In a recent tour of Capcom’s studios, I stumbled across something of epic proportion that nobody else in the gaming industry seems to care about. How this could be overlooked is amazing to me. The upcoming PS3/360 game Bionic Commando is founded on a very false assumption.

To find out the truth, continue on after the jump…

Everything was going as smoothly as you would expect a studio tour to go, programmers were programming, producers were producing, artists were… well, two of the artists were playing Peggle, but we did see one artist actually… um… arting? On second though, it didn’t quite smell like art. Anyway, we came across some of the early concept art for the game hanging in the hallway and were shocked to find one showing the main character mid-swing using his bionic arm. The part that caught my eye was that his underwear was visible above the waist line of his jeans. Underwear?!?! On the Bionic Commando? How can this be? If anyone in the world should be going commando, it HAS to be Bionic Commando!

I asked the lead artist about this revelation and he paused his Peggle game to talk to me. There was a nervous exchange of looks between the artists and my wrangler. I know that look, that’s the look of “Help get me out of this situation!” The wrangler laughed and suggested we move on to another area, but knowing I was on to something, I asked point blank if the Bionic Commando character conceptually or literally had underwear on. The lack of answer was all the answer I needed, putting the wrangler one notch closer to panic mode. It was at this point he insisted we continue to another section of studio.

As it turns out, our studio tour ended up being cut short (about 15 minutes total) and can only be related to catching that tiny detail. I could see across the long office space filled with cubicles that the concept art I’d seen had already been removed. Pressing my tour guide further (knowing I was already being shown to the door) he countered with a rather nervous and abrupt “Do you think Ratchet & Clank really went ‘commando’ in their game ‘Going Commando?!?!’” By a weird set of circumstances, I was absolutely prepared to answer this which clearly he was not expecting. Having toured Insomniac Games studios years prior, and having asked that very question, I knew for a fact that neither of those characters had ever been drawn or rendered with underwear on.

The last 3 feet of the tour were something I’ll remember for the rest of my life. I stopped, just short of the doorway and turned to face our producer/tour guide. I got a half a syllable out when he put the palm of his hand squarely on my chest and shoved me through the open doorway, closing it behind me. In what had to me a comical over exaggeration, he slammed the deadbolt shut and loudly mumbled some words I couldn’t quite make out. All in all I was excited to get some rather interesting news out of a studio tour I expected to be a snore-fest.

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