7 Top Arcade Games We Can Never Forget About

If you were born anytime between the 1970s and 1990s and had access to quarters, there is a good chance that you spend plenty of time in the video arcade, frantically wiggling on a sweaty joystick, hampering buttons and investing the better part of your pocket money into a video game. Now, the arcades have nearly been wiped off the map, but their venerable cabinets can still be found in some bars, B-road service stations or even seaside towns occasionally. Here are some of the top arcade games of all time:

1. Street Fighter II (1991)

While it may not have been the first fighting game, Street Fighter II was the epitome of the best things about video arcade games; it was both imaginative and weird, it was multiplayer and if you practiced a bit, you could do some amazing moves. No wonder it is called one of the best arcade games.

2. Pac Man (1980)

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few decades or so, you don’t need to be told about Pac Man. You are basically a small cheeseperson who enjoys eating dots in the dark. This game was so addictive that people spent billions in playing it. In fact, statistics indicate that $2.5 billion were spent in the first decade alone.

3. Time Crisis (1995)

The popularity of arcade gun games rose rapidly when 3D brought Sega’s House of the Dead and Virtua Cop series. Another pedal was added in the form of Namco’s Time Series that allowed players to take cover thereby adding a touch of realism and giving some depth to gameplay, which had been missing from the other charge-through shooters.

4. Breakout

Breakout was developed and published by Atari in 1976. It was built by Steve Wozniak who was aided by Steve Jobs in the development of the game. The player of the game plays with a ball that journeys across the screen, destroying the bricks on top while bouncing off the bottom, top and the side walls of the screen. The ball bounces away after colliding with the brick and the brick is destroyed. This site gives some more interesting detail about the game. It is one of the most interesting in arcade games.

5. Sega Rally 2 (1998)

The introduction of Daytona USA by Sega brought about the launch of the bombastic racing genre in the 1990s and Sega Rally just made it more precise and faster. Sega Rally 2 went on to add sexy visuals as it successfully made the transition from loose gravel to grippy tarmac, something that no other game had managed to capture so well.

6. Operation Wolf (1987)

This game is an icon of the Rambo era and allows you to take control of a real gun and use it for hosing wave after wave of enemy soldiers with bullets. However, the game wasn’t simply about shooting everything that came into sight; you also had to protect the innocent hostages and avoid killing them while trying to bring down your enemies.

7. Virtua Fighter (1995)

Fighting games entered the third dimension with the help of this futuristic punchfest. Previously, such games had been content in basking in the shallow pool of 2D, but the texture-free and chunky polygons of Virtua Fighter brought depth to the arcades and gave the game a sci-fi and bizarre look. It was fun and fast and good enough that it was ported to Sega Saturn a couple of years later.