The moment of showing your incredible skills to people in an arcade station or getting your name to the highest rank was something players used to be proud to achieve. It’s where many modern games originated to become the best in the future.
Best Arcade Games of All Time
These games were the pride and bragging rights, beating the game from start to finish in just a quarter and with your name on the high score chart. If you missed out on these amazing games and want to go back to a simpler time when you could just play without needing any heavy context, then here are the 18 best arcade games of all time.
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong is the first game that introduced the arcade platform and the player Jump man, which later became the greatest game franchise, Mario. Here you play as Jump man, who has to go through different obstacles thrown by Cranky Kong and save Pauline. Donkey Kong set the prototype for many future games from its platform genre. Its unbelievable difficulty and a new breath of platforming made Donkey Kong a major piece of stepping stone that revolutionized the video game industry.
Space Invaders
How can we not talk about Space Invaders when it comes to arcade games. A classic game that invented the top-down shooting game genre. Here’s an interesting fact about Space invaders that turned into a feature. The creator of Space invaders wanted all the enemies to move at the same speed throughout the game, but the hardware limitation did not allow the increase of speed. The speed of enemies changed when players destroyed each enemy. The creator liked how it made the game more dynamic, so they kept it in. Space Invaders expanded the horizon of video games and started the golden age of video arcade games.
PAC-MAN
One of the best-known classic arcade games of all time. It was originally called Puck Man in japan because Puck means to eat with mouth open, and so does the yellow character, who we control in this game. The game later changed its name from Puckman to Pac man because the game name was more prone to vandalism of the word “P” into “F,” and it also suited more to the Japanese name Pakkuman. As all know about this game and how it works but the sheer amount of addictiveness it provides by its simple maze-like game is astonishing. The game keeps players wanting for one more run by balancing the gameplay difficulty just a little bit higher to keep the game challenging as well as fun.
Galaga
It’s a fixed space shooter game where you pilot a lone spaceship, and your primary goal is to defeat all the Galaga aliens who will fly into formation to block your path. You have to shoot every enemy ship before they fly at you. There is also a boss Galaga who takes two shots to destroy. The boss uses a beam to capture your spaceship life. If you are successful in rescuing your captured ship, then you can use a dual ship to gun down Galaga aliens. It’s an intense game of dodging and destroying alien ships that paved the path to other shooting games such as chicken invaders, space wars, sky force, and many more.
Star Wars Trilogy Arcade
Dwell into the brutal space combat and relive the popular scene of Star Wars as you battle shoot enemies in the battle of Hoth, Endor speeder bike chase, and all the popular space dog fights. A 3D rail shooting game where the player has to control the shooting. A true Star Wars fan will love the setting and all the missions that reenact the movie scene. There are several missions that tell the story of Star Wars, including The Empire Strikes Back, Return of Jedi, and A New Hope.
Frogger
One of the most iconic games that led to the bloom of many replications of games. Your main goal is to lead your frogs to a point by dodging obstacles such as cars and crocodiles. It’s simple and innovative use of a joystick to control frogs and fast-moving vehicles is what made Frogger so thrilling to play. It’s a timeless classic, and you can still find many renditions of Frogger with new contents and twists.
Asteroids
Asteroids is the space shooting game where you control a triangular spaceship and shoot in any direction of space. It’s a minimalist arcade shooting game where players can maneuver the ship anywhere on the screen to shoot asteroids or to avoid getting hit. Due to its unpredictable screen movement and hard-to-control space ships, people were obsessed with mastering the game.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time
The game gives you the feeling of fighting villains as being Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Players were super hyped when the game launched in 1991 as they were actually living the turtle life with all those special moves and weapons used by the four turtles in the animated series. The game begins by telecasting the theft of statue liberty by Shredder, and the turtle sets out on a mission to retrieve the property back. I love how each turtle plays and feels different. You can headbutt enemies with Raphael, roll attack by Donatello, perform a spin attack by Leonardo, and air kick by Michelangelo. Playing four players and fighting enemies side by side is an absolute blast.
Metal Slug X
I spent hundreds of hours playing Metal Slug X trying to beat the final boss but never reached level 4. It was an intense experience running and gunning all the chaos on the screen. NO game in those days had mastered the visual aesthetic of pixel games on such a scale. And the bosses were mind-numbingly brutal, but it was a breath of relief after finally blasting their gears out. Metal Slug X brings back the memories of bustling arcades and people setting high scores.
Dance Dance Revolution
No arcade station is complete without these bad boys. Dance dance revolution is a music video game, but instead of using your hands, you use your feet. You stand on a dance platform with arrows or and you press those arrows every time the screen indicates the right time. That’s how you dance to the rhythm when you are playing the game. Dance dance revolution is also a genuine exercise where you can burn some calories by moving your feet to the beat.
Street Fighter EX2 Plus
If you have been to Arcade station, you must have heard the words Hakouken! and Sorkin! Coming from one of the machines because Street Fighter was the staple of every arcade game parlor. Fighting took the fighting genre by storm. With button-smashing chained combos, players played not only to win but to perfect combo attacks such as super and ultimate. I remembered the time when I beat Bison by using Guile with a flash kick combo. It was the first and last time I defeated Bison because I was an average player and the game station was too far away from my home. Later I could play on pc, but it never felt as satisfying as using arcade buttons and joysticks to perform devastating combos and ultimates.
Ms. Pac-Man
Pac man introduces the chase and eats mechanics, but Ms. Pac man took it to the next height by redesigning levels and adding contents such as fruits and a little story. While Pac man was played on the same level no matter what stage you’re in, Ms. Pac man added different colored stages that made the game a strategic puzzle to solve while eating the dots and fruits. Ms. Pac-man took the Pac man game and revamped it, giving a fresh new take on the old Pac-Man game we all come to know and love.
Double Dragon
Double Dragon is an action beat-em-up game where two brothers set out to rescue damsels in distress against notorious violent gang members of the street. Double Dragon was the highest-grossing arcade game in America in 1988 and 1999. It also received the game of the year in 1988 for the best beat ’em up game genre.
Dig Dug
Something addictive about this game kept me playing even though it was hard after some levels. Digging a line to crush those chasing creatures with boulders was so satisfying. As the name suffice, Dig dug is a mage-type video game where you dig underground, blasting enemies with big goggles. They can go through dirt while you must dig through to blast them with your pump before they get you. Its simple premise is hypnotic while playing because you can never get enough. I kept telling myself one more game, and it was already midnight. Yes, I did not get the pleasure to play in the Arcade, but I did play on my game boy all night.
Contra
It was an insanely difficult game, even with two players, but that was the pleasure of playing arcade games. It gives you a sense of challenge and urges to complete the course. The sheer difficulty of Contra and the pleasure of finally completing the course gave players a sense of satisfaction. It’s a fast-paced run and gun platform game where you and your friend go on a mission to save humanity against an alien entity that is controlling people’s minds.
Mario Bros
This is the game that started the Mario franchise. It’s a simple yet challenging game made for a blast playing with friends. Designed by Shigeru Miyamoto, who is the designer, producer, and director of Nintendo, he has now brought our beloved Mario from the Arcade to Nintendo switch. Mario Bros was super hard as well as very entertaining. Even now, I remember getting burned by the fireballs in phase 15. I never got past it.
Mortal Kombat 2
While other arcade games introduced many platform genres, Mortal Kombat 2 started severe controversies regarding its brutal violence and gore in video games, but that’s what players love about Mortal Kombat. Turning characters into ashes or ripping them apart is what made mortal kombat different from other fighting games. The amount of blood used in this game at that time was insane, and how people loved its gore mechanics.
Sega Rally 2
It was one of the insanely beautiful games of the golden arcade era that simulated rally racing to its extent. You could even see people running between tracks, and running them over made memorable moments in my childhood. Sitting back on the steering wheel and pressing acceleration with your feet made this game a life-like simulation. Its steep learning curve set the difficulty in rally racing for upcoming games. Most of all, you could play versus with your friends to showcase your awesome driving skills against your friend, which became the proudest moment for any professional sega rally player.
Punch-Out!!
The first ever arcade boxing game where you dodge and punch your opponent. It was an incredible technical feat in 1983. With its arcade controllers, the game felt like it belonged on the arcade machine. Unlike its Nes version of punch-out, the arcade used wireframe rigs to give players a clear sight of the opponent. You play as Little Mac, a seventeen years old boy who has to defeat all the boxers to rank up higher in the ultimate boxing championship. You can see many familiar faces of the boxing field such as King Hippo , Piston Hondo, Baid Bull, Mr.Sandman and the final boss, Mike Tyson. It was the game that took boxing genre to it’s peak.
