Hot on the heels of Capcom’s announcement that Bionic Commando Rearmed scored 130 000 digital sales in just 7 days, here is a Q and A with the games producer Ben Judd.

Bionic Commando Rearmed is Capcom’s remake of the classic 1988 NES game. The game is on Xbox Live Arcade, the PlayStation Network and on PC.

If you want the low-down on DLC and new levels, what makes the game better than the original as well as co-op play and achievements, check out the discussion below. Thanks once again to the Xbox Community Network for the interview.

• BC:R doesn’t support Xbox LIVE co-op or competitive multiplayer - why is that?

To be honest when we were originally designing the game, we had actually only planned to have a single player and even that was supposed to have only half the levels of the original. But game design is organic and you have to go where it leads you if you feel that is fun. We fell in love with the game and the next thing we knew, we had designed the game to be even longer than the original game. Halfway though the development process one of the key programmers threw in a second player and people started to really see how enjoyable co-op was. Unfortunately the game was never built with net-code (online play) in mind and we knew that if we ended up implementing it would probably not work well and would certainly add an additional 6 - 10 months of dev time onto the title. The swing mechanic needs to be split-second precise and if there was even a small amount of lag due to shoehorned code it would ruin the game. That left us with a tough call. We could either cut out co-op to avoid any negative press for the game not having online co-op or we could leave it in as a sort of bonus mode. In the end, while we know it’s not perfect, we decided to leave it in and add local multiplayer or top of that. I hope the fans feel that it was the right decision.

• It has been reported that there will be platform specific content, what content will the Xbox 360 be receiving that is unique?

It goes without saying that the game is the only one to feature achievements but there is actually some XBLA-specific content that coincidentally enough may also tie into Microsoft’s idea of community. (No, it is not avatars.)

• Will there be any downloadable content for the game in the future?

That will have to depend on just how well the title does.

• How do you feel the game has shaped up? Will it do the original justice?

I love it. I don’t want to brag about my own game but for it being the first title I have ever produced I am incredibly happy with not only the hard work and love Grin has put into it but how much value the final product has. I really hope people give it a shot.

• What will be the most important improvement on the original?

That’s a tough one. Can I have two answers? If so probably the boss battles since they really are creative and make you really utilize the bionic arm in an interesting way to defeat the boss. They feel quite retro in a good way. The other would be the fact that you can switch weapons at any time in the game. The original had you stuck with a single weapon per stage which meant you usually choose the bazooka since it was the best. We have instead gone with enemies that are weak to certain weapons so if you can quickly switch to the right weapon you will be much more efficient at killing enemies.

• Will you expand on the original’s levels?

Past tense—we already have. There are 4 new stages in the game and almost every level now has some hidden item/room/section that was never in the original. Finding them will be tough but quite rewarding. What do you think of the XBLA platform and how has the development process been? Well, with anything new it has been a learning process but it is a nice piece of hardware and MS has been incredibly supportive.

• What made you decide to do a remake?

I felt that the original swing mechanic was incredibly innovative and wanted to introduce it to current-day gamers as well as bring back 2D games into the limelight.

• Will the old school fans of Bionic Commando, who played it all those years ago, feel at home or will it be an entire new experience for them?

It’s the perfect blend. The swing mechanic handles just like you remember and the level design is about 90 percent similar but we’ve added enough hidden items, updated the bosses, and fleshed out the story to the point where it will feel both new and old but no matter how it feels, it will be a great experience.

• With lots of Arcade Titles to choose from what will make Bionic Commando Rearmed stand out from the rest?

“It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing…” And of course, with the large number of overhead, double-stick shooters, I think this game already stands up on its own two feet.

• Can you tell us more about the integration with the forthcoming boxed Bionic Commando game - how will this work?

Simple by owning both games you can play as the original costume in the 3D version. By collecting some hard to find items in BCR, you can open up new weapons and sections in the 3D version.

• What was the full extent of Toshiaki Mori’s involvement with the art direction?

He did all the art for the in-game cut-scenes. That’s a lot of art and it really does add to the overall presentation of the game.

• Will the game feature any new tracks to the musical score or will it contain remixes of the tunes featured in the original?

Most of them are remixes of the original game but there is one totally unique song which is a remix of a different Capcom game.

• How close is Rearmed going to be to the original version? What have you added and what did you feel that you just couldn’t change?

We couldn’t change the swing mechanic or controls. They nailed them 20 years ago and you can’t change perfection. The cheesy vibe to the original story needed to be maintained as well though it has been fleshed out a bit. We knew that we wanted to update the bosses since they were quite boring and we knew the weapon selection system (1 weapon per stage) had to go.

• Can you tell us more about the Training Room mode and the winner of the community ‘Design a Room’ competition?

Simple, we have been using www.bioniccommando.com to talk with the fans and really create a solid community. Some of the fans are quite creative so we gave them the chance to design their own challenge room. I have to admit there were a lot of great entries and some people obviously spent days designing a challenge room so I’m glad we were able to give visitors to the site, the opportunity to be a bigger part of the production process.

• Let’s talk co-op mode - is it splitscreen or same-screen? How does the screen deal with two players swinging all over the place?

It’s both. There are 3 types of split screen: Vertical (best for SD TVs), Horizontal which works well on widescreens, and of course “smart-splitscreen” which tries to automatically split the screen depending on whether the stage has more vertical sections or more horizontal sections. The game is usually same screen but if you get too far away from your partner the screen auto-splits. It will merge back to same screen if you get closer to your partner.

• Does the game change significantly in co-op? Do your enemies react differently?

Yes, we are tired of lazy co-op design which usually states “if two people are playing then double the enemy’s life bar”. That isn’t creative at all. But in BCR Co-op the bosses attack patterns change and you really, really have to sync up well and cooperate to beat the bosses. The bosses are one of the best parts of Co-op.

• How can players interact with each other in co-op mode? Are there any co-op attack moves?

Unfortunately there are not. At one point we had a 2 person slide maneuver but it ended up breaking the design so we removed it.

• Now let’s talk competitive multiplayer - how does the 4 player combat mode work?

It’s like Smash Brothers with a swing mechanic. Grab a strong weapon, chase your opponent down, and take him out. Or if the enemy gets a strong weapon, use your bionic arm to outmaneuver him.

• What kind of Achievements have you added to BC:R and which is your favourite?

We have tired to balance them out so you can obtain four standard achievements that you can get with a normal play through, four hard achievements that only the most savvy Xbox Live gamers will be able to obtain, and four “funny achievements” that have you doing some pretty unusual stuff. I like the achievement where you have to beat one of the levels without touch any slime on the stage. If you played the original you know exactly which stage I am talking about.

• Bionic Commando is also making a return to Xbox 360 in a whole new 3D game. Why is the time suddenly right for two Bionic Commando games, and how does that game differ from the XBLA version?

It’s always been right, but up until now we’ve never had an internal producer push a new BC title forward since the original game didn’t sell that well. The 3D game is of course in 3D, has multiplayer, and takes place 10 years after the original game. Rearmed is a 2D homage to the original game and therefore has levels that are very close to the original design.

• Lately Capcom’s been pretty active bringing some of its classic franchises to XBLA with a modern twist. Is this a trend we will see continue? What’s next?

I know what I would like to make next but that is another story for another time.

Thanks for your time!