Arcade games

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NOTICE: You can emulate most of these games released before 2002 with MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator).Some games (Capcom, SNK) run better on WinKawaks.Playstation/Namco-based hardware (most 3D Arcade games) runs better on ZiNc.Nebula also has additional optimization for SNK, Capcom, Konami and PolyGameMaster systems.

Title	Year	Genre	Description	Image
19XX: War Against Destiny	1995	Shmup	Fourth in the 1945 series.
Armed Police Batrider	1998	Shmup
After Burner II	1987	Shmup	Fly a plane and shoot other planes. INCREDIBLE in an actual sit-down arcade machine. Rereleased all over the goddamn place. You'll more often see Climax at arcades, although it is also available on XBLA.
Battle Bakraid	1999	Shmup
Battle Garegga	1996	Shmup
Boogie Wings	1992	Shmup	Features plane flying, which lets you grab and throw stuff and ground running, which has a ton of weapons.
Dragon Blaze	2000	Shmup
Dimahoo/Great Mahou Daisakusen	2000	Shmup
Dangun Feveron/Fever SOS	1998	Shmup	Insanely fast-paced shooter that lets you configure your ship's speed and weapons at the start. The music for the levels is 80s-sounding disco, and your smart bombs harness the power of disco itself to blast enemies.
DoDonPachi	1997	Shmup	A brilliant, refined sequel to the original DonPachi. Very easy to pick up and play, but a solid challenge to master. Ported to the Sega Saturn as well as PS1.
DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou	2002	Shmup	Take everything that made DoDonPachi great, add in hyper items, crank the bullet spray up to eleven and you have Dai Ou Jou (lit. "peaceful death"). There isn't anything peaceful about this, however, as this game doesn't fuck around. Be prepared to get manhandled on the later levels/second loop. Black Label is markedly easier compared to White Label. The PS2/Xbox 360 versions are recommended as they have training and boss rush modes. Recently emulable on MAME.
EDF: Earth Defense Force	1991	Shmup	You pick one of four main weapons for each level, and gain experience as you shoot down enemies. Leveling up makes your weapon stronger and lets you toggle it between different types of Option-like formations. Very catchy soundtrack as well. There's a Super NES port with four extra weapon types, but the music didn't make it entirely intact.
ESP Ra.De.	1998	Shmup	Mind Bullets: The Game. Entry level Cave shooter.
Espgaluda	2003	Shmup	Fantastic feel good shooter. You're a pair of fairies on a warpath, blasting the shit out of robots, innocent bystanders and whatever-the-fuck-else is unlucky enough to get in your way. Gather gems to swap genders momentarily and burst enemy bullets into treats (no, really). Extremely easy by Cave's standards. Spiritual prequel to ESP Ra.De.. Also available on the PS2 as an import and, more recently, MAME.
Giga Wing	1999	Shmup	Notable for its ridiculous scoring system where scores in the hundreds of billions are commonplace. Has an ability known as Reflect Force that repels bullets back at enemy ships when the shot button is held, producing medals for all enemies hit. Features dynamic difficulty depending on where your first death occurs, something that can retard or severely increase the difficulty and volume of bullets. Ported to the Dreamcast along with Giga Wing 2.
Gradius / Nemesis	1985	Shmup	"Shoot the core!" One of the games that revolutionized the scrolling shooter genre, Gradius was Konami's spiritual successor to the arcade title Scramble. You play as pilot James Burton aboard the Vic Viper on a mission to purge the universe of vile Bacterians. Features slow scrolling across several diverse levels with bacterion enemies, Moai heads and the iconic Big Core. Pay your respects; or nostalgia, if you're old enough for that kind of thing. Rereleased all over the place, including the Wii's Virtual Console and the PlayStation Network.
Gradius II / Vulcan Venture	1988	Shmup	Second in the Gradius series, Gradius II improves upon the original in every way: better graphics, more enemies, more firepower and an unforgiving difficulty. One major change is having to choose your weapon set before taking off, choosing between an array of bomb types, double shot/tailgun, and the laser/ripple laser (incorporated from Salamander). Relatively unknown as it was released in Europe as Vulcan Venture and never made available to North American audiences. Rereleased on the Wii's Virtual Console and as part of the Gradius Collection on the PSP.
Gradius III	1989	Shmup	Third in the Gradius series, Gradius III is a step down from Gradius II. While all of its usual elements are there, the game lacks the visual and aural zest its predecessors have; not to mention its difficulty is mind-numbing. It also has a weird 3D stage where you maneuver through obstacles with no enemies. Despite its faults it did introduce more weapon types and the lovely Edit Mode, where you can tailor your own arsenal. Play it only if you enjoy the antique arcade feel and challenge, otherwise pick up the much superior Super Nintendo version. Now with less 3D and sand lions!™ Rereleased on the SNES, Wii's Virtual Console and PSP.
Guwange	1999	Shmup
Halley's Comet	1986	Shmup
Ikari Warriors	1986	Shmup	Plays like Commando in that you run around and shoot enemies in an overhead view.
Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi	2003	Shmup	Ludicrously hard shooter by the masterminds at Cave. Available on Xbox 360/DS and, more recently, MAME.
Kingdom Grand Prix/Shippu Mahou Daisakusen	1994	Shmup / Racing	F-Zero in the form of a scrolling shooter. It's as good as it sounds. Tear through a dozen stages in typical shooter fare while maintaining the pole position. Prequel to Dimahoo. Also available on the Sega Saturn.
Mars Matrix	2000	Shmup	Ported to the Dreamcast.
Pro Gear no Arashi	2001
Pulstar	1995	Shmup	Ported to NeoGeo and NeoGeo CD
Raiden	1990	Shmup
Raiden Fighters	1996	Shmup
Raiden Fighters 2	1997	Shmup
Raiden Fighters Jet	1998	Shmup
Radiant Silvergun	1998	Shmup	Ported to the Saturn. Japan-exclusive.
R-Type	1987	Shmup	Re-released all over the goddamn place.
R-Type Leo	1992	Shmup
RayForce	1993	Shmup
Raystorm	1996	Shmup	Ported to the PS1 and Saturn
Salamander/Life Force	1986	Shmup
Salamander II/Life Force II	1995	Shmup
Smash T.V.	1990	Shmup	BIG MONEY. BIG PRIZES. I LOVE IT. Features dual joysticks for shooting+aiming and moving. Made to eat your quarters.
Space Harrier	1985	Shmup	WELCOME TO THE FANTASY ZONE. GET READY. Similar to After Burner, but you fly in 8 directions instead of steering. Good luck finding a sit-down machine, but you'll enjoy the hell out of it if you can.
Strikers 1945	1995	Shmup	Rereleased all over the goddamn place.
Strikers 1945 II	1997	Shmup	Rereleased all over the goddamn place.
Strikers 1945 III/Strikers 1999	1999	Shmup
Strikers 1945 Plus	1999	Shmup
Viper Phase 1	1995	Shmup
Xevious		Shmup	Legendary scrolling shooter that pretty much defined the vertical play style from then after.

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Title	Genre	Description	Image
Battlezone	Retro
Berzerk	Retro	STOP THE HUMANOID. STOP THE INTRUDER. Run through mazes and blast robots.
Bosconian	Retro
Blaster	Retro
Bump 'N' Jump	Retro
Burger Time	Retro	Make gigantic burgers by dropping ingredients downward and avoiding enemies.
Centipede	Retro	Similar to Space Invaders, but involves bugs and mushrooms instead of shields and aliens.
Defender	Retro
Dig Dug	Retro	Tunnel underground and shoot monsters with a spike that fills them up with air until they explode.
Discs of Tron	Retro
Donkey Kong	Retro	Run and jump through 4 stages to rescue Pauline from Donkey Kong. KILL SCREEN COMIN' UP.
Frenzy	Retro
Frogger	Retro	Cross the highway and avoid getting splattered.
Galaga	Retro	Shoot aliens. Protip: Get one ship captured and save it, now you have DOUBLE SHOT POWER.
Dorf	Retro
Gravitar	Retro
Gyruss	Retro
Joust	Retro
Jungle Hunt	Retro
Kangaroo	Retro
Kung Fu Master	Retro	Aka Spartan-X and Kung-Fu. Kick assholes and save your girlfriend.
Lady Bug	Retro
Lode Runner	Retro	Get gold and escape. Dig holes in front of or behind you to trap enemies.
Mario Bros.	Retro	Collect coins, stun monsters then kick them. Avoid Fireballs. Much more fun in later remixes with 4 players.
Millipede	Retro
Motos	Retro
Mr. Do!	Retro
Ms. Pac-Man	Retro	If you've played Pac-Man, then you've played Ms. Pac-Man. Fortunately, it's just as good as its predecessor.
Nibbler	Retro
Pac-Man	Retro	Eat pills in a dark room and chase ghosts while listening to repetitive techno music.
Pole Position	Retro	Drive through a course to get the best time. Alot harder than it sounds.
Q*Bert	Retro	Jump on every panel to make them the same color. Avoid enemies by jumping away or jumping on flying saucers.
Qix	Retro	Try to make a picture by clearing away the cover sheet with careful navigation.
Rally-X	Retro
Roboron: 2084	Retro	Dual-stick shooter, later copied by Smash T.V. Shoot robots and save humanity. This game doesn't pull punches.
Sinistar	Retro	I AM SINISTAR. BEWARE, I LIVE. Shoot aliens and asteroids to collect crystals and stop a planet-sized monster from eating you.
Space Invaders	Retro	Kill all the invaders as they advance and reverse direction until they land.
Space Zap	Retro
Star Wars	Retro
Tapper	Retro	Serve (Root) Beer to customers.
Tempest	Retro
Tutankham	Retro
Vanguard	Retro
Wizard of Wor	Retro	Explore a maze and shoot enemies.

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Title	Year	Genre	Description	Image
Alien vs. Predator	1994	Beat 'em Up
Battle Circuit	1997	Beat 'em Up	Almost similar to Captain Commando only more awesome.
Battletoads	1994	Beat 'em up	Three players can control Rash, Zitz and Pimple, each with their own Smash Hit attacks. Be warned, this is a VERY long game, and it's just as tough as the rest of the Battletoads series. Unlike the rest of the games, attacks involving something sharp or extremely heavy will produce blood.
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs	1993	Beat 'em Up	3 player simultaneous beat 'em up. Fight dinosaurs, drive cars, and shoot guns, all in the dystopian future. Extreme amounts of awesome.
Captain Commando	1991	Beat 'em Up	Choose one of four superhero characters to smash and bash through enemies. Notable for its gruesome death sequences.
Dungeons and Dragons: Tower of Doom	1993	Beat 'em Up	A classic arcade beat 'em up with tons of depth. Up to four players.
Dungeons and Dragons: Shadow over Mystara	1996	Beat 'em Up	The amazing sequel to Tower of Doom features two new characters, and branching pathways with magic items and tons of secrets for replayability. Hard to get tired of this one.
Final Fight	1986	Beat 'em Up	The mayor's daughter has been kidnapped by gangsters. Instead of asking for some bad dudes to save her, MIKE HAGGAR and his boys, Guy and Cody personally decide to take care of business.
Golden Axe	1989	Beat 'em Up	Medieval-esque beat 'em up that features weapon combos, powerful magic spells, and stealing enemy monsters to tear through their lines.
Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder	1992	Beat 'em Up
Ninja Baseball Bat Man	1993	Beat 'em Up	Six golden items have been stolen from the Baseball Hall of Fame, and it's up to you to reclaim them. The Ninja Baseball Bat Men all have lots of special attacks, including multiple grapples and ultimate attacks that use up health to nuke the whole screen.
The Simpsons	1991	Beat 'em Up	The Simpson family sets off to save Maggie from Mr. Burns. Features some really trippy stages and enemies.
Splatterhouse	1988	Beat 'em Up	Horror-themed beat 'em up that features grotesque enemies and bosses. Sequels on Genesis and a parody/spin-off on NES
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time	1991	Beat 'em Up	The Turtles are back with new moves and power ups. Had an updated port on SNES and a remix on Genesis. Remake released on Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network though it plays a little differently.
The Punisher	1991	Beat 'em Up	Combines traditional beat 'em up fare with pseudo-light gun shoot out sequences. Great if you're a Marvel fan or not.
X-Men	1992	Beat 'em Up	Xbox hueg arcade game with two monitors, six players, crappy dialogue, and stupid amounts of awesome.

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Title	Genre	Description	Image
L.A. Machine Guns	Light Gun	Rip through L.A. with you huge ass machine gun. Fight in 4 epic levels with huge boss battles and then fight the secret boss in the secret level (Oh my!). However, you can't take forever as the clock is ticking even when you lose all your lives as you insert your quarters into the machine.
Lethal Enforcers	Light Gun
Time Crisis	Light Gun	WAIT. ACTION. RELOAD. The classic light gun game that started them all. It's aged terribly, but it's main gameplay mechanics still stand up to the throws of time. It's still good.
Time Crisis 2	Light Gun	Arguably, the best of the Time Crisis series. Introduced co-op to the series and the same old gameplay that is refined from its prequel. Story sucks, but still fun to play with a bro.
Time Crisis 3	Light Gun	The sixth gen Time crisis, same lame VA, similar lame plot. Now with multiple weapons, and a special enemies that when shot, gives you extra ammo!
Time Crisis 4	Light Gun	Same as it's sequel, but now it's a tad more refined. You'll find this version in most "higher-end" arcades.
Silent Hill	Light Gun	That's right, it exists! You play as one of two characters, researching the disappearance of the Little Baroness, then a bunch of your friends go missing and die and shit, typical SH-fan fare, really. Nurses, Gumheads, Dogs, thoes-bird-things-from-the-first-game, and (surprise!) Pyramid Head all make an appearance. No I haven't played to see the bosses yet, dammit.Extra items that heal and whatnot, plays like House of the Dead, but now with 200% more Silent Hill.
House of the Dead	Light Gun	Agents called out to investigate a disappearance of a chick at a huge mansion. Upon arrival, you find zombies with axes and shit murdering scientists, now you have to go around and find out what the fuck is going on. This game pretty much started the whole multiple paths, extra life/continue/score items and multiple endings formula for the Light Gun Genre in general.
House of the Dead 2	Light Gun	Same concept, new story, new monsters, new bosses. Do want.
House of the Dead 3	Light Gun	Ditch that lame water pistol and insert a shotgun and you have House of the Dead 3. Even though it came out before HoTD4, storywise, it is placed right after it. Is much easier than the first two games and it is also shorter, however, after the first level, (aside from the last level) you can choose the stages any way you want like Mega Man. You can no longer save civilians like the first two, but instead you save your partners and sometimes you will get an extra life for it for no apparent reason. Still a fun game in the series. At this point, it had nothing to do with being in a house which raises the question. Why is it stil being called "HOUSE" of the Dead?
House of the Dead 4	Light Gun	OH, LOOK, ZOMBIES IN shiny 3D! This is the second game in the series to play in the 6th-gen field, and do it well. It uses a machine gun (Uzi) for your main weapon and a button for a secondary attack, grenades (limited, but clear a whole screen at a time). A new function is where the zombies grab hold of you, or push you to the ground, and you gotta shake the gun like you have parkinson's to fill a bar up that pushes the zombies back, or you lose a life point. Continues the same (somewhat interesting) plot, and introduces new characters, weapons, continues the great trend of naming the bosses after the Tarot cards and multiple endings. HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HOUSES ANYMORE.
The Maze of the Kings	Light Gun	Incerdibly obscure as in I ONLY FOUND THIS IN A CRUISE SHIP OF ALL PLACES, BUT NO OTHER ARCADE obscure. You can barely find it on the internet for that matter, but this game is incredibly fun. Take command of treasure hunters and use you pew pew magic staff into ancient rooms and fight your way to the bosses. It has a TON of replayability mainly because it is always different (except fo the bosses) every time you play the game again exploring new rooms that you didn't play in your previous playthrough. Everytime you beat the boss you have a chance to nab the treasure in a sort of mini game. Fail and just move on. Good luck finding one.
Point Blank	Light Gun	Famous game known for it's wacky and compeditive shooting-range/carnival style levels. Probably one of the most common shooters you'll find in arcades today.
Point Blank 2	Light Gun	Makes better of everything the first one did. Now with a fuckton of all new stages. Is seen a LOT less then it's prequel (sadly)
RAMBO	Light Gun	Fire a fast-shooting machine gun and go through stages based off the movies. Do well enough and for short bursts of time, you can use infinite ammo and become invincible by the power of pure rage. This game's so intense it was advertised by the guy who played Segata Sanshiro.

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Title	Genre	Description	Image
Garou: Mark of the Wolves	Fighting	SNK's answer to SF3. A sequel of sorts to Fatal Fury. Features a form of parrying and the ability to choose when you want to be able to use Super Combos.
Street Fighter Alpha 3	Fighting	The alpha series is a black sheep to some (not as much as EX), however it's still damn good. You have more options of Super Combos, and now you can choose your "style". This let's you determine the kind of fighting you'll be doing (Balanced, speed, or power). Features some Final Fight characters, some from SF1, and DAN.
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike	Fighting	LET'S GET IT ON NOW. A masterful entry in the SF series. Choose your character then choose your Super Combo, which determines how quickly you can use it. Features different characters from 2, but they mostly resemble their counterparts to an extent, just better.
Super Street Fighter IV	Fighting	Now considered to be the best Street Fighter (of this gen), as it's not really a Ken Fighter any more. Also, Korean babe Juri is in it nao. If you aren't too keen on SF3, then IV is more of a return to 2's roots.
Mortal Kombat II	Fighting	FINISH HIM. The almost comedically gory fighting game that everyone played as a kid. It's lost a bit of luster, but it's still worth a nostalgia trip every now and then.
Tekken 6	Fighting	I <3 JUGGLAN.Seriously though, it's one of the prettiest fighters around, and it's still going too. Getting a bit unrealistic with a cyborg-chick who can throw her HEAD at opponents and an illegitimate son of the Mishima bloodline who has dragon ball styled hair. Regardless of all this, it's a hugely great fighting game.

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Title	Genre	Description	Image
In the Groove	Rhythm	The American version to Dance Dance revolution, with USB customization. You can upload your own songs from your USB drive on the machine and play them. Virtually infinite replayability. It's considered much more difficult than DDR. The Japanese DDR tourneyfags refuse to play it due to it being "harmful to their legs."
Dance Dance Revolution	Rhythm	In this game, you use your FEET to play! That's pretty much the premise of the game, and has done unbelievably well with it. You step on the designated platforms in time to matching it up with the arrows up top of the screen. You'll most likely see the EXTREME version or Super Nova/Super Nova 2 or DDR X. There's been a "Extreme Plus" been seen around, but it's just a hacked 8th Mix, now with optional speed settings~
beatmania IIDX	Rhythm	A DJ Sim game, where you play using a turn-table (scratching) and key sounded buttons, pressing or scratching in time when it hits the red line at the bottom. Big learning curve, but for those willing to learn, it's great fun. The Simulator to this is BePatchi Music, as this is the only one that's still in development (and is looking very promising).
pop'n music	Rhythm	Simliar to IIDX, but with with either 5, 7 or 9 big coloured buttons arranged in a horizontal zig-zag pattern. Pretty much for kids, or man-children. Only the mightiest of music masters need apply. Contains nothing but pure unadulterated J-Pop/rock/dance.
jubeat	Rhythm	A strange new rhythm game by BENAMI (guy who made DDR, IIDX & all the rest). The game consists of a cube where you have to push certain pressure-sensors in time to the music.
Guitar Freaks	Rhythm	Just like Guitar Hero (GF came first) you hold the correct button-chord and strum the guitar when the note hits the appropriate line; Can link up with DrumMania for serious RAWKIN' OWT. Despite what ANYONE tells you, Guitar Hero ripped it's concept of this very same game, but GF contains more Eastern-style music, whereas GH contains western-style music. Go figure.
DrumMania	Rhythm	Same deal as Guitar Freaks, but with a drum set. This got ripped off from Rock Band, but they majorietly got their ideas from GH, but now with added drum set flavour.
DJMAX Technika	Rhythm	Rhythm game that uses a touch screen for play. Difficluties that span from easy to start to god damn near impossible. Has four game modes, Lite mixing (easy mode, this is where you start off to get the hang of the game), Popular mixing (normal mode, this is where you get good at the game), Technical Mixing (hardcore mode for hardcore gamers, I did not make this up it says that word for word in the game), and Platinum Crew (online mode where you need a card to play, cards are usually 8 bucks and are worth it if you want to get into the game). Lite mixing and Popular mixing have three stages, stages increase in difficulty. Technical mixing is where you choose a set which has 8 songs to choose 3 to play in a set order, final song in the set is a boss song to be determined by your performance on the 3 songs you chose yourself. Platinum Crew allows acess to misions which unlock songs to play in popular mixing, weekly challenges, and monthly special charts for songs (the special charts are extremely hard).

Title	Year	Genre	Description	Image
Gunforce 2	1994	Run-and-gun	A precursor to the entire Metal Slug franchise, from a lot of the same crew. Includes special weapons and a power-up that makes your character go crazy, tons of vehicles, and hot babes to rescue.
Out Zone	1990	Run-and-gun