Since you can’t jump, the game emphasizes mastering your weapons and your bionic arm. The guns have good variety; a few are direct-fire weapons like revolvers, while another is a laser that arcs whenever it hits a surface (enabling you to do trick shots), and you’ll even get a rocket launcher and grenades for dealing with larger threats. Your bionic claw arm on the other hand can deflect attacks, grab objects to throw at enemies, and be used to climb from platform to platform. You’ll have to get good at everything the game lets you do; there are no unnecessary skills. All it takes is a little practice and you’ll get used to the unusual idea of being unable to jump.

There are a few problems worth mentioning. First, some of the later levels in this game are just plain hard; they can be beaten with sufficient memorization and practice, but this could have been avoided by just being a little more merciful in the stage design. Second, the overhead map you use to travel between stages is very hard to use if you want to use a diagonal route, so you’ll have to be extremely careful and probably use your analog stick.

On the other hand, there is a lot of content to make up for those hassles. There are about fifteen singleplayer stages to go through, and they’ll take a fair amount of time with each one lasting about ten minutes. You can also play deathmatch with up to four players, or co-op through the normal stages with one other person. Unfortunately, none of these modes include online play as far as I can tell, which is a shame. On the other hand, several ’challenge rooms’ exist which test just how good you are, and there are plenty of secrets to be found, many of which upgrade your weapons.

Regardless of whether you played the original NES version or not, Rearmed is a great game. It has something of a learning curve to it, but once you get used to the controls there is some genuinely sound 2D platforming action to be had. It takes everything that was good about the old game, and then improves on that while adding new content. Despite its flaws, it’s easily worth the normal 800 Points ($10) they ask for it. And if you’re lucky enough to be reading this during the week of May 25, 2009, you’ll be pleased to know it’s half off at this time. Regardless of which price point you find it at, this is definitely worth buying.