The Flamethrower + Rapid Fire combo in ''Elite Forces'', even though both aren't acquired until the last quarter of the game, they make the bosses in the two final areas a cakewalk.

** DemonicSpiders: In the sequel, you will rapidly come to hate the upper-tier Biomechs.

* ThatOneLevel: Area 6, easily. Introduces bouncing mines and a {{Mook|s}} who spawns helicoptering mines in the first area, has some of the hardest climbing and swinging in the game at the beginning of the second area, and then a really tough and annoying rolling mine segment where {{Giant Mook}}s throw mines which roll down horizontal shafts, ''which you can't jump over -- you need to use the arm to hoist yourself up (which takes time) or use springboards to go over them.'' Yeah, this level is hard, what gave you that impression?

* TearJerker: The ending of the NES version, with Joe's signature.

* MorePopularSpinOff: To an extent. The ''Rearmed'' remake was meant to promote the sequel, but ''Rearmed'' is often considered the better game, to the point of getting its own sequel (by a developr made from the remnants of the ''Rearmed'' team after GRIN went kaput) in the same style.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZNbz56ZkBo "Preparations."]] Specifically, 1:12-1:47. When you go to face [[spoiler:Super Joe]], that part repeats as you make your way to him, as he engages you in mocking conversation. It's one epic build-up.