Arcade

Adorable arcade classics from Taito.

A spiritual sequel to Bubble Bobble, where a rainbow serves as attack, staircase, and shield.

You'll grasp the concept in a second — shoot the ball down before it splits into a swarm of smaller ones.

The purest game concept in history, in the form made famous by Sega's arcade version.

A shrine of the bullet-hell genre from Cave — survival means threading the gaps between thousands of bullets.

A Cave bullet-hell shrine; for genre connoisseurs the highest meta.

One of Cave's most beautiful bullet-hell games — you fly on a beetle through swarms of projectiles.

Cave's toughest and most intense bullet-hell, with no cuteness and no mercy.

Classic vertical shmups; punishing and revered.

The brisk, confident culmination of Seibu Kaihatsu's Raiden series in the golden era of shmups.

Propeller fighter planes and giant transforming bosses in Psikyo's defining shmup.

A Konami duo that introduced the iconic power-up bar system and shaped the entire genre.

An overlooked spin-off of the legendary R-Type, this time without the iconic Force module.

Sega arcade racing; the feel of the drive and the music.

The 1995 arcade revolution, the first to bet on terrain physics that changed with the surface.

Atari's vector classic, which captured piloting an X-wing better than anything else in arcades.

Atari's vector action transported to icy Hoth — a sequel to the Star Wars classic.

The odd one out in Atari's trilogy — isometric view and colorful sprites instead of vectors.

Ten years later, Sega swapped vectors for full 3D graphics on Model 1 hardware.

Sega's swan song for rail shooters on Model 3 hardware, cut together from scenes across the whole trilogy.

A vector Sega game in a cabinet shaped like the captain's chair from the Enterprise's bridge.

A dark, bloody rebel against Street Fighter II — digitized actors, unprecedented brutality.

A masterful refinement of the first game; many fans still consider it the best MK ever.

The iconic arcade shooter with a machine gun mounted on the cabinet — a real gun right in the player's hands.

A symbol of the entire medium; a yellow circle eating dots, known even to complete non-gamers.

The sequel that surpassed the original; more mazes make the game more varied and more addictive.

The pinnacle of fixed-screen space shooters; still a great play today.

The answer to Space Invaders that raised the bar; enemies here break formation and attack for the first time.

The debut of Mario (then Jumpman) and the giant gorilla; two legends were born here at once.

The only game where Mario is the villain; the player rescues their gorilla father from a cage.

You don't shoot enemies here — you inflate them with a pump until they burst. Bizarrely brilliant.

Crossing a street and a river has never been this tense; a classic even non-gamers know.

A horizontally scrolling shooter so demanding it eats your coin before you even grasp the rules.

Two joysticks, no mercy; the game that defined twin-stick shooter controls.

A knightly tournament on the back of a flying ostrich; one of the most original arcade games ever.

After a wave of shooters came a hit that shot at nothing at all — it just hopped across cubes.

A segmented centipede crawls down the screen; a textbook example of finely tuned arcade action.

Vector graphics and an endless void; every hit shatters a boulder into smaller pieces.

A hypnotic geometric funnel pulling you into the screen; still unlike anything else.

A hero in a blue jumpsuit flies around collecting bombs against backdrops of famous world landmarks.

The vertical war shooter that launched Capcom on its path among gaming giants.

The sequel to 1942, flashier and more polished; the map's climax is often a battle against a battleship.

The Vic Viper and its faithful helpers; a revolutionary upgrade system that defined the genre for years.

Gradius's rebellious offshoot; alternates horizontal and vertical stretches through organic tunnels.

Yu Suzuki's surreal world of flying mammoths and dragons; an arcade spectacle of the 1980s.

A tilting cabinet, salvos of missiles, and the feel of Top Gun; the peak of Sega's super scaler era.

The pinnacle of arcade puzzle games.

A sword-wielding barbarian hacking through hordes of monsters; dark fantasy for fans of Conan.

"Red warrior needs food badly." The game that invented the four-player cooperative dungeon crawler.

"I'd buy that for a dollar!" A satirical run & gun with two joysticks and a frantic pace.

Instead of saving the city, you demolish it as a giant gorilla, lizard, or werewolf.

A quartet of bounty hunters in the Wild West; a model run & gun for a group of friends on one cabinet.

Homer, Marge, Bart, and Lisa kick villains around Springfield to rescue Maggie.

Six players at once on one machine; Marvel's mutants in a perfect cooperative brawl.

Cowabunga! Four turtles beat down the Foot Clan with four players at once in this iconic beat 'em up.

A Capcom fantasy beat 'em up with a solid dose of RPG and the spirit of dice and dragons.

Dripping slime, a blinking motion tracker; a run & gun carrying the atmosphere of the Aliens film.

Capcom's mastery of beat 'em ups combined with the D&D license; a gateway to the world of Mystara in arcades.

Roaring engines and linked cabinets for driver-versus-driver duels; it defined the look of racing arcades.

The first fully three-dimensional fighting game; it forever changed the direction of the entire genre.

A riff from The Offspring and driving with no regard for the rules — get your passenger there as recklessly as possible.

Mud, gravel, and asphalt behave differently; a rally about reading the terrain, not just speed.

It rewrote the rules of light-gun games with a single idea: a pedal for taking cover behind a pillar.

Namco turned the light gun into a wacky, colorful party full of funny minigames.

A little dragon fires bubble after bubble; one of the most addictive puzzle games in arcades.

Button-mashing elevated to an Olympic discipline; the template for the entire athletics game genre.

It put the player right onto a motorcycle that leans into turns; an experience you don't forget.

A pioneer of arcade racing with a qualifying lap before the start; it defined the entire genre.

An expansion of Pole Position with more tracks; more content, the same proven formula.

A top-down view, three cars, and a trackball; the controls deliver raw, instant fun.

The iconic BOOMSHAKALAKA and over-the-top dunks; 2-on-2 arcade basketball with no brakes.

Boxing as a rhythm puzzle; what decides it is watching the opponent's tells and precise timing.

Football controlled with a giant trackball; it laid the groundwork for later arcade soccer games.

Fast, straightforward arcade hockey built on instant head-to-head competition between two players.

Taito's 1978 phenomenon that founded the entire genre of shooting waves of enemies.

Atari gave shape to Cold War fear; you defend six cities against an endless rain of missiles.

Namco was the first to split fire into air and ground targets; an idea that influenced the whole genre.

Don Bluth's laserdisc animation looked like a movie, not a game; the cabinet drew crowds of people waiting in line.

An isometric marble maze controlled by trackball; Atari's rolling physics and a race against the clock.

Delivering newspapers, Atari-style, turns into an absurd slalom between dogs, lawnmowers, and tornadoes.

Konami's 1987 debut of the formula that made it famous: pure Rambo-style run & gun.

Technos laid the foundations of the modern beat 'em up in 1987: the Lee brothers against street criminals.

In 1989 Sega pitted a barbarian, a dwarf, and an Amazon against Death Adder.

An honest expansion of the legendary block-breaker; new bricks and the return of the vengeful Doh.

Sega's Space Invaders clone enriched with falling meteors as a second layer of threat.

Car combat in a desert future; it's more about survival than crossing the finish line first.

Split-second distinguishing of customers from robbers behind doors; a reflex-testing adrenaline rush from Sega.

An on-rails submarine shooter in first-person view; underwater combat instead of aerial dogfights.

A pioneering vector-based 3D action game from 1980; a tank periscope view arcades had never seen before.

An SNK light-gun shooter for three players at once against hordes of mutants and zombies.

A maze shooter with endlessly generated rooms of robots and deadly walls.

A colorful, mechanically richer spiritual successor to the legendary Asteroids from Atari Games.

A crouching soldier picks off waves of enemies from above; an icon of late-'80s arcade cabinets.

An adrenaline-fueled chase after criminals; the goal isn't to finish the track, but to smash the fugitive's car.

A technically ambitious cockpit view of formula racing on a winding track lined with spectator stands.

The golden era of Capcom beat 'em ups.

Taito's motorcycle take on their racing arcade machines; running out of fuel kills you as surely as a crash.

A quick answer to Space Invaders; three waves of alien formations, each with its own movement.

Climbing a skyscraper with two joysticks at once; original controls arcades hadn't seen before.

A light-gun defense of a man and his dog against waves of wildlife and raiders in the wilderness.

War action inspired by the invasion of Normandy; an advance along the coast under fire from several directions.

The strangest entry in the trilogy; instead of jumping, a gardener defends his greenhouse in a vertical shooter.

A sequel to Track & Field with eight Olympic events and frantic button-mashing.

Movie atmosphere just a year after the premiere; the whip serves as both weapon and rope across chasms.

A top-down view of muddy off-road races for up to four players; a beloved social hit of the arcades.

A puzzle answer to Tetris; stacking colored tiles into rows, columns, and diagonals.

A game tie-in to a fantasy film; a series of distinct sections mirroring key scenes.

A founding title of the beat 'em up genre; five floors of a pagoda defined the formula for years to come.

An atmospheric Sega light-gun shooter; a ghost hunter against phantoms in graveyards.

The debut of the Mario and Luigi duo in sewer pipes full of monsters that must be kicked from below the platforms.

Sega brought pop star Michael Jackson to a beat-'em-up based on the film of the same name.

An early vertical shooter, famous for its mechanic of docking three ship modules into one.

A moon buggy jumps over craters and mines and shoots down UFOs – a platformer and shooter in one.

A gritty shooter about fighting drug gangs; a rocket launcher literally tore enemies to pieces.

A beat-'em-up on a widescreen cabinet made of three monitors; a pair of cyborg ninjas against a dictator.

The sequel to Operation Wolf with a light gun, the first in the series to offer simultaneous two-player play.

Escape from a prisoner-of-war camp with bare hands and weapons taken from the guards.

Pac-Man in isometric 3D with a new jump over ghosts – a graphical reboot of the Namco classic.

An icon of the golden age of arcades; bird aliens hatch eggs into further enemies mid-flight.

The game that launched the commercial arcade era – table tennis reduced to two pixels.

Sega's Y Board system handled dozens of scaling sprites; a race with the feel of smooth 3D driving.

One of the first titles with a scrolling maze, a minimap, and background music all at once.

An unusual genre mix: alternating artillery battles with building walls out of Tetris-like shapes.

A movie beat-'em-up based on RoboCop; the ponderous, nearly unstoppable force of the titular cyborg.

A spy platformer inspired by Bond films; an agent shoots from behind doors and picks up weapons.

Western version of Darius for single-screen cabinets; giant mechanical creatures as bosses.

A cornerstone of horizontal shoot 'em ups; six distinct sections from caves to an enemy base.

A submarine simulation with a periscope built into the cabinet; judging the speed of passing ships.

A two-player rail shooter with light guns against aliens straight out of Alien.

A sequel to Chase H.Q. with the same rear view of the car and sense of high speed.

A cooperative aerial shooter for two players at one machine – a rarity for its time.

A pioneer of multidirectional scrolling; the ship flies through a tunnel up, down, and sideways.

A successor to Qix with a story and a more action-packed pace; carve out territory and dodge enemies.

Arcade Le Mans racing with a moving cabin and day-to-night transitions during the race.

A maze shooter with a radar that reveals monsters even outside the player's view.

A maze shooter in pseudo-3D over-the-shoulder view; controlling it with two joysticks was a bold move.

One of the first arcade games with isometric graphics; a cast shadow revealed your flight altitude.

A space shooter where the ship circles around the edge of the screen instead of the classic top-down view.

Comically exaggerated arcade hockey full of fouls and flashy knockouts sending opponents off the ice.

A racing machine for up to three players side by side, each with their own steering wheel and pedal.

An early SNK vertical shooter in the spirit of Phoenix and Galaxian; released in the West as Zarzon.

A Bond-inspired spy driving game with a musical theme derived from the Peter Gunn melody.

A vector classic where you must shoot through concentric rotating shields around a fortress.

The player is a bartender who must send full mugs to guests and catch the empty ones before they fall.

A skill machine where, axe in hand, you chop down trees at exactly the right moment.

A multidirectional Konami shooter that sends the player across historical eras of aircraft.

A platformer about a warrior turned into a monkey who sets out to rescue his kidnapped love.

An unusual arcade game where, instead of a car or a weapon, you float down a river on an inner tube.

A game companion to the Disney film that offered four distinct minigames instead of a single mechanic.

An early Sega simulation of fast driving from behind the car using scaled sprites instead of flat graphics.

A spy platformer where the building's elevators and escalators are the main means of transport.

Sega's motocross race with a bumpy track and a cabinet that leans into turns.

The Wild West in an action platformer about a train heist, with both shooting and fistfights.

A sequel to the four-player brawler that refined and expanded its predecessor's recipe.

The culmination of Street Fighter II's refinements; hidden Akuma and the series' first Super Combo meter.

SNK's answer to Street Fighter and the foundation of a key series; combat across two planes for the first time.

The "Dream Match" entries; the pinnacle of SNK fighting games.

Weapon-based fighting with an emphasis on timing; beautiful.

One of the first 3D arena fights; the four-button limb control scheme became iconic.

A bigger roster, a deeper system, and smoother animations — a leap forward from the first game.

On Model 2 hardware, it pushed polygonal fighting games to their most impressive form of the nineties.

Street Fighter's combat system in a horror setting; faster and more airborne combos.

One of the first big hits of the light-gun genre with fully 3D graphics; precise, arcade-style gunplay.

More weapons and branching missions based on target choice — a solid expansion of the first game.

Zombie horror with decision sequences; rescuing hostages changes both the ending and your life count.

Higher pace and more varied locations — an expansion of the proven zombie horror formula.

A pedal for taking cover and, for the first time, two-player co-op — an element that defined the whole series.

Bond-style espionage light-gun action with a camera smoothly following the character through the environment.

A horror light-gun shooter with a grotesque touch; collecting keys breaks up the linear formula.

A cabinet with a real optical scope — a unique sniper concept in the light-gun genre.

On the Model 3 hardware, it delivered more detailed tracks and more realistic car handling on different surfaces.

Drumming with taiko sticks is so intuitive you'll grasp the rules within seconds.

A DJ deck with a turntable and buttons; the turntable itself doubles as a note to scratch in rhythm.

A cockpit with a real steering wheel based on the Initial D manga; linked cabinets for networked races.

An arrow platform for dancing and exercising at the same time — an unusual combination of fun and physical activity.

An X-shaped platform instead of DDR's four arrows; a more acrobatic style that demands its own practice.

A guitar replica with three buttons and a strum bar — a direct forerunner of the Guitar Hero concept.

Rubber pads and a bass drum pedal simulate a drum kit; the game punishes uneven hits.

A 4×4 grid of illuminated panels instead of note lanes — a visually distinct concept.

A circular touchscreen surrounded by buttons; notes are hit with both hands all around the rim.

The successor to the famous Contra goes for even more action, pace and end-of-level boss fights.

The famous four-player coin-op, now in 3D, with experience levels and weapon unlocks.

A sequel to Gauntlet Legends that adds four new characters to the four-player party of fighters.

A fighting-game spin-off of the Golden Axe series; instead of hordes of enemies, it offers one-on-one duels.

A lightgun shooter where all you need to do is aim and fire while hordes of the undead flood the screen.

Another entry in the undead lightgun series; the same pace, jump scares, and endless waves of monsters.

The pinnacle of hand-drawn run-and-gun action; the animation detail still impresses today.

A response to the mixed reception of part four - the series returned to in-house development at SNK Playmore.

Hand-drawn pixel action with over-the-top weapons and humor, faithful to the style established in 1996.

The first installment with a story directly continuing the previous one; the new roster, however, lacked Scorpion.

A quick fix to the third game brought back fan favorites and added Ermac – today regarded as the definitive MK3.

The first installment with 3D-modeled characters, even though the fights stayed on a single plane as before.

A fighting game in which legendary Pokémon battle in a style borrowed from the world of Tekken.

Refines the R-Type recipe: the Force orb as both shield and firepower boost, a pace for patient players.

A different studio made the arcade game than the home version – Data East gave it its own spin.

The first crossover of Capcom and SNK fighters; development was handled by the experienced studio Noise Factory.

Swords and spears instead of fists; laid the foundation for the Soulcalibur series and its eight-way run system.

A masterful fighting game with a parry system; an esports legend.

Capcom's boldest move yet - it wiped the roster except for Ryu and Ken, and brought in the mysterious villain Gill.

An update responding to criticism - it brought back the fan-favorite Akuma and added Hugo and Urien.

Introduced the Rage mechanic, where dwindling health temporarily strengthens attacks, plus a massive roster.

The move to Unreal Engine 4 brought more realistic fights and more detailed arenas.

Tag-team fights between pairs with on-the-fly switching - a sequel to the beloved PS2 spin-off.

Built on the Time Crisis engine, but instead of cover you get a ballistic shield you can raise anywhere.

The fifth installment brings back the pair of agents from the previous game into action; they now also face heavily armored enemies.

Ran on the most powerful hardware of its time and introduced sloped arena terrain.

The Sega Lindbergh hardware brought a graphical leap and more realistic fighter movements and arenas.

Cute fighters with oversized heads, but the combat system unchanged.

Arcade tennis for quick matches at a single machine; accessible controls, brisk games.

More powerful hardware brought more detailed players and smoother strokes, the recipe stayed proven.

Návrat Vic Viperu po deseti letech, v době, kdy žánr už ustupoval 3D.

Pedál, zbraň a dvě minuty na to, abyste přežili další zákryt

Původní herní automat, na kterém celá bojovka o Athénu vznikla.

Tři roky před Wii tu na hráče mířila skutečná pistole připevněná k automatu.

Původní arkádová verze bez ořezaných levelů, se sólovou obtížností naladěnou na mince.

Mincový prapůvod SNES hitu – tvrdší, rychlejší a stavěný na to, aby hráč sahal do kapsy.

Původní arkádová podoba slavné bojovky - plynulejší, ostřejší a o rok starší než port na SNES.

Originál běžel na motocyklové arkádové skříni, kterou hráč naklápěl v zatáčkách.

Originál na arkádové desce NAOMI, ze kterého vzešel port pro Dreamcast.

Arkádová CPS-2 podoba, ze které vznikl náročný port pro Saturn s pamětovým cartridgem.

Arkádový originál na NAOMI, ze kterého se stal turnajový standard "arcade perfect".

Automatový originál, kde museli sportovci na rozdíl od Saturnu plnit přísné limity.

Vylepšený automat, který z NBA Jam udělal turnaj plný tajných postav a bonusových políček.

Originální automat, podle kterého se měří všechny domácí převody.

Návrat legendy s ferrari a driftem, na hardwaru odvozeném od Xboxu.

Původní arkádová podoba kultovní střílečky, tvrdší a bez příběhu.

Původní arkádová podoba střílečky, kde jedna salva zamkne hned několik cílů.

Původní automat, na kterém drift z Ridge Racera vůbec vznikl.

Školní bojovka dva na dva ještě předtím, než se stala domácím hitem.

Originální automat s maracas, ze kterého vzešla celá hra.

Arcadová rybařina s opravdovým prutem, který ve skříni cukal v ruce.

Cestovní vozy v arkádě na hardwaru Model 2, rychlejší než doma.

Arkádový původ legendy, o rok starší než slavná verze pro Dreamcast.

Arkádová předloha bez hostů z konzolí, ale s čistým soubojem.

Arkádový původ steampunkové střílečky, kterou znáte ze Saturnu.

Arkádový originál, podle kterého se měří všechny domácí verze.

Baseball budoucnosti, kde proti sobě nastupují kyborgové a lidé.

Motocyklový závod na skříni, do které se opravdu naklání.

Opičí koule tam, kde to celé začalo: v herně za mince.

Terénní trucky z herny: tři hráči, vylepšení a jedno velké bahno.

Čtyřhráčová arkáda, ze které se později stala slavná SNES hra.

Původní automatová podoba Tekkenu 3, bez bonusů domácí verze.

Dvojice bojovníků v arkádě, kde se poprvé střídalo za pochodu.

Arkádový Tekken 5 bez režimu Devil Within, ale s tempem automatu.

Automatová verze dorazila o rok dřív než PlayStation a hraje se tvrději a rychleji.

Originál pro dva hráče u jednoho automatu, ze kterého vzešly všechny domácí porty.

Krvavá zombie střílečka na kolejích; rychlá, hlasitá a čistě arkádová.

Původní automatová verze, ze které domácí port vznikl.

Capcomský automatový originál s nákupem výzbroje, než přišly domácí porty

Originál, který definoval tvrdou školu 3D bojovek v herně.

Polygonový závod, který v herně roku 1992 ukázal budoucnost 3D.

Tenis s jednoduchým ovládáním, který prověří, kdo vydrží u automatu.

Mechové souboje na dvě páky tak, jak vznikly na automatech.

Mutanti a bojovníci Street Fighteru v týmových soubojích, jak je hrál automat.

Původní automat dřív, než z něj udělali slavný internetový meme.

Tanečního fenoménu úplně první podoba – na herní podlaze, ne na gauči doma.

Vesmírná střílečka s trojicí obrazovek a bossy přes celé zorné pole herny.

Originál z arkádových hal rok před Saturnem, s plynulejší grafikou na desce Model 2.