5. House of the Dead 2 - I don't know exactly why, but for some reason I get drawn to playing this game a lot.
4. The Simpsons - Because it was basically the Ninja Turtles that I lvoed but with the cartoon family that I also really loved. The game was really hard though, and I thank my dad for helping me and my brother get through the entire game. I was saddened that it never came to consoles.
3. Police 911 - I really like arcade shooters, and unlike other shooters, this one actually has you moving around in order to not get shot. The thing I hate about it though is that after a playing session, my legs suffer serious crampage. The first time I played this my legs really hurted for a week.
2. Area 51 - One of my favorite rail shooters ever and one of my favorite Sega Saturn games ever. I really loved how when you shot the aliens you see the blood and bones pop up. I was kind of disappointed when Site 4 was just a bunch of mini-games of sorts thrown together instead of an actual sequel, so I don't play much of that.
1. Silent Scope (peferably EX) - Whenever I find a Silent Scope arcade machine, I will most likely jump in and start playing it right away. I just love using the Sniper rifle (#1 video game weapon to me), and because there hasn't been a true adaptation for the consoles (I blame lack of proper peripherals), it remains as my best reason to go visit an arcade.
5) The Punisher - I remember when I was like in grade 3 playing this game in an arcade. Me and this random guy who was probably in his twenties got to the very end and I ran out of quarters. He gave me one of his and we beat the game. It was also an outstanding game, all the weapons that were in it made it incredibly violent. They also had some really cool boss battles.
4) Silent Scope 2 - This game was always a blast to play. Not only were you the only one that could really tell what the hell was going on because of your scope, but it was also incredibly entertaining. The story mode was great with two players and even versus mode was almost as good.
3) King of Fighters 98 - This to me was by far my favorite KOF game. My team isn't really in any of the other games aside from 94. Good ol' Heavy D, Lucky and Irochi Chris. They had so many characters in this installment that it made me want to master almost all of them, thus increasing the replay value for me to a huge amount.
2) X-Men - I think everyone knows this game. Playing this game on the arcade system that had 6 players and two screens was probably one of the greatest things in the early 90's. Even though it had stupid ass dialogue "X-Men, welcome TO DIE!" it was still a blast and beating the game with 5 other people was probably one of the best things in the arcade world.
1) WWF Wrestlefest - What a great game this was. It probably had the best lineup of wrestlers ever put together. Ultimate Warrior, Mr.Perfect, Earthquake, Demolition, Sgt Slaughter were all names that were rarely ever seen in videogame form but were all available and looked fairly detailed. Playing this game with a bunch of people in a battle royal was definitely where it was at. The announcing going on during the matches were great as well. I'll always remember hearing the "Mr.Perfect PERFECTPLEX", sometimes I still say that for no reason whatsoever.
5) Simpsons - Classic four player game. The levels were fun, and the combos are memorable. And the fact that when Bart dies he turns into a devil instead of an angel was just unbelievably funny to a young kid.
4) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - God, this game was awesome. I still remember fighting Baxter Stockman. Yet another game I probably never got past the first level on...but just a ton of fun.
3) Marvel v. Capcom - This is the only fighting game that I can say I'm good at, and I don't really know why. I don't know the combos. I don't know what the buttons do. But the character selection is fairly awesome, and the fact that a novice can jump in and kick some butt is good fun.
2) Dance Dance Revolution - Don't care which one, don't care which mix, don't care if its a silly knock-off. It's gaming with exercise, even if the song selection often offends any particular claim to masculinity I have. It's best when played with a second person who is on the same skill level as you are.
1) X-Men - Best arcade game, ever. The few places I can still find it, I'll actually stop and play it again. I beat this game with my dad when I was a kid, which is a fairly good memory. And beyond that, it's just plain fun to play.
5. Alien Versus Predator - AVP as an FPS never did do much for me. As a brawler allowing you to play as two cool looking humans and two even cooler looking Preds against an army of Aliens? Teh awesome. Never got very far ever, but an awesome game.
4. Dead or Alive 2 - I'm a lover of the PS2 version but also a lover of the arcade original. I had a lot of funning beating up people on this with Ayane... hey, that describes me and every DOA game.
3. Soul Calibur 2 - I'm also a huge fan of this game and this was one of the nicest arcade setups going, giving players a lot of options for their coins. You can play practice mode, use any character besides Sophitia and Seung Mina as they were exclusive to the console versions, as well of course Link, Spawn and Heihachi. All in all I enjoyed this heavilly whenever in an arcade.
2. Gunblade - Konami's lightgun shooter where you are the guns of a chopper, I played this a lot and it's my favourite lightgun based game of all time. Not much else to say.
1. The Simpsons. - Note to Konami. Port this, please, to a console. Any console. This is the greatest four player co-op game of all frigging time, and the only arcade game I ever beat (with the help of three other people).
5) Simpsons Arcade - I played this at some mini-golf place during someones birthday party when I was like 8 and fell in love with this game. I spent so many tokens playing through it. The levels were fun, the enemies were hysterical, and the players were a blast to play as.
4) The Lost World: Jurassic Park - I love dinosaurs. So when I walked into my arcade and saw this game, I was stoked. It was a first-person-shooter style game that let you use some sort of blue or red assualt rifle. The dinosaur models were really cool and the power ups were fun. I wish a console version of this was released, but alas, never will be.
3) Virtua Cop - I remember seeing the hit detection on this game and tried to convince my mom to buy it for me. "But mom! When you shoot his knee..he falls to his knee! It's so real!" Looking back...that was so damn cool.
2) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - If you grew up in the late 80's, the Ninja Turtles have affected your life. This game was awesome. Being able to play with 3 other friends and go all ninja on The Foot was amazing. I'm so glad it's coming out to download later on Arcade. Hopefully this new CG movie doesn't ruin the franchise.
1) X-Men - Oh man, this was at my local Roller Rink and it's pretty much all I played on field trips. It was like playing an actual comic book. The screen was huge and the players were awesome. I ALWAYS played as Nightcrawler. I really wish this game would be ported to XBLA. "
And so the mystery remains: why did Konami never port the arcade version of The Simpsons?! It's crap like this that make us gamers get emulators and roms (btw, if anyone wants The Simpsons rom, shoot me an e-mail).
Besides the Simpsons, other popular games getting multiple votes were X-Men and Turtles, also side scrolling beat-em-ups. Too bad most beat-em-ups these days are mediocre, because with such fond arcade memories of these games, the genre could be so much better.
