Gameplay - B+
One thing that you are going to notice upon playing this game is that you cannot jump at all. The only thing close to jumping throughout this entire game is when you walk over springs located on the floors of some levels. So how does one get around without the use of their legs? That's where your bionic arm comes into play. You extend your arm in five directions and grab onto a platform or object to pull yourself up or swing your way to another part of the level. This is crucial to survival as there are times that you will have to make well-timed grapples in very dangerous scenarios to get to where you need to go. At the start, you are at the mercy of being killed in one hit. To get life, you must kill enemies then grab the pills they leave behind. After a number of pills you earn a life point. As you progress through the game, you can upgrade your gun to be more powerful. The guns and transmitters needed are found in neutral zones where you must refrain from shooting or the people in charge will attack you. There is only one exception in one of the neutral zones where you must shoot a barrier to get through. I'm actually reviewing the Japanese version of this game but if you are playing the International version, you will see some crazy translation typos just like the word explode being "explod" thus the tagline having that spelling. Then there was also the part towards the end to where your fallen comrade tells you to aim at the cock then it cuts off and puts the pit section of cockpit on the next line thus creating an awkward wording situation. Also in the US, the name Hitler and the references to Nazis have been removed. Hitler is called Master D but you can tell it's him.
Another thing to note on this game is whenever you are traveling to a new section, watch out for enemy tanks because if you hit one while on route, you will play a special overhead level which you must escape the area alive. There are several different kinds of these levels so carefully plan your route to the top and watch out for the sides as you can fall down them. But wait there is more; once you make Hitler's head blow up, it is not over yet. You now have sixty seconds to escape the area before it too explodes. It may look like Joe didn't make it out before the explosion but luckily Spencer retrieves him in the nick of time.
Graphics - B
With this being the Japanese version, everything is intact including the Nazi symbols which were changed to eagle symbols. To be honest, the use of Nazi symbols do make sense in this version considering the Germans and Japanese were allies during the second World War for the Axis side. The level design makes up for the lack of jumping by giving you ample opportunities to save yourself from certain doom if needed. For a system that was geared toward being kid friendly in the US, it was a surprise that not only did they let Hitler aka Master D keep his mustache but they even kept the exploding head in the US version which was a rare occurrence for a US NES game. It is such a travesty that the Rearmed version of this game was given an M rating just for its version of that one scene. Seriously ESRB, it is only just one single scene for Christ's sake. The rest of the game only warrants a T rating.
Sound - A
The music is excellent enough to listen to on your Ipod. Some of them were adjusted from the arcade version like the Power Plant theme (stage 8) which was a shame it was only used for that stage. Heat Wave (Stages 5, 6, and 10) sounds creepy and could have easily been used for a Wily Stage in a Mega Man game. Leap of Faith (Stages 2, 9, and 11) is alright but I liked the Re-armed version better as I did with Power Plant. Speaking of Mega Man, you may have notice that that the grapple sound effect when it grabs a platform is borrowed from Crash Man's weapon when touches a wall and even the explosion of the same weapon is borrowed for explosion in some areas.
Replayability - A
No doubt you will want to play this game again after beating the game since there are so many tricks to exploit in this game just for fun. One of my favorite tricks is walking off a ledge then grabbing a moving platform to save myself from the spikes below. For speedrunners, this is a treasure trove for you since can makes moves that most gamers would not even think of trying.
Overall - B+
This is a must have for NES collectors and fans as there is much more to this game that lets on. It may be a platformer but it really forces you to come up with difficult strategies to come up with. In case you are wondering, yes today is Hitler's birthday and I did time this review to be on this day since Hitler no Fukkatsu translates to Hitler's Resurrection.
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