So what were they looking at ? I guess it wasn’t Ben Judd doing the Mashed Potato dance after all.Instead, they were at a private party Ben put together in at Capcom R+D in Osaka and getting it on with some hot Bionic Commando Rearmed multiplayer action ! You can read all about it here . I had a little taste of this last week in Osaka myself. My feelings were as follows:

1) Result: Seth loses. Thought: This game is clearly BS. That weapon is ridiculously overpowered. Also maybe my Bionic arm doesn’t work. Or maybe it’s this controller. 2) Result: Seth loses (somewhat less badly). Thought: BS I tell you! 3) Result: Seth loses but has a brief kill streak. Thought: Hrm. 4) Result: Seth wins. Thought: Not so tough now, are you? This game > Street Fighter! 5) Result: Seth loses, badly (“Gearoid’s revenge”). Thought: If this guy thinks those jr varsity strats are going to work on me again, he’s got another thing coming.

And that’s about when I realized I was addicted. There are different gametypes, different unique multiplayer stages, different characters (with different stats!), weapons galore, and all of it is gloriously configurable. Yet again, we’ve got another *side-feature* of Bionic Commando Rearmed that is–by itself–better than half of the real games I have played in my life. Maybe I play a lot of garbage, or maybe this is the downloadable title that ate Manhattan (by which I mean it’s, uh, good).