The Video Game Revue

My Dream Arcade

Certainly you must have asked yourself on occasion, "if I could have my own arcade with games selected personally by me, which games would I pick?" It's sort of a variation on the age-old "Desert Albums" list (what music would you take with you if you knew you were going to be stranded on a desert island with a CD player and a lifetime supply of batteries?) but the question with arcade games takes on a certain twist. The thing about the desert music is that I have access to all of the music that I'm likely to pick, but I can easily think up great arcade games that I can't easily find, so this question takes on an additional aspect of games that I wish I could play right now in a proper arcade setting.

One of the most important arcade genres is certainly the tournament fighting game--both the 2-D and 3-D varities, although I'm a strong fan of the 2-D sort myself. I can think of many such games that I'd love to see included, such as King of Fighters 2002, Street Fighter III: The Third Strike, Marvel vs Capcom 2, and Street Fighter Alpha 3 . The list goes on and on... and, in fact, only choosing one of these games is too painful, so I'm going to allow myself three choices here.

The first one that I'd take is Capcom vs SNK 2, simply because it is so modern and comprehensive, while also being a great game of course. Secondly, I would take Street Fighter Alpha 2 for the unabashed reason that it's a personal favourite of mine; I really felt that it pushed the genre forward in its day, and it still has a certain old-school appeal to me. Finally, I would have to take Samurai Shodown IV because, well, I'd have to. If that wasn't available, I would settle for The Last Blade II. In the long run, I'd probably regret not taking Street Fighter III: The Third Strike instead, but I think I can live with that. As for 3-D fighting games, I'll take a Soul Calibur, thanks, and maybe Tekken 2 if there's room left over (which there won't be.)

Tournament fighters are all well and good, but sometimes you gotta go back to the roots of it all in street brawlers such as Double Dragon, The Simpsons, and those awesome D&D Arcade Games. The one street brawler that my dream arcade simply has to have is Final Fight, which is arguably the best game of its kind ever made. You just can't go wrong with that one.

Another important game genre for arcades are puzzle games like Tetris, Puzzle Bobble (aka Bust-a-Move), and Magical Drop. You would think that Tetris would be a shoe-in here, but personally I've never found Tetris to be all that much of an arcade style experience. Assuming I still had access to console games and can therefore still play Tetris outside of my fantasy arcade, I honestly think I'd rather have Puzzle Bobble. That one just "feels right" on an arcade cabinet.

One of my all-time favourite arcade genres are the light-gun shooters, like Time Crisis, House of the Dead, Lethal Enforcers, and even Silent Scope. For me personally, there are two in particular that stand out above the rest and that I must include in my fantasy arcade: Point Blank, and Virtua Cop 2. 'Nuff said.

Something that I'm lacking so far are games where you sit in some kind of closed-in cabinet. There aren't a whole lot of those that have really run away with my imagination over the years, but two that I think are worthy of inclusion are Afterburner 2 (ooh, that tilt!) and the original Atari Star Wars arcade game from the 70s, which featured vector graphics and audio clips from the movie.

Also missing so far are the classic arcade games--the sort of old-school titles that started it all. If I think too hard about it, I'll never be able to settle on only a handful of titles, so just to toss off a few of the most important ones, I would need to have Robotron 2084, Donkey Kong, Bubble Bobble, Ms. Pac Man, and Galaga. There are so many others that I would take too, but I can't dive full-bore into that right now or I'll never have time to finish the rest of this rant.

It may not be strictly necessary, but I do think that this arcade would be a lot more fun if it included Dance Dance Revolution. I'd also settle for Percussion Freaks, although I'm less inclined towards Guitar Hero... but really, it's gotta be DDR.

This will be heresy to some and gospel to others, but for me the single most important video game genre that makes an arcade a true arcade are the straight-forward shoot-em-ups. I have many favourites in this genre and limiting myself to only a few titles in this genre is the toughest of any of the decisions that I'll have to make for my dream arcade. Galaga was already covered above, and the other shoot-em-up I simply cannot live without is 1943 (or maybe 1943 Kai). Two others that are very important to me are Ikaruga and Metal Slug 2. And, finally, I would have to make room for one of my more exotic favourites, Salamander--the Gradius "gaiden" game that was adapted for the NES in the form of Life Force. These are, seriously, the kinds of games that move me to tears.

I definitely have omitted some stuff here, such as pinball games and racing games, but for the most part my personal arcade experience has revolved around the ground already covered here. If I walk into any given arcade and they have even a three or four of the games that I've mentioned above, I'm generally quite happy to kill time there. If there even is such a thing as an arcade out there that includes all of the games I've put in bold, then somebody please tell me about it.

posted by Parappa @ 9:27 PM