Skip to main content

Throwback Thursdays- My top 10 favorite arcade games

By Mark Rodriguez

As a kid once place I loved was the arcade. Videogames were still new, fresh and exciting for me at the time and I loved Ms. Pac-Man and Dig Dug. It wasn't until arcade games got a bit more advanced than one screen puzzle mazes and the beat-em-up and fighting game genre came out that really got me going as often as I can. Here is, in my personal experience, the top 10 favorite arcade games from my childhood. Some of these are still worth dumping a few quarters into. At least one of them, I believe, has still never been released on a home console. Other than personal preference the list be be based on mostly how often I played these games or the overall significant importance it had to Johnny and me growing up.

10- Arch Rivals- Midway Entertainment- 1989


Basketball with no rules, where if someone is in your way, just punch them out of the way! The game was simple and fun, just 2 on 2 basketball where you and your computer controlled buddy take on a second player and his computer controlled buddy. The main difference here is that you can punch other players or pull down their shorts. There's also random garbage on the court to trip you up and make you lose the ball. Being an arcade game and all, the game would pause after a bit until you would put in another quarter so that a full 4 quarter game doesn't go for a quarter. They gotta make money somehow. The rockin' soundtrack also helped make the game fun, there was only one main theme but it was catchy.

I remember everyone always wanted to pick Tyrone and have him wear red cause it would make him look like Micheal Jordan, and being in Chicago, everybody loved Micheal Jordan. I also liked picking Mohawk cause I dug the green mohawk, and this was before Rodman and his crazy hair colors became a thing. It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed playing it a lot.

There was an NES version and it's part of Midway Arcade Treasures 2 for the PS2 but they messed up the button lay out so you can't select 2-player.

9- Aliens- Konami- 1990



This was a 2-player shoot-em-up that was pretty cool even though we haven't seen the movies at the time. You play as Ripley and Hicks and just shoot everything in sight. The game was pretty cool and you faced everything from chest bursters to face hugger and Alien bosses of all shapes and sizes. You can upgrade you gun to become a flame thrower and rocket launchers. Besides the usual stages where you can walk in all 8 directions, there are also parts where you crawl through tunnels and use radar to detect when the Aliens are coming your way, and some stages have you face bosses from a 'behind-the-player' viewer as you shoot upwards while they rain projectiles down at you to avoid.

This game was a lot of fun and I'll always remember the extra details like chest bursters crawling out of their victims to attack you and the cool bosses. I also liked the fact that unlike others shooters of the time like Contra, you don't die in one hit and can actually take a few. It was an awesome game and as far as I know, there was never a home port. I assume because the NES couldn't handle this level of insanity and by the time the 16-bit systems became more popular, Konami most likely lost the rights to the Aliens franchise. I think by the time the 90's consoles got an Alien game, it was Alien 3 and that was made by Acclaim.

8- The Simpsons- Konami- 1991



This was a cool beat-em-up, just when the Simpsons were rising in popularity back in the day. This one was 4-player, and while it was weird to think of Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa as going around kicking ass, we loved the Simpsons so much that we didn't care. Basically Smithers was robbing a huge diamond from a jewelry store as if he were a common criminal, and bumps into Maggie. Maggie gets the diamond, so Smithers kidnaps the baby, which sets her family out to rescue her.

The cool thing about this game are the team-up moves that characters can do, like Homer and Marge holding hands to become a giant cartwheel, and Homer picking up Bart so they can both attack enemies together. There's even a part where you need all four players to work together and lift a car to toss at the bad guys. The game also has lots of cool items to grab and throw around, or weapons to use like mallets and slingshots. Beat-em-ups were fun in the 90's and nothing helped you get a leg up on the competition than making it more than just 2-players.

This was fun in the day and while it wasn't available to any home console since Acclaim took the Simpsons license. We had to wait several years to play the arcade version thanks to XBox Live. Sadly it no longer available so it does kinda suck if you haven't downloaded this arcade on your XBox 360 or PS3 before they pulled it. Years later the game brought back memories as Johnny, Paige and I played through the arcade on the XBox 360.


7- X-Men- Konami- 1992


This was another Konami beat-em-up except it was 6 player. The X-Men characters were awesome at the time thanks to the 90's cartoon, and unlike the Simpsons, it was a lot more natural to see them kicking ass and blowing stuff up. You can pick from Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Dazzler as you take on scores of Sentinels and classic villains like the White Queen and Magneto. Aside from the usual attacks each character can activate a special mutant attack that clears the screen of enemies, though at the cost of some life.

There were two arcade cabinets, one was 6-player and one was 4-player, but luckily our arcade had the 6-player version. It was a blast to play as Johnny and I saved up a few bucks to beat the game once at the arcade alongside other fans. The characters were cool, the music was catchy and I'll always love the final stage that throws all the previous bosses at you.

We also had to wait until the era of Xbox Live and PSN to play this game at home. It's not currently available anymore, but we were lucky enough to snatch it up when it was. Johnny, Paige and I played it to the end and even had random players jump in through our quest to beat the Master of Magnet.


6- World Heroes 2- SNK & ADK- 1993



When Street Fighter 2 hit it big in the arcade, it seemed everybody had to make their own version. Among them was World Heroes, and compared to SNK's earlier games like the first Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting that had different and clunky mechanics, it felt closer to the gameplay and combos that SF2 had. What really interested us were the Death Matches where you fought in wrestling rings surrounded by fire or electric ropes.

After so many Street Fighter 2 sorta-but-not-really sequels, World Heroes 2 felt like a real sequel. It introduced 6 new characters, had all new stages and new music. Even the Death Matches were different and used a tug-of-war life bar in which the life bar goes back and forth depending on who's taking damage. Those death matches were probably the most fun of the game and the music kept you pumped. It just kept us coming back to the arcade and play it countless times. It was the only fighting game at the time that actually made me walk away from SF2 a few times and play this one instead.

The game is available as part of World Heroes Anthology for PS2 and you can also buy it online for the PS4.


5- Mortal Kombat- Midway- 1992



Back when everyone jumped on the fighting game bandwagon.... Mortal Kombat was the first to be completely different. Instead of animated characters, we had live-action actors and this gave the game a more realistic and darker feel. I'll never forget the day one of my high school buddies told me about this awesome arcade game with blood and characters that can rip their opponents' head off, spine and all after winning the match. Mortal Kombat was just something else.

The only reason this game isn't higher on the list is because most of my love for the game came from the Genesis version and sequels after the fact. It just wasn't available at my local arcade and I always had to venture out of my way to find it. When the arcade guy was telling us they were bringing a bloody arcade the following week.... we were disappointed to find out it was Time Killers instead...

Of course it would take years to get the real bloody version of the game as part of the Mortal Kombat Collection for XBox Live and PSN.


4- Final Fight- Capcom- 1989



This was one of our all-time favorite arcade games back in the day. Despite it only being 2-player, it was the perfect combination of amazing graphics, rocking soundtrack, and kick-ass gameplay that made this game so much fun to play over and over and over again. Haggar, Cody and Guy team up to rescue Jessica from the Mad Gear gang as they beat up countless thugs through subways and bars. They have holds, throws and can use weapons like knives and steel pipes. It was a blast to play back then. While we know the game like the back of our hand nowadays, back then it was one of our absolute favorites. It was a tough game too so it was quite an event when we made it all the way to Belger.

We were disappointed to find out that the SNES version at the time was only one-player and missing Guy... and even though the sequels added more characters and made it 2-players... it wasn't the same. One of the interesting details about this game's history is the fact that at one time this game was supposed to be the next Street Fighter game after the original, called Street Fighter 89.

Nowadays you can play it as either part of the Capcom Classics Collection for the PS2 or as part of several compilations available on XBox Live or PSN.


3- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- Konami- 1989



This game hit right when Turtlemania was at its peak. Not only was it an awesome 4-player arcade game at a time I didn't think anything past 2-player was possible, it was also the first big arcade game I was exposed to that wasn't Donkey Kong and Ms. Pac-Man. You play as Leonardo, Michealangelo, Donatello and Raphael as you rescue April and Splinter from Shredder and Krang while fighting against tons of Foot Soldiers. The graphics were bright and colorful and the action was fast paced.

The music was great as well, including part of the memorable 80's cartoon intro, vocals and all. I'll never forget the first time we had to rescue April from her burning apartment or when we had to face Bebop and Rocksteady at the same time. Then we have the Technodrome and all its traps, and the final battle with Shredder in which the more players there are, the more doubles of himself he creates to try to beat you with his transmutation blast that is a one-hit kill. I still remember the day a friend of mine and I saved up some cash to play the game til the very end, and then went for pizza puffs afterwards.

The game would hit the NES and well... it was the 8-bit version and did the best it could. Still, Johnny and I played the hell out of it as kids. A not-so-perfect port of the game was hidden in one of the 2003 TMNT games for the PS2 and later on XBox Live and PSN would release it as well.. with a horrible border showcasing the 2K7 CGI movie Turtles. Sadly, this was before I could get access to XBox Live so I missed my chance to bring the arcade home. Oh well.


2- The King of Fighters series- SNK- 1994-2002



It's hard to pick just one in the series because I played the hell out of all of these games. I was getting into the SNK vibe and the crossover concept of the guys from Fatal Fury fighting against the guys from Art of Fighting was like a dream match to me. Then you have all these new guys that were also cool with interesting moves to make them stand out. The gameplay was still a bit different from Street Fighter but it's own combo system made it a different experience and not feel like a knock off. I played the hell out of KOF 94, and even though KOF 95 was too insanely hard to beat, it did bring the concept of mix and matching your own teams.

The over arching storyline involving Orochi also made you look forward to what was going to happen the following year as each year brought a new KOF game with new characters and game mechanics. This was the first series I've seen other than Mortal Kombat that has each game actually remove characters to favor new ones instead of just stacking on more and more. Plus with more Fatal Fury games and Art of Fighting 3 coming out, it made you wonder when those characters would appear in later sequels.

This was one of my all time favorite arcade series. I remember spending hours at the arcades racking up wins in KOF 97, or challenging myself to play all of KOF 99 with a single quarter. It was around the time of KOF 2000 that life had me too busy to visit the arcade and I only ever saw KOF 11 when I got it for the PS2. It's hard to put any game as an absolute favorite, but I remember playing KOF 94, 96, 97 and 98 the most. And believe me when I say we played the hell out of these games. We didn't eventually get tired of them and stopped playing. No, we played KOF 96 from the day it came out til the day we heard rumors that the arcade guy replaced for *gasp* a KOF 97! Man, those were the days.


1- Street Fighter 2 World Warrior/Champion Edition- 1991




Oh my god. Is this really any surprise? I am probably horrified of the entire fortune I must have put into these two games. I remember the first time seeing Street Fighter 2 at the arcade and I was afraid to play because the controls looked way too complicated. Why was the joystick divided in all of these directions saying stuff like 'forward flip', 'backward flip', 'block' and 'duck'? Three punches? Three kicks? What the hell was this over-complicated mess? Back then any game I've ever played used a button to jump, and now I have to hold the joystick up to do it? Actually playing the game, nothing could have felt more natural and it was love at first sight for this game and future fighting games.

I remember two arcades had the game, but one was World Warrior and the other was Champion Edition. At the time I thought the only real differences were that you could pick the boss characters and have twin matches in CE and not WW, but playing both games I noticed minor differences in the moves here and there. Some examples being that Blanka takes twice the damage if someone attacks him in the middle of his Roll Attack in WW but CE fixed that, or Zangief jumps farther away after doing his Spinning Pile Driver in CE than he does in WW to keep him from spamming it. Also the boss characters were more difficult to beat in WW since CE now had them play by the same rules as regular players since they were now selectable.

Of course the SNES version brought the experience home and I remember spending the weekend evenings fighting against Johnny or trying to beat the game at the highest difficulty setting without losing a single match. At the time these controller motions to throw fireballs and uppercuts were new to us, so we actually practiced doing all these moves at home, and then brought that knowledge to the arcades to kick some ass. The game was ported countless times, and nowadays it's always the arcade version that gets ported so you don't have to worry about 16-bit versions.

Now that I think about it... I just bought SF 30th Anniversary Collection for the PS4 for Black Friday and spent the remainder of Thanksgiving weekend playing some Street Fighter 2 World Warrior. Arcades might be all but dead nowadays (I mean, Game Works still exists), but Street Fighter, as well as well as my love for the other 9 games I listed will always live on.

I would like to say that honorable mentions go to X-Men VS Street Fighter, Pit-Fighter, Double Dragon, the Double Dragon Neo-Geo game, Aliens VS Predator, Street Hoop and TMNT Turtles in Time. In case you're wondering about some games like the Mortal Kombat sequels and the Tekken series and whatnot, I never really played them much at the arcades and only played the console versions.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dragonball- It's time to go beyond Z or end it

 By Mark Rodriguez So while the Dragonball Super anime has ended for a few years now, and the Dragonball Super Broly movie is over a year old as well, the Dragonball Super manga has actually continued past the Tournament of Power and  Super Broly movie. As this new arc, nicknamed the Moro Arc after its main villain is coming to a close, the question is where do they do from here? Also before you get into this article, I really hope you know your DBZ because there are just waaaaaay too many characters to take the time out to explain who everyone is one by one. Dragonball and Dragonball Z is one of the longest running anime and manga series since the 80's and while it seemed it was put to pasture after Dragonball GT ended in 1997, the only thing left was for the American dubs to catch up. Despite this the love and nostalgia for the series lived on with videogames and the occasional special here and there that would bring back the characters (like the Yo, Son Goku and his Friends Retu

Arachna# 1 Review *Spoilers*

 By Mark Rodriguez Here's another awesome comic from independent artists that opened up an Indiegogo to get it started. I usually don't chip in unless it looks real good, like you just know they're gonna hit their goal. Arachna, a sexy superheroine with a split personality and an amazing art syle, sure looked like a good pick for me.  With lots of clever marketing in advance, even getting a person to dress as Arachna herself to bring the character to life, they hit their goal the same day they actually opened the Indiegogo for donations. I chipped in for the comic and the shirt, and here is my review on the latest superheroine that's bringing sexy back to comics, Arachna! Also note, while I'll try to keep my language as tame as I can, this book deals with way more adult stuff than I usually discuss on this blog. The Adventure Begins The issue opens with Jennie lying in bed naked in her apartment, a noticeable pile of sketches lying on the floor. She awakens to a voi

Batman/TMNT Adventures # 2

 By Mark Rodriguez Batman was on the hunt for Two-Face who told him he went to another world. The Turtles discover Kraang portals and run into Clayface. As Batman discovers that Two-Face was telling the truth, the Joker and Harley find themselves in New York facing off against the Foot! This issue opens one week early as Harley is being brought into Arkham by security along a soapy floor. Harley 'slips' and takes advantage of this to take out the guards. She sets the Joker free and hands over his trademark outfit while she slips into her own. Joker complains that this break out was boring and lacks the flair he's used to. They both then see the shining Kraang portals. Joker gets and idea and drags the guards around to form a smile (with the portals being eyes) as they make their escape.  The Joker explains this to Shredder as he and Harley makes fun of his name. Shredder already lost his patience and he tells Bebop and Rocksteady to get rid of them. Joker offers to show the