Capcom gathered the Japanese press today at its Tokyo branch office in Shinjuku for something the foreign press has been privy to for some time now: hands-on time with Bionic Commando Rearmed, or as it's known here in Japan, Bionic Commando Master D Revival Plan.

Heads will explode, in just a few days!

A few bits of news emerged from this event, as reported by various Japanese media outlets. First, a domestic release date for the title. Rearmed will hit the 360 on July 30 at 800 Microsoft Points. It will follow the next day on the PS3 at 1,200 yen. Both versions are rated B.

Producer Ben Judd was on hand at the event to explain some o the differences between the 360 and PS3 versions of the games. The 360 version has Achievements, he said. In place of that, the PS3 version makes use of Medals, which function like Achievements. The development staff is looking into having the Medals automatically converted to the PlayStation Network's recently added Trophies.

Judd pointed out one advantage for the PS3 version: remote play via the PSP. "The PSP LCD is ideal for 2D scrolling games, and it looks really beautiful," he said. "Currently, few third party titles support remote play. It's possible that we're the first. "

One difference between the two versions isn't necessarily an advantage for either. Both versions have a few unique challenge rooms.

Also being picked up heavily by the Japanese language press following the event was the debut of the game's anime promotional video which features a theme song performed by Ichiro Mizuki (who recently made headlines with the announcement of his participation in the development of a new robot game called Gadget Robo) with lyrics by Kouhei Tanaka.

Explaining the tieup, Judd said, "Bionic Commando is a game from 20 years ago. For me, I get nostalgic as I'm reminded of a 'game-like' era. I wanted to make Japanese users feel that way."

He came up with the idea of achieving this feeling through old anime, which he hoped would remind players of a time when "fun games like this" were around. Upon asking the designers on his team about famous anime performers, Mizuki's name popped up.It turned out that Mizuki is a huge gamer.

How it looked then (left) and how it looks now (right).

The promotional video will be available for download starting July 25 through the PlayStation Store, Xbox Live Marketplace and the Bionic Commando official site.

And the full game, at long last, will follow just a few days after that.