The immediate sequel to Donkey Kong (and the first time Mario is named such in a game) retains much of the basic concept that made the original game something unique, but at the same time it's also entirely its own thing.
Unfortunately the weird programming on vine climbing (which is central to at least three of the game's four screens) means there is a strange inconsistent lag to the way DK Jr. moves, making immediate twitch reactions very unreliable. To me, this single aspect pretty much ruins the game, which is unfortunate, as it is otherwise a very good one!
Ghosts 'n Goblins (Makaimura)
(1985)
Bubble Bobble
(1986)
One of the biggest all time arcade classic, requires no introduction. Yet, in spite of its popularity I think most people tend to overlook both how deep and how expansive this game really is. Taito gave it their all when they made this game, and then gave it a whole lot more.
You can spend forever improving your strategy for each of the game's individual, puzzle-like stages. And with all the different factors that affect powerups and other outcomes along the way ensure that no two runs will ever play out the same.
Rygar
(1986)
PCB has a memory glitch causing several things to not work, including collision detection, and inserting credits. Need to figure out what's causing it. :(
PCB issues:
Issue related to one of the program RAM circuits caused odd behavior and prevents adding credits
Slap Fight
(1986)
Toypop
(1986)
Xain'd Sleena
(1986)
Black Tiger
(1987)
SMZ
A bit of an impulsive purchase, but I can't say no to a cheap, original Capcom board. I only heard of the game shortly before buying it based on a few screenshots.
Good platform arcade games are actually surprisingly hard to come by, and I was afraid I might end up with another "Tiger Road", but Black Tiger fortunately plays more like Ghosts 'n Goblins, though the controls here are much more smooth, with full ability to change directions during a jump. With the exception of a few "you gotta know they're there" traps, Black Tiger is a solid and fair game with a few gimmicks like earning money to buy upgrades, meaning you'll have to stay alive if you want to get your money's worth.
As I said, this is one of the cheaper Capcom titles, and highly recommended to anyone who's interested in expanding their library of arcade platformers. Especially if the extreme difficulty of both Ghosts 'n Goblins and Tiger Road is getting on your nerves.
Flying Shark
(1987)
SMZ
One of the best traditional vertical shooters out there. It has a very simple focus, with the majority of the enemies being made up of either tanks that roll along the ground and fire occasional aimed shots, or planes that fly down in a formation and back out again, usually firing one or two shots in your direction.
This combination of enemies makes up nearly every situation in the game, forcing you to systematically take out every ground enemy before they trap you in a corner, while either shooting down or avoiding the faster incoming planes at the same time. That setup is reused in new interesting ways throughout the whole otherwise really short game, and you never really get any time to breathe.
Quite an easy 1CC for a shooting game especially, but in my opinion one of the most entertaining ones, and a clear example of Toaplan at the top of their craft.
Karnov
(1987)
SMZ
Fun platformer introducing what would for a short while be almost a mascot for Data East.
Karnov is one of those games that are just full of silly, crazy ideas, with lots of interesting secrets to find also.
Rabio Lepus
(1987)
An old shooter from the people that would eventually be Psikyo.
Picked this up in a bundle with three other games sold at an absurdly low price. I have yet to put some real time into it, but it looks cute.
Rainbow Islands
(1987)
SMZ, HJO
This might be my favourite arcade game of all times. At the very least, it is in the top 3.
As a direct sequel to Bubble Bobble, it shares very little of that game's gameplay, but a lot of the philosophy that went into making it. Overall it's a more polished experience than BB - The controls are completely on point, and the stages completely change theme every 4 rounds, each of them introducing an entirely new set of enemies (though often with recognizable patterns) and new ideas for level design, as you race to the top of each vertically scrolling area.
The puzzle oriented design is mostly left behind for a bigger focus on pure action gameplay, but the insanely versatile controls add a lot of depth to how you're able to approach each obstacle.
Rainbow Islands
(1987)
SMZ, HJO
This might be my favourite arcade game of all times. At the very least, it is in the top 3.
As a direct sequel to Bubble Bobble, it shares very little of that game's gameplay, but a lot of the philosophy that went into making it. Overall it's a more polished experience than BB - The controls are completely on point, and the stages completely change theme every 4 rounds, each of them introducing an entirely new set of enemies (though often with recognizable patterns) and new ideas for level design, as you race to the top of each vertically scrolling area.
The puzzle oriented design is mostly left behind for a bigger focus on pure action gameplay, but the insanely versatile controls add a lot of depth to how you're able to approach each obstacle.
Terra Force
(1987)
An attempt to add a bit of variation in the traditional spaceship shooter genre, by allowing the player to dive into holes in the background, which will take you to a horizontally scrolling stage in an otherwise vertically scrolling game.
The game still ends up feeling extremely repetitive very fast, though.
PCB issues:
Video RAM issue(?) causes background graphics glitches
Tiger Road
(1987)
As a Capcom platformer this game is assured basic quality, but the moment you try to play it seriously, you realise just how unfairly it's designed. The very first boss is only beatable with specific weapons - lose that and your game is simply over. Very frustrating game.
Wardner
(1987)
MTO, MJP
One of Toaplan's rare attempts at genres other than shooters, Wardner is a fun straight-forward action platformer that seems very typical for its time period.
Definitely on the easier end of arcade games, but something is weird about my PCB, which has the timer run out a lot faster than typical for this game. So fast in fact, that several stages cannot be completed at all. I need to figure out how to fix this some time - it seems especially weird, since it must be a software issue.
PCB issues:
CPU issue(?) means all number math, including the timer, is broken, so you can't beat the first stage without running out of time
Bonze Adventure
(1988)
Chelnov - Atomic Runner
(1988)
Ghouls 'n Ghosts (Daimakaimura)
(1988)
SMZ
Without a doubt one of the best arcade games ever made.
Following up on the success of Ghosts 'n Goblins, this game repeats the same basic concept, but both looks and plays much smoother. Every stage introduces completely new concepts, and each individual section is based on completely random patterns which forces even experienced players to constantly be on guard, relying on constant twitch reactions.
With a reputation for being devilishly hard, I think this must be based mostly on the home console audience, because in the context of arcade games, I think this is still one of the easier ones.
In my opinion, this game is a study in proper utility of RNG in video games.
Gradius II (Vulcan Venture)
(1988)
Shadow Warriors (Ninja Gaiden)
(1988)
Tetris (Sega)
(1988)
Of all the early Tetris implementations, this one is probably the first one that was solid enough to still remain highly playable and competitive even today, preceeding NES Tetris by a year.
Thanks to a slight lock delay and a rotation system that's designed to keep pieces from getting stuck agianst the stack surface, Sega Tetris remains playable even at very high speeds - an element that would eventually directly inspire the TGM series, which also reused the Sega color scheme.
This is one of the System16 boards that comes with a suicide battery. A severely evil one, that will kill the board the second the battery gets disconnected, and the only way to "repair" it is by replacing several ROMs. Fortunately the swap itself isn't too hard, just requires using an extra backup battery during the process. Replaced this in January 2020.
Truxton / Tatsujin
(1988)
SMZ
Bought this along with Toki from a Danish arcade collector who's been collecting for ages and was looking to get rid of all of his old games.
Though mainly collecting 80's classics and those titles that have been available in Danish arcade cabs back in the days, he did have a few "newer" game that interested me, Truxton clearly being the most interesting one, as I'll never pass up on a cheap Toaplan game.
From this game you can easily tell that Toaplan were nearly kings of the genre in the late 80's and early 90's, leading up to Batsugun in 1993 which would unfortunately be their final shoot'em up.
Tatsujin, known in Europe as Truxton (there is a soldered jumper on the board you can change to easily switch the game region), was a very clear indication of the state of the genre in 1988, pushing the boundaries while not really doing anything new. It's a little all over the place, trying to enforce different types of shoot'em up gameplay, and at its core the defining elements ends up being the midboss encounters which usually enforce a strict learning pattern, as you really need to know how their shots behave before they come out. And some of them you just need to bomb.
Not my favourite Toaplan game, but still a very solid standard bearer for the genre.
PCB issues:
Sprite priority issue, all sprites are drawn on top of background layers that are supposed to be topmost (like UI labels)
Crime City
(1989)
M.I.A.
(1989)
SMZ
The rarely mentioned sequel to Green Beret (Rush 'n Attack)
Pretty much the same gameplay, but with a bit more stuff going on. The core gameplay is extremely simple, but is elevated by a few unexpected challenges usually requiring you to find and hold on to secondary weapons in order to have a fair fighting chance, which adds a bit of fun strategizing.
Very short and easy to clear, but of course loops endlessly.
Omega Fighter
(1989)
Despite looking like a very generic space shooter, Omega Fighter is a really unique game, and one of the most addicting high-score concepts of the late 80s. Multipliers are earned by point blanking enemies - and by point blank, I mean holding the fire button and literally ramming sideways into the enemies! It's such a satisfying move that it makes it almost impossible not to be greedy and go out of the way to put yourself at risk at all times.
Absolutely a game worth looking into, and one of the most overrated shooting games ever made.
Toki
(1989)
SMZ
One of the surprisingly few arcade games that really tickles my nostalgia bones.
For some reason this game just represents to me exactly what arcade is about - Big, colorful sprites, lots of fun stuff going on. Going into an arcade as a kid and seeing stuff like this was what made me fall in love with video games in the first place.
Toki itself is a fairly straight forward platformer with mild run'n'gun elements. It's one of those games that rewards knowing what's coming up. It will definitely kill you the first few times you're playing it, but once you learn to clear the game on a credit you should be able to do so pretty consistently.
Violence Fight
(1989)
Blood Bros.
(1990)
Blood Bros. is a straight up improvement on its predecessor, Cabal. Sharing basically the exact same core design (and even the amazing victory animation). A lot more effort went into this game, and there's so much stuff going on in every stage, giving the player a lot more to shoot at for extra points, too.
In my opinion this is probably the highlight of the surprisingly rare "cabal genre", more fun to play than even Wild Guns which obviously takes a lot of direct inspiration from this one.
Blue's Journey
(1990)
Wonder Boy in Monster Land style platform adventure game. Lots of choices, branching paths, secrets, and upgrades for purchase. One of the earliest Neo Geo games, this one doesn't look anywhere near as impressive as the later ones, but it's a very delightful game.
Crude Buster
(1990)
Cyber Lip
(1990)
ME: "Mom, can I have Contra?"
MOM: "No, we Contra at home!"
Contra at home:
Gals Panic
(1990)
Choose your favourite girl
League Bowling
(1990)
Liquid Kids
(1990)
SMZ
Building (very) vaguely on a similar idea to The New Zealand Story, Liquid Kids has you playing as a platypus, going through a bunch of basic platform stages to save his imprisoned friends.
This game is pure Taito, with its cute designs, Zuntata music, and a strange attack that's based on the water bubbles originally seen in the first Bubble Bobble.
It's a very easy 1CC, but it will never cease being fun to play.
Magician Lord
(1990)
One of the first Neo Geo games, typically notable for being incredibly hard. Mostly it just relies a lot on trial and error, some really unintuitive challenges and awkwardly weird controls.
Still, its qualities are notable, and especially the visual style is very memorable. It's a "guilty pleasure" kind of game, that's rewarding to make progress in, but can get frustrating when things don't go your way.
NAM-1975
(1990)
Incredibly, this is one of the hardest MVS games to find at a decent price, despite the fact that it's not really a rare game, and especially common on AES.
Out Zone
(1990)
SMZ
Probably my favourite out of Toaplan's already brilliant arcade output!
Arguably more of a "top down run'n'gun" than a classic shooter due to the push scroll method, but a constantly dwindling energy meter (similar to Wonderboy) forces you to move forward at a rapid pace to survive.
Relatively easy for an arcade shooter, but a ton of fun regardless. Every new stage offers tons of new fun obstacles, and an absolute banger of a soundtrack!
Parodius Da!
(1990)
Gradius, except fun!
Raiden
(1990)
Riding Hero
(1990)
I guess this is the first arcade game I ever acquired.
Back when I first got myself a 1-slot Neo Geo MVS, this is the game that came with it.
I quickly went on to buy titles like King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown and Metal Slug and only played this game once. As far as I can tell, it's not worth spending any time on, and I'll probably never get rid of it either. :)
Snow Bros.: Nick and Tom
(1990)
Toaplan's own take on copying the Bubble Bobble formula.
A straightforward arcade "arena" platformer where you take out all the enemies to advance to the next stage. The core mechanics of this game involves trapping an enemy in a snowball, and then pushing that snowball in a way that allows it to take out every other enemy in one go.
It's a fun game, but I do think it's a little heavy on the memorizing solutions for each stage. You could say the same thing about Bubble Bobble, but I do feel that game comes across a lot more intuitive, while Snow Bros relies more on trial and error.
This one is also famous for its adorably tiny PCB.
Bomber Man (Dynablaster)
(1991)
I really love Bomberman, and this is a surprisingly unique take on the formula. Instead of the standard building up your power across all stages, this game treats every stage as its own little puzzle challenge.
You start with no powerups, and build up your power to take on the enemies running around, each of them having very different, but always predictable, AI patterns.
Ideally, this game could be amazing, but it suffers from almost absurdly dumb controls, which is a disappointment compared to how well the console Bomberman games would work, going back to 1990. Your character's animation are weirdly aligned, and corners are turned in unintuitive manners. Your character will even try to turn corners where there are none, resulting in very easily getting stuck in the walls. Fortunately the last issue was fixed in the game's immediate sequel, which makes that one a LOT more playable and overall enjoyable.
Burning Fight
(1991)
Captain Commando
(1991)
Bootleg. Great early Capcom brawler, though.
Crossed Swords
(1991)
Eightman
(1991)
A somewhat shitty, but very entertaining beat'em up slash platformer. Most enemies die in a single punch, and you'll switch between regular strages scrolling at your own pace, and autoscrollers that see you running along the road at a high speed. It's pure Japanese wackiness.
Knights of the Round
(1991)
Sunset Riders
(1991)
Cowboy run'n'gun without contact damage
PCB issues:
Game resets every time after completing ROM/RAM check
Sunset Riders
(1991)
Cowboy run'n'gun without contact damage
Three Wonders
(1991)
Accidentally bought this as a bootleg despite paying a pretty large amount for it (for the time anyway). This is an amazing game, and I honestly wish I had the real deal. Boot suffers from annoying graphical glitches.
Thunder Cross II
(1991)
One of the lesser know Konami shooters. In a way it feels a lot like Gradius, but it doesn't have the complex powerup system, and dying results in immediate respawn instead of tough recoveries, which makes this game a lot more approachable.
Also has one of the best soundtracks of any arcade game I have played.
Thunder Dragon
(1991)
The only NMK game I could find at a decent price.
Your ship's hitbox is huge, and very unintuitive too. I'm not sure it's a bad game, but I have a hard time getting any fun out of it.
The single follow-up to Irem's Bomberman game. Like I mentioned in the description to that one, this game fixes the one thing that makes the earlier game almost unplayable. And as a result, this is one of the best Bomberman games ever made!
The controls are still not ideal, but design-wise this is such a fun action puzzle game, that's really nothing like anything else out there! There are three Bomberman games on the arcade, and if you're getting just one, this should be the one.
Dead Connection
(1992)
Got an incredibly good deal on this game.
Reminds me to put some effort into getting into it soon - I really love how this game looks, it seems very unique.
Euro Champ '92
(1992)
GunForce
(1992)
The precursor to the Metal Slug series (featuring the same death screams from enemy soldiers), though it takes more strongly after the original Contra.
This is an incredibly hard game, and it's only made harder by the fact that the hitboxes are completely misleading. Requires a lot of memorization to get through.
Last Resort
(1992)
In incredibly good looking shooter, with graphics similar to the Irem games of the same era - supposedly developed by some of the same people.
Unfortunately it is also kind of boring, with a ton of dead air.
Pass
(1992)
Relief Pitcher
(1992)
Saboten Bombers
(1992)
Tatsujin Ou / Truxton II
(1992)
Unfortunately my board doesn't run at all.
I've received some pointers from Caius about things to try, so hopefully I'll be working on repairing this really soon now.
PCB issues:
Game won't power on at all
Varth: Operation Thunderstorm
(1992)
A very good looking traditional WW2 style airplane shooter. This game is essentially a part of the 1942 series, despite not sharing the naming pattern. It does however share a lot of the powerups and traditional enemy formations.
What sets it apart is the unique "pod" system that completely changes how the game plays. Like the earlier 194x games, this one also has an absurd amount of stages. If I recall correctly, over 20.
Viewpoint
(1992)
An attempt to revive the idea from Zaxxon. Although an isometric perspective really isn't in any way desirable for a shooter, the visuals are at least pretty cool.
At the end of the day, the awkward hitboxes and super bullet spongey enemies is what makes this game somewhat annoying to play.
Wild West C.O.W.-Boys Of Moo Mesa
(1992)
SMZ
A sequel of sorts to Sunset Riders, but based on a licensed property that I think most people have never heard of.
Compared to Sunset Riders, your player sprite is a lot bigger, which also means you'll run into a lot more close quarter combat, and dodging attacks with the invincible dodge roll is central to getting through this game.
Gaiapolis
(1993)
Mystic Warriors
(1993)
The full blown sequel to Sunset Riders, adhering much closer to the original than Moo Mesa did, despite the change in theme.
Has a fun saturday morning cartoon style, complete with incredibly cheesy English voiceovers and a badass soundtrack. Game is "ok" I guess :P
New Zero Team
(1993)
Spin Master
(1993)
Aero Fighters 2
(1994)
Alien vs. Predator
(1994)
Alligator Hunt
(1994)
Another Spanish Cabal clone.
Unfortunately my PCB is having a lot of issues, supposedly caused by the suicide battery. I have been unable to fix it so far, unfortunately.
PCB issues:
Video looks like it's constantly having sync issues. Suspected issue is suicide battery, but I've already done everything to fix that
Bubble Symphony (Bubble Bobble 2)
(1994)
Nearly 10 years after the first Bubble Bobble, Taito finally decided to make a more straightforward sequel, featuring the same classic bubble blowing puzzle stages that we remember from the original.
Bubble Symphony is basically Bubble Bobble with everything turned up to 11 - innumerable secrets, and several different routes through the game, with boss fights and other cameos that reference most of Taito's video game history.
This was the first non-Neo Geo arcade game I ever invested in, and it is still one my favourites.
Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom
(1994)
One of the biggest reinventions of their long-running series of belt scrolling beat'em ups had Capcom add a bunch of rudimentary "RPG elements", in this game based on the D&D license.
Fortunately these elements are mostly superficial, and only add to the action game formula, rather than watering them down as you might fear. Essentially, they turn the game into more of a balancing of resources, as well as routing through the various different ways you can do through the game.
Different classes greatly advocate playing this in co-op, and a lot of game mechanics are lifted directly from Dungeons & Dragons lore.
Elevator Action Returns
(1994)
SMZ
Leave it to Taito to revive an old arcade title, and turn it into something completely different while still retaining a lot of what made the classic fun.
EAR is a great example of how to properly handle arcade-style "spy action", in a similar vein to the Rolling Thunder games, as well as the original Elevator Action. It's essentially a more tactical approach to the run 'n' gun genre.
Gokujou Parodius
(1994)
The second arcade Parodius game dials everything up to eleven. It's like Gradius, but even better.
Karnov's Revenge
(1994)
King of Fighters series
(1994)
King of Fighters Neowave
(2004)
King of Fighters 2003
(2003)
King of Fighters 2001
(2001)
King of Fighters 2000
(2000)
King of Fighters '99
(1999)
King of Fighters '98
(1998)
King of Fighters '97
(1997)
King of Fighters '96
(1996)
King of Fighters '95
(1995)
King of Fighters '94
(1994)
Pirates
(1994)
A Spanish Cabal knock-off.
Puzzle Bobble
(1994)
DST
I don't think Taito's influential bubble-shooting puzzle game need any more of an introduction. One of the few arcade games to see releases on multiple entirely different pieces of hardware (basically an arcade port on arcade).
This game is a crazy fun versus game, while the single player variant feels completely different, relying on super tight reactions to RNG as you're building huge clusters of bubbles to shoot down all at once.
TH Strikes Back
(1994)
The Outfoxies
(1994)
Spy action meets multiplayer party games. This game has been cited as the precursor to Smash Bros. but it really is entirely its own thing.
Top Hunter
(1994)
Windjammers
(1994)
The classic disc throwing versus game. Feels like a bit of a marriage between Pong and a fighting game. Not a lot of fun in single player, but great for local tournaments among friends!
Zed Blade
(1994)
Bubble Memories (Bubble Bobble III)
(1995)
In what is most likely the least discussed, or generally least well known entry in the otherwise famous Bubble Bobble series, Taito took a small step back, and created a more back-to-the-basics game. No branching paths, fewers overall stages, but a design that feels more similar to the original game.
In general it's a little more forgiving, with smoother controls and fewer requirements for getting far without dying, but one of the boss fights specifically has been a major obstacle for me in my 1CC attempts.
Graphically, the game is kinda weird - featuring some of the most adorable, colorful pixel art for the characters, juxtaposed with awfully digitized photos for the backgrounds which are bound to throw off people. Don't be fooled though, this is a top notch quality game, and another highlight in the already solid series.
I first discovered this game at a vacation in Sicily in the late 90s, and was completely baffled that such an amazing looking game existed officially in the Bubble Bobble series, and eventually this would become my first arcade purchase outside of Neo Geo games.
Decathlete
(1995)
Track 'n Field in primitive Saturn-powered 3D polygons. One of the only 3D games I own.
This game is actually surprisingly fun, but I can't imagine ever playing it competitively.
Galaxy Fight
(1995)
The first in SunSoft's short line of weird, colorful fighting games.
Outside of being quite a competent fighter, Galaxy Fight really excels with its incredible gloomy, yet flashy sci-fi atmosphere. The sounds, the graphical style, and insane amount of scaling makes this game appear like nothing else.
Gekirindan
(1995)
Goal! Goal! Goal!
(1995)
This is one of those few less-than-excellent low priced games I'd recommend everyone to pick up, if only for some stupid 2 player fun.
It's one of those Neo Geo titles you'll see in almost every big lot of scrap games someone needs to get rid off, so if you're lucky you can find it as low as $5-10
Truth be told, it's not that interesting a game. It's just a soccer game same as most other games in the genre - a genre that's already overrepresented on Neo Geo to begin with, for some weird reason.
The genius in this game is in the details. Its simple stripped down arcade controls, and the charge shot used to shoot at the goal, which if fully powered will be able to knock over several players. For some reason this redundant piece of arcade history can be a lot of fun in a 1-on-1 match with someone else who doesn't care about playing about playing a quality game every single time.
If you only need one soccer game for your arcade cab (and why would you want more than that?), let this be the one.
Guardians / Denjin Makai II
(1995)
Metamoqester
(1995)
A fighting game which instead of pitting two players against eachother, allows them to fight in co-op against a series of huge monsters. So basically a boss rush version of a beat'em up game. A really cool concept, but unfortunately an incredibly short game.
Pang! 3
(1995)
The third game in the series often gets a lot of hate for its weird pre-rendered characters, foregoing the fun cartoonish look of its predecessors.
But gameplay wise, this is really refined, removing a few of the annoyances in the earlier games, while also adding fun new ideas and cleverly designed stages.
I originally bought this because it was actually the only Pang game I could find at the time, but at this point it might be my favourite in the series.
Pulstar
(1995)
At first you might think this is an R-Type game. The design of the ship and the force pod seem almost directly ripped off, and so do various enemies and stage elements. The only major difference is that you have no method of repositioning your pod, instead giving you the ability to sacrifice it for a powerful attack.
It's really a shameless clone, but at the same time it's also one of the best games in the subgenre of methodical, puzzle-like horizontal shooting games.
Real Bout Fatal Fury
(1995)
Samurai Shodown III
(1995)
For a long while, this was the only Samurai Shodown game I owned.
As much as people tend to prefer the second game in the series, I always loved what they did with the third game. The large, beautifully animated sprites. Using three buttons for the sword attacks. And most of all, the slow, controlled gameplay with a larger focus on counterattacks, which can cause a lot of tension in a one-on-one battle with a friend. The game simply oozes with atmosphere.
Of course the game has its flaws, and the single player mode is pretty much unplayable due to its extreme difficulty (but who plays Samurai Shodown for the single player mode anyway?). So in the end, the fourth game in the series cleans up all of this, while retaining everything that made the 3rd game great, so Samurai Shodown III will never be my favourite game in the series, but it is cheap, and for a long time it was the only one I had.
Super Sidekicks 3
(1995)
Die Hard Arcade (Dynamite Deka)
(1996)
Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara
(1996)
For the next game in the D&D beat'em up series, Capcom added more of everything that defined the game. More items, more branching paths, more bosses, more character classes with more spells and skills. As a result, this game is probably an even better representative of the series, and usually the preferred go-to title for its fans. Both games are very good, though.
Magical Drop 2
(1996)
Match colored bubbles, look at lewd 240p anime girls.
Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters
(1996)
A boss rush featuring various robot masters from the first seven classic Mega Man games, with four different playable characters allowing you to take on the fights in co-op too.
Metal Slug
(1996)
SMZ, JBS
Probably the only other run'n'gun platformer to ever challenge Contra as the undisputed king of the genre.
At first, Metal Slug will wow the players and bystanders with its insanely good looking graphics, that are so full of tiny details it makes you wonder how many years the artists must have spent on it. The gameplay is just as solid though, offering incredibly well balanced shooting action, with the bold choice of not having contact damage on enemies as you'd expect from the genre, instead allowing the player to react specifically to their attacks and get more points with their own close-up melee attack.
The first game in the series suffers a bit from the first five stages being very easy and almost superfluous, while the final one is a real difficulty spike. A relatively easy but still very rewarding 1CC.
Neo Turf Masters
(1996)
Puyo Puyo Sun
(1996)
Puzzle Bobble 3
(1996)
DST
Raiden Fighters
(1996)
Real Bout Fatal Fury Special
(1996)
Samurai Shodown IV
(1996)
Essentially a much more refined version of Samurai Shodown III. The random healing items are gone, removing that weird luck based aspect, and life bars are twice as long, preventing fights that end in a single well placed hit (something I kind of enjoyed, honestly). Graphically, the game is even more well polished, and this time over the single player mode is absurdly easy instead of being absurdly hard.
Sexy Parodius
(1996)
The third and final arcade Parodius, following the console exclusive Oshaberi Parodius, tries to take things all the way to give us the ultimate game in the series. And it definitely delivers in wacky themes and gigantic memorable bosses, and probably more fanservice than ever before.
And although it is probably also the easiest of the three arcade games (as in not excessively punishing you via survival rank), I think it might also be the least enjoyable to me. At this point, the series has strayed very far from its Gradius roots, and become very bogged down by constant gimmicks and memorizer boss fights.
That said, I don't think you can go wrong with any Parodius game, and even the worst of them is still a very fun game.
Terra Diver (Soukyuugurentai)
(1996)
Virtua Fighter Kids
(1996)
Waku Waku 7
(1996)
A sequel of sorts to Galaxy Fight, changes the style to a more cartoony, fun parody of various popular anime series and tropes. This feels more "traditional" than its predecessor, but still features a lot of wacky skills from the various characters that will make the game continuously entertaining to watch even when you're not playing.
This is also some of the finest sprite work to be seen on the Neo Geo, which already has extremely high standards in that category.
X-Men vs. Street Fighter
(1996)
After their first X-Men and Marvel games, this would be the first in a long, popular series of Capcom doing crossovers with their own characters fighting the Marvel heroes.
This game is probably also my favourite in the series. Compared to especially the messy chaos of MvC2, his one feels a bit more grounded, actually playing more like a traditional fighting game, but still allows most of the staple superhero stuff for the Capcom fighters, such as extra high jumps and firing projectiles while in the air. In a way this is just a crazier, more fun version of Street Fighter.
It's not as well balanced, and suffers from a lot of potentially infinite combos, but for anyone playing casually, this is always a good time.
Arkanoid Returns
(1997)
I had a feeling Arkanoid was gonna return some day.
Battle Circuit
(1997)
Cotton 2
(1997)
Looks like a traditional horizontal shooter on the surface. But by relying on both a strange "grabbing" mechanic as well as fighter style inputs to employ various types of magic spells, the game ends up feeling like its own kind of game entirely, and you'll usually spend more time figuring out how to juggle enemies around in each section of a stage, rather than just dodging bullets.
Money Puzzle Exchanger
(1997)
SMZ
Not as lewd as Magical Drop, but somehow more fun to play. Instead of colors, you match identical coin types, to exchange for their cumulative value (5 x 100 yens = one 500 yen coin). The difference is subtle, but works super well.
Although the match puzzle rewards huge combos, the best approach here is mostly just to play really fast.
Neo Bomberman
(1997)
Compared to the older Irem Bomberman games, this is much more traditional in how it lets you keep your powerups between stages.
This also means that like in most of the console games, once you get a couple of "the right" powerups, namely block pass and remote control, the game loses most of its challenge and lets you storm through it.
It's still a fun game, but playing for score (which is necessary for it to really be challenging) changes the basic concept in a way that's not realy fun to play in my opinion. If you're getting one arcade Bomberman game, get Bomberman World.
Shock Troopers
(1997)
Fun top-down Commando-style run'n'gun. What matters here, though, is the bangin' jungle/d&b soundtrack.
Winter Heat
(1997)
Blazing Star
(1998)
In my opinion one of the best shooting games out there, on a platform (Neo-Geo) which otherwise doesn't have a great track record for those.
The only real issue I have is the complete lack of extends or bombs, giving you basically zero leeway for mistakes. The game isn't too hard, but the final boss can be really punishing.
Breakers' Revenge
(1998)
A blatant Street Fighter II wannabe, but it's actually pretty good.
ESP Ra.De.
(1998)
One of the earliest Cave bullet hells, but the quality is completely in place. Fun scoring mechanics, gorgeous graphics.
The biggest issue people usually have with ESP Ra.De. is the fact that optimizing scoring "requires" boring milking of bosses that lasts forever. But if you're able to make yourself ignore this aspect, the rest of the game is still extremely solid.
One of my first Cave purchases also, back when I thought $150 was so absurdly expensive for an arcade game that I would regret the purchase immediately. But at this point it seems like I've made a very good deal...
Flip Shot
(1998)
A poor man's Windjammers. With no way to actually stop the ball, this does feel a lot more like Pong, but the individual skills of each character is what sets it apart. Not too amazing of a game, but it's fun to play.
Last Blade 2
(1998)
Metal Slug 2
(1998)
Pop 'n Pop
(1998)
Puzz Loop
(1998)
Shock Troopers 2nd Squad
(1998)
Shock Troopers is back - The soundtrack is less hardcore, but the boobies are bigger.
Street Fighter Zero 3
(1998)
Street Fighter Zero was the first really new entry to the series following countless updates to SF2. Although most fans still swear by the second version of SFZ, this third and final one still stands out in my opinion simply due to the extreme amount of visual polish, making it one of the most satisfying fighting games to duke it out in with your friends.
Tetris: The Grand Master
(1998)
SMZ
10 years after Sega Tetris, Arika managed to take the basic concepts that makes that game hold up, and refine it into a much better designed and deliberately competitive puzzle game.
The star of the show here is 20G gravity which kicks in halfway through the game, forcing you to play the second half with no way of moving the pieces while they are still in the air. Although it makes the game seem "too fast to play", the real challenge comes from the puzzle in stacking the pieces in a way that gives you as many future options of movement as possible during the short delay you do have with the piece lying on top of the stack before it locks.
This delay never decreases, making the game quite chill to play until the end, and although going for a GM grade (the highest "reward" in the game) should be fairly easily manage for anyone with a lot of Tetris experience, and willingness to learn how to cope with the high gravity.
A great and timeless game, showcasing some of the best you can do with single player Tetris, but ultimately TGM1 feels nearly obsolete compared to its own immediate sequel.
Gals Panic S2
(1999)
Play Qix until you see the jubblies
Garou: Mark of the Wolves
(1999)
Though I'm not usually a fan of the Fatal Fury series, Mark of the Wolves speaks to me a lot more.
Graphically and technically it's one of the most impressive games, if not THE most impressive game, on the Neo Geo with super smooth animations and huge animated backgrounds.
I guess you could say it was SNK's response to Street Fighter III, and it's really amazing to see this game run on hardware dating back to 1990.
On the AES, MOTW is a bit of a collector's item (as most major AES titles are, really), and this game was actually one of the reasons I originally decided to go with the MVS, as the arcade version of the game cart is a lot cheaper. Its market price has only gone up since I originally bought it in 2005, though.
Knights of Valour Super Heroes
(1999)
Metal Slug X
(1999)
Improves the formula from the first Metal Slug by reducing the time actually spent in the slug, generally making the game more challenging right from the get-go. As a result, it's also much harder to clear, but is overall a very balanced arcade game.
The amount of work put into the amazing graphical assets that carry the game has also increased, making this one of the best looking games ever made.
Originally released as Metal Slug 2, the "X" version "remixes" the game by adding a few more things, moving some bosses around and adjusting enemy positions. It's primary goal however was fixing the bug in the original release that caused the game to slow down much more than necessary, making especially co-op play almost unplayable.
Demon Front
(2000)
For a Metal Slug clone, I can't really imagine it being handled much better than this.
The graphical style in Demon Front is almost up to par with its primary inspiration, and gameplay-wise, a few new tricks have been added with the ability to float, and a familiar that can be used to shield enemy fire. An absolute must-have on the otherwise somewhat obscure PGM system.
Mars Matrix
(2000)
Metal Slug 3
(2000)
If you thought the firs two Metal Slug games exposed the absurd excess of Nazca's ex-Irem developers, Metal Slug 3 will leave you floored. Huge, branching stages and more stuff going on in the backgrounds (and foreground) than ever before. The first Metal Slug was a fairly easy 1CC, but this is a really challenging game that'll give fans of the series true bang for their bucks.
Nightmare in the Dark
(2000)
Tetris: The Grandmaster 2
(2000)
SMZ
Of all the arcade games that I own, this might be my favourite - a pure milestone in video gaming altogether.
Tetris The Grandmaster 2 takes everything that makes Tetris great, and distills it into pure enjoyment, and an absurdly high challenge. Unlike the first game which plateaus halfway into the game, this one will keep decreasing various delays going forward, forcing the player to play faster and faster to keep up. It's challenging and extremely satisfying. And for anyone who's hungry for more, Death Mode starts out at an already high speed, and keeps going up from there, for a pure survival based challenge.
You wouldn't believe Tetris could be this good.
Dodonpachi II: Bee Storm
(2001)
Mr. Driller G
(2001)
SMZ
A very simple puzzle concept despite making quite heavy demands of the hardware, with all the tiles moving individually across the entire screen.
As you dig down towards the bottom of a massive well, you need to constantly watch out for the colors of the blocks you dig through, immediately identifying which ones will latch on to eachother in order to prevent them from dropping on your head, as well as making blocks disappear to gain access to air capsules necessary for both survival and scoring.
It's exhilarating and incredibly deep. The "G" version of Mr. Driller is essentially an expansion of the series' second game, adding characters with different skills and a new, extremely challenging expert stage.
Progear No Arashi
(2001)
When your little plane takes off and you take in the beautiful splendor of this shoot'em up, it's hard to see how Cave themselves would consider it a "failed experiment".
But as you try to master it, it becomes clear that a lot of the patterns simply feel weird on the horizontal angle, mostly due to the implication of gravity existing, and some of the more complex ones somehow feel less intuitive to dodge.
Aside from that though, Progear is still an extremely good game, with a very satisfying scoring system that can also be utilized for defensive play.
Puzz Loop 2
(2001)
Zupapa!
(2001)
SMZ
A Bubble Bobble style arena platformer which essentially feels more akin to the Snow Bros. approach.
On each stage you must gather your four "kids"(??) to use as a weapon that can stun enemies. If you stun a single enemy with all four, killing it will create a huge explosion taking other enemies with it, or you can distribute your kids between multiple before creating a chain reaction. Taking out all enemies in a single chain reaction will give you the biggest point bonus, which essentially means getting the most out of each stage involves memorizing the ideal solution for all of them.
Metal Slug 4
(2002)
Rage of the Dragons
(2002)
Espgaluda
(2003)
PCB issues:
Game occasionally resets in hot weather(!). Probably a lose solder joint somewhere
Samurai Spirits Zero Special
(2004)
It's kind of incredible that it took SNK 8 years to create the next sequel to the Samurai Shodown series, though this really shows them recovering from their previous bankruptcy, now fully back in the game.
Samurai Spirits Zero (which is Samurai Shodown 5 in the west) is a super good looking game, and stands out in Neo Geo history for a few more reasons. This is one of the few games where there is actually a difference between the home and arcade versions, due to censorship in the former, and the "Special" version was the last game to ever be officially released on the platform.
The Rumble Fish
(2004)
Ibara
(2005)
Probably the least "Cave" shooter made by them. The story goes that Cave hired Shinobu Yagawa of Battle Garegga fame, wanting him to make basically the same game for them.
It would probably be safe to say that they succeeded. Ibara feels more like a successor to Garegga than any of the other games released by Raizing in the 90s. Complete with aggressive rank, intentional suicides, medal chaining, bomb fragments, and all the frantic secrets and mechanics that makes every run feel like a dynamic juggling of resources.
One of the most unique shooting games out there, and in my opinion one of the best.
Mushihimesama Futari
(2006)
I think this game represents pretty much everything you could expect from a Cave shmup. Cute characters flying through lush, colorful environments, surrounded by intricate and massive, geometrical bullet patterns.
Futari offers three different modes, with two unique scoring systems, really feeling like three different games entirely. It's really one of Cave's finest products.
Deathsmiles
(2007)
SMZ, JBS
Kraut Buster
(2019)
Making a Metal Slug clone on Neo Geo - the home of Metal Slug - is a bold move, because there is no way you could possibly surpass that game.
But at least ignoring that, Kraut Buster is still a surprisingly good attempt, at least for a European team. Aside from a few really dumb design decisions, this is a very solid run'n'gun.