Back in my old days, I remember playing tons of arcade titles of early 90's to late 2000's. The arcade machines are located in places like theme parks, cinemas, and restaurants, while places like retro gaming stores that they normally kept it for very long time. The games like Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat, SEGA Rally Championship, Outrun, After Burner 2 and many of the successful arcade classics that are later being released for home consoles that gamers can able to enjoy these titles at their home. I wanted to focus on the arcade games that are never got it made to the home consoles version, so it's kinda sounds odd that the famous companies like SEGA, Capcom, Konami and others publishers are missing out some of the great games that I've enjoyed the most, but it's rather kinda shame that they are never able to port it to consoles version, so everyone can able to pick it up and play it on their home systems. Luckily I'm able to play those arcade titles on Mame 32 which is a video game emulator that allow you to play several of your favourite arcade games on your PC.
I decided to make my 5 favourite arcade games that should have been released to the home consoles, so without go further do, here is my Top 5 Great Arcade Games that never came to Home Consoles.
5 - Violent Storm
Released in 1993, Konami made their beat em ups for arcade machines created by Konami, a same company behind franchise like Castlevania, Contra, and Metal Gear Soild.
Konami was the master of the beat em ups genres which they shares with great titles like X-Men Arcade, TMNT: Arcade Game, and of course The Simpsons Arcade.
Violent Storm is a beat em ups game where you take control of three mens setting out to rescue their woman friend named Sheena, who was held kidnapped by the biker gangs of Lord Geld. The game looks identical to Capcom's early beat em up title Final Fight with similar gameplay style, but it has larger graphics design, catchy 80's style soundtrack and different looking presentation that made the game looks and sounds very interesting. Each of the playable characters has different types of fighting styles such as Wade, a balanced fighter with simple attack, Boris was capable of using his powerhouse throwing attack, and Kyle uses his fast-paced kick to prevent enemy's charge attack. I was impressed with the gameplay fighting style, the game's challenge, the enemies and boss battles that adds up the game's epicness, so it would have been sounds awesome if this game were made for 16-bit home consoles like SNES, but it never happened. I would love to see this game deserves to be re-release for the modern day console, so that the fans of the genres can able to enjoy this epic brawler.
4 - Viper Phase 1
Seibu Kaihatsu Inc. was best known for their classics shoot em ups arcade game series such as Raiden. They released the spin-offs titles in the series called Viper Phase 1 for Arcade machines in 1995.
The game is identical to their previous Raiden titles, but takes place in space as you take control of space fighters to battle out their rebels to save the earth. The game is just quite good as the previous titles, but it offers much more better variation of shoot em ups gameplay that made the game quite fun to play.
What made me really surprised me the most is the 6 types of power ups that allow your firing power to become stronger, so things like letter P symbol that powers up your Vulcan Gun, the Blue Laser are the most damaging secondary weapons are worked effectively on larger enemies, the Burst Missile that firing multiples of missile, the Napalm Missile that shoots large green explosions of missile dealing with heavy damage, and the Wide Vulcan that expands your Vulcan Gun into wide firing making it easier to shoot whole enemy's ship. Despite the quality gameplay, the graphics are well made for its level design, the special effects and presentations that made the game looks very appealing for the mid-90's gaming. It's definitely has the best original soundtrack of all stages which makes you feel pumped up for shoot em ups action.
The game also forced you to play the whole stages again after beating the game, but becoming much more harder to play which adds up a magnificent replay values of the game if you want to become a shoot em up experts.
Unlike some of the Raiden titles that are released to home consoles, the Viper Phase 1 are the only game that never got made it to home consoles, so I wish this game deserves to be re-release in the future because Viper Phase 1 is among being one of my favourite shoot em ups game of all-time.
3 - GunForce 2
In the year 1994, Irem made their one of their last arcade titles called GunForce 2, a superior sequel to the 1991's title GunForce and It was made by same team behind their later SNK's Run N Gun series such as Metal Slug. The game focuses on two playable heroes set off to shoot down many of the enemies and rescue several of female hostages who are been held captive.
The whole presentation and gameplay are very similar approach to SNK's Metal Slug as the sequel are considered to be a major improvement over the original game. It has multiple of environmental destruction which filled with explosions and wreckage which adds the game's atmospheres as it feels much like the 80's action films of Run N Gun genres. This game features awesome weapons to choose from such as flamethrower and laser are great addition for its combat gameplay and it has really cool segments of riding on multiples of vehicles such as mechs, motorbikes, tanks and flying crafts which adds the overall greatness of Run N Gun action. The game also featured 2-player co-op which you and your friend will able to enjoy the epic action game.
The game are also released for PC in 2011 as Irem Arcade Hits, but it would have been sounds better off re-releasing it for the home consoles such as PS4, XBONE, and Switch. If you're the fan of the games like SNK's Metal Slug then this game is definitely for you to play.
2 - Ninja Baseball Bat Man
Imagine having a classic 80's Cartoons shows like TMNT combining with Baseball Sports related things that would become as Ninja Baseball Bat Man is a Arcade Beat Em Ups title by Irem that was released in 1993.
You get to play as 4 playable Baseball players dressed up as Ninjas has set off their mission to retrieve their stolen various artifacts. It's one of the weirdest Arcade game I ever played which featured a several of enemies are completely made of the Baseball equipments and other weird random things.
There are 4 playable characters that you get to choose such as Captain Jose the balanced character with simple moves, Twinbats Ryno which is a speedy fighter with quick pacing attacks, Beanball Roger is fat and powerful brawler, and Stick Straw are capable of using long-range attacks. Each of the characters has different set of special moves, combo attacks and fighting mechanics that adds the variation of gameplay style. It has addicting 4-player co-op are great for local multiplayer and epic levels with tons of insane enemies and crazy boss battles that keeps you playing more and more. The graphics are very comical with cartoony style characters and colourful environments that adds up the presentation well for early 90's arcade days.
I find the title screen quite bizarre as it's says Bat Man at the name title which I finding it sounds confusing because it has nothing to do with actual DC comics character from the past such as Batman, so it should have been meant to say Batsmen which would have made sense to this game to avoid the name confusion.
I considered this game a forgotten hidden gems of arcade library that no one have ever heard before due to game only came out on Arcade machine meaning there are no home console release for this game. It would have been sounds really awesome if this game could have gotten a re-release for later consoles.
1 - Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder
Back in my old childhood days, I remember playing the original Golden Axe for SEGA Genesis/Megadrive are among not just being one of the greatest Hack N Slash/Beat Em Ups game of all-time, but one of the most impressive arcade to home console conversion that showed off what SEGA Genesis/Megadrive could handle the game well from the arcade counterpart. The success of first has spawned with sequels and spin-offs titles for later years after the original game. There's one of the game that got my attention was Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder that came out for arcade hardware in 1992. It's one of the first game of the series that never got made into the home consoles which I find it quite odd that SEGA could never able to release this game for their later home systems like SEGA Saturn that would have been sounded like a excellent addition to the Saturn home library that didn't actually happened, so moving on with this game right now.
You get to choose 4 of the playable warriors such as Goah the giant, Stern the barbarian, Dora the Kentauride, and Little Trix has their quest to battle against the medieval Death Adder once again.
The game featured with multiples paths that allows players to choose different pathways, the 4-player co-op are the welcome addition of local multiplayer play, and each of the characters has different magic powers depending what playable characters you're play as in local play. The characters such as Goah, Stern and Dora uses the offence magic attacks, while Trio uses the magic powers to replenish his health with apple trees.
The best part of the game's presentation was the enemy's death animation sequence where the player performing the magic attacks which led the enemies being burned alive or turned into rock artifects.
I was impressed with the fluid animations, detailed environments and cool special effects that made the game look very stunning for the early 90's arcade. The combat gameplay is much more faster and smoother that made the game more enjoyable than the previous installiment has to offer.
I think SEGA should re-release this game for the later console in the future because its clearly being one of the best looking arcade Hack N Slash/Beat Em Ups game that everyone will able to enjoy this kind of game.
Honorable Mentions:
Alien vs Predator
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs
Star Wars Trilogy Arcade
R-Type Leo
The Outfoxies
Progear
Neo Bomberman
Zero Gunner
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This is Zeeshan Mirza's Blog and I'll see you next time, happy blogging everyone.
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