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Being the enterprising geeks we are, Nukoda took a trip to Philadelphia this weekend to cover America’s Video Game Expo. While there wasn’t a whole lot of newsworthy goodness to absorb, we did manage to score a hands-on demo of the upcoming, next-gen remake of Bionic Commando.

Nestled Hidden between two Crysis Warhead demo stations and running on a PC rig no man could ever afford, we were afforded some quality time with the Bionic Commando demo.

The theme for this preview has to be reigning in expectations. First, the demo was a five-minute affair, containing no combat, and only allowing the player to experiment with the platforming aspect of Bionic Commando in a small city-scape area. We were a bit disappointed that we only got a limited insight into the game, but hey, you have to play the hand you’re dealt, right?

Unfortunately, what was there fell short of our expectations as well. It looks alright, I guess, but it seems to lack the level of polish and/or the coherent design that we have been treated to thanks to recent releases like Gears of War 2 or the upcoming Prince of Persia.

Mediocre graphics aren’t really deal-killer if the game-play is fun though, right? Well, it’s hard to say at this point. The appeal of Bionic Commando is the dynamic between swinging with your mechanical arm while firing the guns in your other hand. We could swing; we could fire guns, but there was nothing to shoot at in the demo.

The swinging alone was a major let down. We weren’t sure what to expect, but any Spiderman game ever really wasn’t it. You can point your grapple at anything in the environment within about 25 feet, attach yourself to it, and either swing or “reel” yourself in. Of course, you can jump while swinging, grab onto something else, and continue your momentum forward. This is something you can describe to death, but how it felt is more important, and our interest expired at around the same time as the five-minute demo timer.

Granted, there wasn’t much to go on with the demo, but Mirror’s Edge was able to put together a winning experience in a small amount of time/space. We don’t know what Bionic Commando will be like when it comes out in winter 2009, but we do know that it has dropped a little further down our most-anticipated list.