izigame.me

Bionic Commando is one of those games that have a very particular set of controls and until you figure them out they look like utter garbage. The main gimmick of the game is the grappling hook which you can use to get to high platforms and swing across gaps. It's pretty handy, because the game has no jump whatsoever. Getting used to the hook isn't very intuitive, especially when swinging, but it does allow for an interesting moveset when you get it. Other than this, you mostly shoot your way through five levels, but in truth the best strategy to have fun in Bionic Commando is to ignore everything if possible and blaze right through.
Because your movement depends so much on the grappling hook, and because the hook locks you in place in different ways, you get hit with stuff you can't possibly avoid all the time. It's very memorization heavy, but goes further than that, with some spawns that seem to appear precisely where you land with the hook that feel cheap as hell. The solution? Abusing the hell out of the rewind function. It's cheating, but the game feels like it's cheating too. It removes the challenge, but allows you to blaze through at a very quick and quite exhilarating pace. Still, I think I would've had no fun at all playing this legit.
The graphics and music of Bionic Commando are a strong point. You face this cartoonish military made up entirely of guys who kinda look like Waluigi, and the whole game feels pretty much like a spy cartoon. It's light hearted and refreshing, and contributes to the overall fun. The music is also wicked memorable and very fun-sounding, so these are big components of why I liked Bionic Commando overall.
It's definitely a quirky and arbitrary game, but can be enjoyed a lot under the right circumstances. I can't fathom how people could actually have fun with it in the arcades, though.