10 Arcade Games You Should Avoid!

[@jrpgcenturyclub409]

100% give OG Gauntlet a chance. Don't base your opinion off the games on this list. 'Red Warrior needs food.................... badly'

[@Fortefyre]

SOMEONE SHOT THE FOOD

[@charleslynmartin795]

Alternate Title: 10 Konami Games you should avoid

[@Fortefyre]

Facts.

[@ChaseNScooter]

Yeah I couldn’t believe how many titles of these were Konami! It’s crazy how they made some of the best arcade games (especially from licensed properties) and made this crap too!

[@NateTheGnat]

The worst arcade game is Double Dragon 3. Its a kick in the groin to Double Dragon series. Absolute garbage game.

[@Fortefyre]

Is that the Bimmy and Jimmy one? Lmao

[@mr.tie-rex9577]

Even the console ports didn’t help.

[@marccaselle8108]

I remember playing the arcade double dragon 3, when it was new. It was terrible and it was at my local pizza hut. The animation is bad, the controls are bad, it's all bad. I rented it for NES and it was a little better but they wanted to make it like real life. In the Nintendo version, you get one life. Unless you make it to the Egypt level, you won't earn a continue.

[@Fortefyre]

That's horrific.

[@PnC_GameZnThingZ]

​@@Fortefyre Bimmy and Jimmy was 3 for NES 😂 the true DD3 is Combatribes. I think the janitors made DD3

[@ravengaming2597]

Guardians of the Hood. I discovered this little 'treat' thanks to MAME and its DREADFUL!! Think a boring side scrolling beat em up mixed with Pit Fighter style animation and controls, but somehow much worse.

[@Fortefyre]

The name alone sounds horrible lmao.

[@TheRealJPhillips]

Main Event was one of Konamis 1st attempts to get a license. When Technos ended up with the WWF license, Konamis decided to still release the game but tweaking the characters appearances and changing the names

[@Fortefyre]

Big facts!

[@gertpacu3926]

My brother has a 4 player Gauntlet stand up arcade game. That game does not look close to being as good as gauntlet. This was my first nibble into Multiplayer RPGs which rocked!!! When you have 4 people with a lot of quarters, and a couple hours to spend you can get really far into the game. In the late 80s when I was very young I would play this with big brother, and two of his friends. We would hog the machine for an hour or more when we played. My brother also has Street Fighter 2 Champion edition, Tron (with discs of Tron in the 1up arcade). Star wars, Tempest, Galliga and so many more. I think he has about 15 games, and he's made his game room look like a legit Arcade. It's just him and my sister in-law and their house had 5 bedrooms, so they knocked down the wall in one bedroom to the other, and still had 3 bedrooms left. Master, and two spare bedrooms. So on the back wall he has all these standup arcade games. Gauntlet II in the corner, and his computer desk on the other corner of the room with his gaming PC. The room is about 14ft by 28ft. He has foosball and a couple pinball machines.

[@Jac2Mac]

A LOT of Konami arcade games from the 1984-89 period before TMNT: The Arcade Game were unfortunately very poor compared to their NES classics.

[@ValisFan3]

These days, when you go to arcades, you usually play "whatever is available." I usually don't bother playing older games that were released prior to the 90s. A lot of bad arcade games really just sit there eating up electricity.

[@Fortefyre]

If you get a chance, go to Galloping Ghost near Chicago. It's the largest arcade, and it has everything on freeplay for $20!

[@zacharyberridge7239]

The arcade near me has 80's and 90's games galore. There are plenty of greats from both decades.

[@lethalwolf7455]

Smash TV was made without an ending, but claimed collecting enough keys would get you to the final level, which didn’t exist. The developers made the game so hard they figured no one would even get close so they didn’t bother with the final stage

[@Fortefyre]

That is STRAIGHT up disrespectful LMAO. Williams Entertainment was on their bs with that one lol.

[@BushyStallion]

Good list bro I liked the video. Dino Rex was hilarious lol

[@Fortefyre]

Thanks!

[@kyleolson8977]

Tatio could not make enough nearly Space Invaders boards to keep up with demand. To resolve the problem, they licensed out the production of the game to many other manufacturers. These manufacturers had strict limits. These companies would often either sell more boards than they were supposed to without telling Taito, or make clone boards, like Irem's IPM Invader, usually with another company working as an intermediary. Selling more boards than your contract was a clear violation of contract, but selling the gray-market clones was not clearly illegal yet under Japanese or US law. In fact, it wouldn't be until the 1990s that it could be said that it was reasonably clear what you were and were not allowed to get away with when it came to cloning. For these reasons, many of these clones were not cloned from scratch but modified versions of a Space Invaders board. In fact, I think Space King (1) would mostly not fall afoul of modern copyright law. It copies the description of the gameplay of Space Invaders, but it appears to be completely custom. Only the exact shapes of some (not all) of the sprites would be a problem. Space King II, on the other hand, would likely be a big problem with modern IP law. It appears to be built off of one of those gray-market Space Invaders Deluxe boards. The PCBs are probably almost exactly the same, except for slight changes in ROM. All of the other IP is too close.

[@kyleolson8977]

For Galactic Warriors, this is an absurdly early fighting game. I would make the argument that NO 2D fighting games before Street Fighter II were anything but janky (Especially including Street Fighter). The whole fighting thing hadn't been figured out. The best is probably Konami's Yie Ar Kung-Fu, although it was far less common that Karate Champ, which had some especially weird controls. Also, both of those games are heavily important in my previous comment about "it wouldn't be until the 1990s that it could be said that it was reasonably clear what you were and were not allowed to get away with" Galactic Warriors is a follow up to Yie Ar Kung-Fu. Warriors doesn't work as well, but by the standards of 1985 it is ahead of most fighting games.

[@Fortefyre]

Interesting!

[@g4z-kb7ct]

Based on the working emulation it's clear Space King 2 was based on Stern Astro Invader hardware.

[@davidaitken8503]

Some of these games had dip switches the arcade operator could adjust to make them easier or harder. While I won't say Haunted Castle is always fair, I know the skeletons on the first level weren't taking half my life meter away. I would also add that Gradius II seems downright fair compared to Gradius III.

[@Fortefyre]

There are 3 revisions of Haunted Castle, I played the first one.

[@Crimefighter]

@@Fortefyre The Japan version is the easier one - the bats fly more in a straight line than arc up and down making them easier to avoid.

[@mikeburkhart8336]

The Bishop of Battle! (If you don't what it that is... it's from a movie called "Nightmares",about a kid who got so addicted to this arcade game,he ended up being sucked into it and doomed to play it as the main character forever....)

[@Fortefyre]

Love the reference!

[@GenghisConnThr333]

It's surprising how many of Konami's arcade games were way better at home, Turtles in Time was really bad in the Arcades whereas the SNES version was one of the best beat 'em ups ever made. Contra was also famously better on the NES.

[@Fortefyre]

Gryzor (contra in the arcades) was a joke. Contra is EONS better on the NES.

[@exidy-yt]

@@Fortefyre Gotta HARD disagree there with you my man. Contra NES was an excellent version no question, but nothing touches the arcade version, one of my absolute faves. Some say it's too hard and no question you have to be very careful later on, but for a fast action blaster of it's day with all it's weapon ups Contra is legendary in arcade and MAME circles.

[@thewaxpackdad]

I remember the campground I used to visit growing up had a small arcade and I played the heck out of two games. The Konomi Wrestling game you highlighted and Tron. Good times.

[@Fortefyre]

That's an awesome memory! Thank you so much for sharing it! I hope you cherish that time when life was a little bit easier to live!

[@davidaitken8503]

Anytime my family would go on trips my brother and I would case out the games they had. If there were two or three campgrounds in a given area the one we would stay at was the one with the best selection of games.

[@thewaxpackdad]

@@davidaitken8503 that is so awesome. I think the selection of video games didn't change for 3 years lol. Thank goodness for Tron!!!

[@AndSaveAsManyAsYouCan]

Everyone knows that the point of going camping is playing video games. NOT to get away from the world and get back to basics, at all levels. LOL

[@davidaitken8503]

@@thewaxpackdad My parents were cool that way. I remember a campground that had Space Harrier. I love that games soundtrack. Another had Burger Time which was always one of my favorite classics. Double Dragon was even at one of them. We didn't usually have much more then a few quarters but even watching the attract demos was talking about stuff was fun.

[@jeremiahthomas8140]

I have never played arcade Roc 'N Rope, but I love the 2600 version. I cannot imagine I would not enjoy the arcade version.

[@Fortefyre]

Then give it a shake, the worst that happens is you don't like it, the best thing that happens is you play a more definitive version of a game that made you happy!

[@tidepoolclipper8657]

Some others to avoid would be; Double Dragon 3 is infamous for being one of the earliest examples of having to use real money in-game. Unfortunately, nearly all of the home console ports are also quite bad. The only potentially tolerable version is NES; which is really different. Donkey Kong 3 fails to properly continue the old Donkey Kong games. At least DK 94 felt like a more proper conclusion. Punch-Out and Super Punch-Out lack the refinement of the home console installments. Even the SNES version of Super Punch-Out is better. Not to mention Little Mac is a strange wire-frame (referenced in later Super Smash Bros games). Arm Wrestling is an obscure spinoff of Little Mac instead dabbling with arm wrestling. It's no wonder Nintendo generally ignores this game. Mortal Kombat 3 in its vanilla configuration had a disappointing roster. The complaints were plenty loud to the point where they had to release the Ultimate version to make up for it. Street Fighter 3: New Generation also was in a similar situation. It's 3rd Strike that's more so beloved. To give New Generation credit, it still has really nice animations like 3rd Strike. Street Fighter EX was the first attempt at giving Street Fighter that 3D feel and it didn't work out so well. Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game is major jank on arcade. It's okay on PlayStation and Saturn due to making a few tweaks. Believe it or not, this was almost Street Fighter 3. Fighting Street is already rather primitive compared to Street Figther 2 to begin with. However, the pressure button version was infamous for requiring you to alter how softly or how hard you mash the buttons. This version would often break. Virtua Fighter 1 no matter the system has characters jumping around like they're on the moon. Tekken 1 feels so much like a ripoff of Virtua Fighter and character models are generally ugly. Also, the arcade version doesn't even have the character endings. King of Fighters 12 is easily the worst of the King of Fighters. Gradius 4 didn't really do anything to innovate the series and is graphically so disappointing. It really says something when Gradius 5 being designed more like a Treasure game was a better end result than Gradius 4. After playing the NES version of Contra and the NES or Master System version of Ninja Gaiden, you'd be disappointed with the arcade versions of both. Professor Pac-Man was an actual arcade game where you just answer questions. Ace Combat 2 and beyond (except Assault Horizon) are easily better than Air Combat and Air Combat 22. The arcade version of Hunchback is ruthless in a different way; it requires extremely precise jumps. Survival Arts is a wannabe Mortal Kombat with clunky controls and unusually huge sprites. Ninja Clowns has janky movements and animations. Riot City is a wannabe Final Fight with very weak sound effects. Superman (Taito) is really mediocre. Ditto for Batman Forever: The Arcade Game. Metal Slug 4 is really disappointing for Metal Slug standards. Safe to say that Dragon's Trap and its remake are the true Wonder Boy 3. The arcade version is not a proper follow-up. Hachoo has really slow walking animations, bad collision detection, and aggravating enemies. Guardians of the Hood is taking Pit Fighter and turning it into a brawler. Grating music, really bad collision detection, hideous look, and a mini game that's a worse version of Pit Fighter. Avengers has an ugly art style, is slow, no continues, and lack of ranged attacks really doesn't help with boss fights.

[@RonaldDorsinator]

😂😆😂 *reading this is hilarious*

[@ValisFan3]

Metal Slug 4 is still very much a good and playable game. It's still fun. There's really nothing wrong with Metal Slug 4. It does feel like a rushed game that re-uses assets from previous games.

[@ThunderFist1978]

NES Double Dragon 3 is so much better because Technos themselves handled it, whereas they passed it off to another company to develop the arcade game, which we can all agree was a terrible idea.

[@siegfriedc2332]

Vanilla MK3 has a more enjoyable single player experience than UMK3 imo, mainly because Jade isn't there, and her AI in Ultimate was so annoying.

[@Phoenix2312]

Interesting List, though I played a few of these and still had fun... Contra for starters, Yeah - I agree the NES is better... But Contra Arcade came first! That would be more for a list of games where "The Consoles did it better" Likewise, Ninja Gaiden - The sound was GOD AWFUL!!! but I played that games for AGES, sank so much money into it ... A Brawler with SLOW CLUNKY ANIMATION... And constant FARTS when you hit someone... Its bad but kind of enjoyable! But the Consoles did it far better! BUT HELLL YEAH - TOTALLY AGREE ABOUT DOUBLE DRAGON 3... Potentially the first example of MICROTRANSACTIONS IN GAMES!!! HIEDOUS!!! I say Potentially, as you could add more coins for more life in Gauntlet 1 and 2, and TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, THE SIMPSONS... The only difference is they were FAIR ABOUT IT! You didn't insert more coins to BUY YOUR SPECIAL MOVES!!!

[@WeirdVideoGames]

(starts talking about PTSD) Me: "Hmm, I'm not sure it's appropriate to equate playing bad games to PTSD, that's kind of a tasteless joke" (mentions traumatic experience in the Air Force) "Oh... OH, ACTUAL PTSD :O NEVERMIND"

[@Fortefyre]

Hahaha yeah, I actually 100% have PTSD from the military lol.

[@WeirdVideoGames]

@@Fortefyre Anyway, nice work with the video. I'm building a MAME cabinet so this sort of video is always handy.

[@Fortefyre]

Well I look forward to sharing more amazing titles to add to your frontend!

[@hotdoggington6962]

Every one of those, my reaction was: okay yeah fair enough lol

[@Fortefyre]

XD

[@williamcrowe2576]

Konami was one of those companies synonymous with bad decisions. I mean, nowadays they're in the business of making pachinko machines.

[@Fortefyre]

MAJOR FACTS

[@AWMonopolyMan]

5:00 Actually no you don’t as (again) the guys at Hamster let you once more turn off the continue limit (as well as technically reduce difficulty as well as reduce how much damage you take (or if you are so inclined, increase those instead). Another fun aside, if you are really so inclined, you can dump all your credits into HP instead, so you can last longer, but if the continue limit is on, that’s a hard game over after the health is gone, if its off, just pop another virtual quarter and keep on going. (It’s the way I actually beat this infamous game). Now as for Vulcan Venture, the biggest issue there, is unlike US Nemesis, they don’t spawn extra enemies, which yeah, makes continuing basically worthless.

[@Fortefyre]

Vulcan Venture is a PROBLEM lmao

[@pharmcat8484]

That DinoRex game looks familiar. Bad, but familiar.

[@Fortefyre]

You probably saw it and said "No thanks" lol

[@g4z-kb7ct]

3:30 Gauntlet is exactly the same regarding time... in that case health points decrease automatically and you slowly die. The only way to play is to pump credits into the machine and Atari knew that people would get hooked and do exactly that. Thanks to emulation that's not an issue now heh! Try Dark Seal by Data East for a similar vibe but a better game.

[@Fortefyre]

Ugh. Wonderful. Dark Seal is MASSIVE fun!

[@TheRadiaforce]

Gauntlet's biggest middle finger: you have health replenishing food items in each game that'll keep you alive longer. Until that bastard trigger-happy Wizard shoots the food. You can shoot and destroy healing items in Gauntlet. Stick with the console versions

[@triplestar100]

Here are some suggestions for a sequel video for this one: "The Strata Trilogy" (Time Killers, BloodStorm & Ninja Clowns), Pit Fighter, Legend Of Success Joe, Fight Fever & Burning Fight (all 3 of them for the SNK NeoGeo) and Double Dragon 3! here's hoping you like my suggestions and have a prosperous 2024!

[@Fortefyre]

You as well! Thanks for the suggestions!

[@atalleywak]

Pit Fighter was indeed hot garbage. I liked Bloodstorm, though - only because the characters were so crazy and the violence was off the charts. I mean, you got points based on which internal organs you destroyed!

[@leesherman5192]

4:52 This is just Altered Beast without the beast altering.

[@Fortefyre]

Lol

[@SegaCDUniverse]

10 Videogame Characters you want Chaos from Primal Rage to piss on! - Fortefyre

[@Fortefyre]

Hahaha added to the list.

[@pharmcat8484]

I guess I didn’t play a lot of arcade games in my youth. Street Fighter 2, MK, X-Men and light gun games mostly.

[@Fortefyre]

I was the same exact way!

[@l0stndamned]

Interesting vid. I'm glad you mentioned that DinoRex predated Primal Rage as I felt sure it was a rip-off.

[@Fortefyre]

Thank you!

[@RonaldDorsinator]

*wait dino Rex look like a beta version of Primal Rage* 😭😂😂😂😂😂

[@Fortefyre]

Haha, a bad one at that!

[@RonaldDorsinator]

@@Fortefyre lmao 😂😂😂 when I saw this game on your video I uncontrollably couldn't stop laughing 🤣🤣🤣

[@Fortefyre]

I think it's funny that Taito thought T-Rex's were itchy, and it was worth making it an idle animation.

[@jc_malone8217]

Time Killers was so bad, I was ashamed being anywhere near the arcade.

[@Fortefyre]

Hahaha, SOOO bad.

[@ilovecoffee6318]

I 100 percent agree with you on The Main Event. Horrible game. The computer just wails away on you, and you never get a chance to attack.

[@Fortefyre]

Just WRECKS you.

[@BlackKoiRecords]

Bro, completely understood! I am about to retire from the Navy and OOO BOOOIIII It cannot get here fast enough!

[@Fortefyre]

If you want to add me on discord, the username is Fortefyre. I did all my VA stuff on my own, didn't even do a SHPE or whatever TAPS makes you do. 100%, and that $4,200 paycheck is a LIFESAVER.

[@BlackKoiRecords]

@Fortefyre Bet! Will do bro!

[@BlackKoiRecords]

​@@Fortefyresent, mine is Akaru

[@g4z-kb7ct]

Regarding Gradius II (or any other super hard game) just use the cheat mode in MAME and enable infinite lives or no collision detection then enjoy it and play the game to the end... that's what it's for ;-)

[@Fortefyre]

Hahaha I didn't do that, I did use save states at the ass end of the game though!

[@exidy-yt]

DUDE, you did Salamander dirty!

[@Fortefyre]

I didn't do Salamander dirty...I love Salamander. Gradius II and Salamander are different games lol. Salamander came out prior to Gradius II.

[@exidy-yt]

@@Fortefyre My mistake then, sorry. I could swear I remember that flying through suns sequence from Salamander tho. I must be getting senile.

[@Fortefyre]

I don't think you're going senile, I think you just recall the fire stage in Salamander where the fires "arch" out and reach to grab you.

[@exidy-yt]

@@Fortefyre Time to fire up MAME and make sure. You're probably right though.

[@michaelsuder486]

Big Foot Joe(King Kong Bundy with hair) and Alan The Empire(Andre The Giant with moustache and beard) vs The Maui Mauler( Haku/Meng?) and Conan The Great(The Hulkster)

[@Fortefyre]

What even is copyright lmao

[@dirkdex]

I liked your narration of the video, and I think you’re pretty spot on with your analysis of these games - terrible! I will say I do remember playing Super Basketball at Schnucks when growing up. We knew it sucked, but it was so comical that we had fun with it, and we enjoyed the challenge of figuring out how to at least play for 10-15 mins and felt we were getting our quarters worth. But yes, you could do a half court shot, and literally out run the ball to the basket while it floated in the air, get your own rebound, and do a “Ska-dunk” shot it appears to say. Just ridiculous, but somehow it still pulled us in. I guess we were more easily entertained back in those days, and didn’t fully understand how pitiful some of these games were. Some still hold up today and are fun to revisit and laugh about. Others, we just say “wow”, I can’t believe how much we played this back in the day!

[@bananonymouslastname5693]

I miss the days of Schnucks having arcade games and a video section. I remember saving up and getting my Zelda II and Milon's Secret Castle there! Super Basketball is brutal. The arcade Double Dribble that succeeded it sucks, too. Having to press a button for each dribble is insane. That has to be the worst arcade pcb I own.

[@Fortefyre]

Was Shnucks a regional thing?

[@bananonymouslastname5693]

@@Fortefyre yes, they're a grocery store chain based out of St Louis.

[@Fortefyre]

Makes sense! I grew up in the south. Most of our grocery chains had claw machines and racing games.

[@AgdaFingers]

Some of the wrestler mugshots in Bigfoot Joe look like they were lobotomized.

[@Fortefyre]

Right?!

[@pjw5328]

As an old arcade rat from the mid-80s through the 90s, these are some of the games I personally swore off after only a few plays: Double Dragon 3: as others have mentioned, basically the first game to ever have microtransactions, which might have been *barely* tolerable if the game itself wasn't absolute garbage. Jail Break: All these other Konami games, and you somehow missed my least-favorite of the lot! The Main Event was admittedly pretty terrible too, though. Warp Warp: This game sucked more than any game that had ever sucked before. I'm getting the shivers just thinking about it again. Mega Man, the Power Battles: Basically Mega Man done Street Fighter II style, where you just skip the stages and have a bunch of 1v1 firefights with the boss robots. It always felt completely pointless to me, but then I always found the boss battles the least-interesting part of the real Mega Man games anyway. Beast Busters: Okay, this game wasn't "bad," it was just brutally hard, on top of being quite gross and disgusting by 1990 standards, full of zombies and monsters and mutated animals that all fragged into bloody chunks when you shot them. It was too much for 12 year old me; I tried it once and never went back to it. Skull & Crossbones: A pirate-themed beat-em-up in 1989 should have been impossible to screw up, but Atari somehow managed to do it thanks mostly to its sluggish and over-complicated controls. Venture: Speaking of awful controls. I never saw this in the arcade as a kid, but my friend had it on Colecovision and I played it there and later on MAME, and I thought it was fun. Then I started seeing it pop up at classic arcade shows and got to try the original, and holy mother of god does it have the worst joystick I've ever used in my life. Like, no wonder that game had a reputation for being so difficult back in 1981 - the joystick is so stiff and unresponsive that you can barely even get your character to move when he needs to, let alone aim your arrows.

[@Fortefyre]

Jail Break was INSANE to me, like Insanely horrible lmao. I rated it a D though, I made it pretty far, but didn't think it was worth a TOTAL F lol. I'm hoping to expand my arcade knowledge, most of my experience involves vertical shooters.

[@bananonymouslastname5693]

I really like and have cleared on 1 credit both Haunted Castle and Gradius II, though I can concede that they are pretty absurdly difficult. Some that I think are bad- West Story- it's just a clone of Blood Bros, but now with obscene slow-down! Nastar/Rastan II- Rastanis awesome . Its sequel is a cartoony mess. Rough Ranger- it's a Rolling Thunder clone that plays well enough, but the music is horrific.

[@Fortefyre]

Jesus Christ lmao

[@tidepoolclipper8657]

On a side note, the PlayStation has bad versions of Gauntlet Legends and San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing.

[@Fortefyre]

Yikes!

[@bildo1977]

The Japanese version of Dark Adventure was a better game. It borrowed the power up system from Gradius, and allowed the characters to have access to projectile based weapons like crossbows, lasers, bazookas, grenades, and so on…. 🙂 Oh, and FIGHT! WIN A GAME!

[@Fortefyre]

Yeah I don't know why I didn't play the Japanese version, they yanked all the coin deaths too lol.

[@bildo1977]

@@Fortefyre The European version is like that as well. The North American version has these weapons, but you don’t start with them because you have to find them.

[@farcry223]

I've always tried to use MAME but I can't get it to work properly

[@Fortefyre]

MAME is moody, use retroarch

[@farcry223]

@@Fortefyre thanks for the tip

[@Fortefyre]

You bet, add me on Discord if you have any questions, it's easier. Fortefyre is my username there, but I have it messages turned off for those who aren't friends with me.

[@mikeburkhart8336]

Spy Hunter 2 was terrible,it took everything that was fun about the original game and tossed it into the trash. Unfocused controls,they add the slasher weapon to your car,but it was worthless because you had to get so close to an enemy car to use it,you ended up crashing into it and losing more often then not. A totally unworthy sequel to a great arcade game.

[@Fortefyre]

I should make a video about sequels, hell I could probably make about 5.

[@RoqueFortStu]

Polybius would be on this list if it was real

[@Fortefyre]

Or would the programming keep me from talking about it? :)

[@siegfriedc2332]

I legit didn't know there were arvade games that lock you from continuing. Sounds atrocious. I'd be more likely to use more money to continue a game if i were enjoying it. If i experienced that, i'd just not bother with that game ever again.

[@Fortefyre]

I've learned it's the Konami curse. Almost every arcade game from them from 1986 onwards does it.

[@siegfriedc2332]

@@Fortefyre Trying to imagine how different my arcade experiences would've been had the HotD and Time Crisis games done that (though older me can beat some TC games with one credit).

[@Fortefyre]

I can comfortably tell you I would never ever touch them again!

[@marccaselle8108]

Hainted caslltle is so hard, i could not beat the first level.

[@Fortefyre]

I made it to level 3. I was not happy.

[@billcook4768]

Me? Defender. Too damn hard.

[@Fortefyre]

Most Williams games were hard like that for no reason.

[@jeffdaigle5487]

Does anyone remember king of the monsters? It was like rip off fighting game with monsters. It reminded me of Godzilla and rampage.

[@Fortefyre]

Yeah King of the Monsters is dope!

[@tidepoolclipper8657]

As for arcade games that aren't bad, but you might not want to spend the time on; Hard Drivin' and Race Drivin' are more akin to driving simulators. They weren't bad for the time, but there's not much reason to play them on arcade anymore. If you must play Race Drivin'; the Saturn version has superior performance. Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dream is plenty playable and has nice animations. But it still feels like a rough draft for Alpha 2 and 3. Zero Wing on Genesis has the superior soundtrack depiction and more forgiving difficulty. Original Mortal Kombat on arcade is fine, but Mortal Kombat 2 and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 overshadow the game. Dead or Alive 1 was surpassed by the sequel on arcade, the Japanese release version on Dreamcast, and especially the XBox version. Similar case with Darkstalkers 1. Tekken 2 is an undeniable refinement over the original, but still surpassed by Tekken 3. Tekken Tag Tournament on arcade is very good, but the game looks so good running on the same engine as Tekken 4 at home consoles. Virtua Fighter 2 patched up a few things on the original, but the series finally started to take off with VF3. Gauntlet Legends on N64 has a camera that now turns, contains a hub world, and gave a much needed inventory system. The Dreamcast version is the nicest to look at, has the hub world from the N64 port, and gameplay elements carried over from Dark Legacy. Not to mention has the best physics out of all versions. Street Fighters 2: Championship Edition is in an awkward middle ground between World Warrior and Street Fighter 2 Turbo (Turbo: Hyper Fighting on the SNES). Heck Special Champion on Genesis is based on Turbo. Super Missile Attack, Millipede, Super Zaxxon and especially Super Xevious are mostly for those who mastered the original. Scramble predates Gradius. Challenging, but a decent little game that still feels unique. That said, it clearly isn't on the same level as stuff like Gradius, R-Type, 1940s series, Thunder Force 3 & 4, MUSHA, Soldier Blade, Parodius, UN Squadron, Ikaruga, and Radiant Silvergun. Nintendo Versus games back in the day are just slightly modified versions of their home console games.

[@Fortefyre]

Hard drivin' on the Genesis is horrid.

[@arcadeguy781]

Any Exidy game made in the late 80s (Cheyanne, Crossbow, and Chiller)

[@Fortefyre]

Oh god.

[@arcadeguy781]

@@Fortefyre Chiller is the worst

[@Fortefyre]

Easily!

[@Loffter]

Gauntley is worse, your health is also the timer. so getting hit makes you lose time. It's aweful, idk why people love it.

[@Fortefyre]

Oh god lol

[@Lastjustice]

One of the best of the Gauntlet series is Gantlet 4 on Genesis. It's 4 players, which you gain equipment by finding it or buying it from shops. Some shops are hidden in the towers. You can equip the heal ring which stops your health from going down, and prevents you from taking damage to pain titles. You leave that on most of the time, as keeping your maxed out is much easier then. Sometimes you need put on the mirror ring to make trick shots to access secret areas. The float ring hovers certain titles, so you can get some secrets with it. The fight ring allows you hit other players(There's a versus mode that allows you use your password saves to fight each other.), but it lets you swing your melee attack at will, which let's you kill death with it rather than be drained of a bunch of health till it disappears. There's multiple endings, which depending on what each of your party opts to do , how it plays out. I really enjoy the sound track of it as well. It's not a super long game, as there's 5 towers to clear, but clearing each tower and finding all the secrets might take you a bit without looking them up.

[@bartsullivan4866]

KOF94 was hard as shit. Never could be Rugal at the end just a cheap SOB. I liked the idea of taking teams from other games and putting them in 1 fighting game. It just seemed like Capcom games were much easier and more forgiving than the KOF franchise where doing a super move was damn near impossible.

[@Fortefyre]

RUGAL IS A COCKSWAIN, absolute toolbench of a boss.

[@bartsullivan4866]

Yeah truly is for sure where you want to break the machine ​@Fortefyre

[@tylerd4884]

I actually think that’s not a bad representation of gauntlets gameplay with better graphics and slightly slow down so yeah if you don’t like that definitely don’t play gauntlet

[@Fortefyre]

I probably still will!

[@tylerd4884]

lol good luck, I think you’ll be shocked how much like Gauntlet that game actually was

[@MarquisDeSang]

To avoid something, they should be in my way. I haven't seen an arcade in the past 20 years.

[@Fortefyre]

Stumble into one if you get a chance!

[@BrinkofSanity]

Shout out to Smash TV which is really fun but takes a million dollars to beat

[@Fortefyre]

Facts lmao

[@g4z-kb7ct]

Space King (the first one) is a Taito game and Taito originally wrote Space Invaders. Anyway you can't rely on most of the space invaders emulation to be correct. Many of them are using a flawed version of discrete audio emulation so the bullets sound really bad. Play one of the other versions that uses samples as no one can figure out how to fix the discrete emulation (the emu author got sick of negative feedback and quit the 'skene' permanently mid work-in-progress) and as time passes it's getting less and less likely that anyone will step up and fix it, thus solidifying permanent embarrassment to the entire emulation team forever.

[@Fortefyre]

Do you have a source for this? Because Leijac 100% released Space King 1 and 2 (known as Part II), for Konami (who developed it)

[@g4z-kb7ct]

@@Fortefyre MAME source code is the source for anything arcade-related. The hardware of Space King is the standard Taito Space Invaders L-board (not the 3-board color version). Further evident by the rom at location H matching the Taito Space Invaders code. Space King 2 is different hardware, essentially Stern Astro Invader hardware.... Stern and Konami were in bed together in the early 80's ;-)

[@Fortefyre]

Alright so Leijac stole boards and rebranded it theirs? Lmao.

[@g4z-kb7ct]

@@Fortefyreit's possible but maybe they licensed it... a lot of companies did that just to get a piece of the pie.

[@Fortefyre]

MONEY

[@Christophersanchez1326]

Quarter pumpers. Thats how the money was maid. 😤😮‍💨😞

[@Fortefyre]

Big facts!

[@shenanitims4006]

What arcade games I hated? You (luckily) never played it, but Gauntlet. Just not fun watching hordes of enemies whittle down your health while the timer whittled it down too! Factor in the danger of friendly fire, and it was a wasted quarter. Also Goonies. Granted, I’ve never seen the (apparently) beloved film, which may explain why that horrible game showed up at every beach convenience store despite none of my friends ever being excited about it. We could discuss how cool Narcs was. Or Street Fighter 2. But no one talked about Goonies unless it was the only option. Coming in the ignoble third-place would be Tubin’. Now, I lived in FL, so “tubes” might not have been “a thing” for me since I could essentially ride one whenever I wanted, but the controls separating the hand pushes and such just always annoyed me. Dishonorable mentions going out to the beat ‘em up genre et al. But mainly Final Fight, Golden Axe, Altered Beast type ones. Just monotonous.

[@Fortefyre]

Ugh. Yikes. I don't look forward to it then. Lol.

[@roihu3m]

anything made by midway.

[@Fortefyre]

I've learned that the hard way!

[@asukacross]

Another great video! Revolution X. absolute shit game. Even Aerosmith couldn't save it.

[@Fortefyre]

SUCH a coin eater.

[@Crimefighter]

What ? Double Dragon 3 did not make the list???

[@Fortefyre]

I haven't played it yet! I've only played Double Dragon 1 and 2 :)

[@Crimefighter]

@@Fortefyre some of your choices in the follow up video are pretty questionable....LordBBH does a better job at outting bad arcade games in his Push to Reject streams.

[@tempestfennac9687]

I remember trying the Silent Hill arcade game once and being unimpressed by it; it just felt dull compared to House of the Dead (I remember another Terminator light gun game which I played at the same time which was similarly disappointing; I can't remember its name or find anything about it on Wikipedia but it was a relatively modern game rather than the '90s Terminator game).

[@Fortefyre]

Sounds like Terminator Salvation which was 100% was a coin-eater.

[@tempestfennac9687]

@@Fortefyre That looks very familiar thanks. Wikipedia only seems to mention the console game with that name, which was a 3rd person shoot-'em-up.

[@Fortefyre]

It does! It happened to be in the arcade at the mall my parents used to force me to go to. It's the Terminator game that makes you hold a physical light-gun rifle, and has a grenade launcher button that kind of words because some lazy arcade tech didn't bother calibrating the gun.

[@tempestfennac9687]

@@Fortefyre Sounds like a shame it wasn't set up properly. :(

[@SevenFalcons]

Bad Dudes by Data East is one i played recently and also hated, maybe i just never was an 80's kid but it tries so bad to be cool when it may just be one of the most boring side-view beat 'em ups out there, the NES version isnt any better either

[@Fortefyre]

Bad Dudes and 2 Crude Dudes are both just...jank games.

[@billcook4768]

Let’s face it, you just aren’t a bad enough dude to rescue president Ronnie. Time to git gud

[@Fortefyre]

I'll have you know I enjoyed my burger with the President :P

[@imaxjunior6531]

Gradius 2 still way better than Gradius 3. Gradius 3 is Ridiculously hard.

[@Fortefyre]

I've dreaded it. I own it on SNES :(

[@blademaster7879]

The SNES Gradius 3 is fair and much easier. The Arcade version, brutal is the best description.

[@DrEd-th2lu]

I only play 80’s games. After that they almost all suck….

[@Fortefyre]

Eh, there are plenty out there, you just have to find the right one :)

[@DannyP-dm1pw]

Come on now. SF2, MK, NBA Jam, Blitz, Baseball Stars 1 and 2, King of the Monsters, Crazy Taxi, Tekken, list goes on and on. It's more you just being stuck in your specific nostalgia bubble and hating over seeing the ground breaking games that came post 80's. And I'm a 80's addict and love all the classics. But yeah Chrono trigger, Earthbound, Final Fantasy 3, Bushido Blade, Twisted Metal, Shenmue, Metal Gear, Halo, Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, Mario World, F-Zero, I can go for days. 80's and 90's were golden times and the 6th generation 1998-2004 across the board probably the greatest era of creativity ever in gaming from Half Life to Deus Ex, Warcraft, Grim Fandago, Tony Hawk, Ocarina of Time. All the legendary PC FPS games from Quake III Arena to Unreal 99. I'm a hardcore 80s nut even get Atari 2600 Homebrew games and have Atari hooked up to main tv but I gotta be realistic there. If you want short pick up and play games the 80's arcades are where it's at though.

[@GR8119]

I hated G.I. Joe. It looked good, but even with 4 players going thru $20 each, u still can't beat that damn game, WAYYY too many enemies!!! 😂😂😂

[@Fortefyre]

I'll have to check it out!

[@bananonymouslastname5693]

GI Joe is awesome aside from the fact that Snake Eyes can talk in it. I have the real arcade pcb for it, and have beaten it in 2 credits. It's only 3 (long) stages.

[@GR8119]

@@bananonymouslastname5693 You beat it by yourself?!?!??! As many shots and bombs they throwing at you?!?!

[@robbyf3894]

Haunted Castle requiring money to play should be a crime. Game is awful.

[@Fortefyre]

Absolutely aweful! Konami Arcade games in general were just cursed to no end.

[@Phoenix2312]

@Fortfyre Just seen that "Konami" Gauntlet Clone... Much as I would probably emulate that - I would NEVER pay money to play it! Gauntlet 1 and 2 are very simple little games... They are not complicated, they dont need a plot... You pick one of four adventurers and work your way through various mazes... Very Simple! Very enjoyable, very easy to understand... Just get a High Score! It also helps Gauntlet that teh Controls are SIMPLE! Shoot or Run into Enemies for Hand To Hand... THAT SIMPLE! What I saw on that Konami Clone.. THEY MAJORLY OVERCOMPLICATED IT ALL! WOW! Dont let that game put you off trying Gauntlet... Gauntlet is simple... Basic, but also a good time for a short play!

[@Fortefyre]

I'll bear that in mind!

[@billcook4768]

I generally adore my sister-in-law, but we once almost got into a physical fight playing Gauntlet. There was a bit of a disagreement over which way our party should go. Any game that can generate that level of passion must be a good one.

[@Fortefyre]

Family infighting from video gaming is the meta I need in my life, Jerry Springer really missed that one :P

[@Phoenix2312]

@@billcook4768 My sisters were never big on Computers and arcades... So I never had that - Then again, I am kind of glad... My Younger Sister is only 4'11 tall... some 40 years later... She has never grown... But when she worked as a Barmaid and someone got a bit "Touchy Feely"... A Local Amateur Rugby Player... ... A Broken Arm, in three places, busted Nose and 2 Fractured ribs! Yeah, you dont mess with the small ones! God I was 12 and she was 11 when she gave me a WWF DDT and left me out cold, she almost killed me getting a clothes line wrong and smashing into my windpipe... Yeah, I AM BLOOD Y GLAD she never got into gaming!!!

[@AlvinHammond-j5h]

No ware close to gauntlet

[@JustinGeekNerd]

random comment to help algorithm

[@Fortefyre]

Thank you for your contribution XD

[@radiantansel202]

Please don't put misinformation out there, while most of these are true, situations like Dark Adventure and ESPECIALLY Gradius and really damn wrong. Dark Adventure was made (alongside nearly 99% of Konami's US catalog... and probably every company out there in the west as well) to be done as a 100% coin munching machine, friendly reminder the West never had any sort of real respect or culture towards gaming like other countries in Europe or Japan did, it was just a toy, something to distract your kid on while everyone was eating at the McDonalds, Dark Adventure in Japan had a much better gameplay, wasn't melee based but shooting based, and wasn't time based either. Now my BIGGEST PROBLEM with the video is the segment about Gradius II, it's just full of misinformation, you literally made a third life in barely half of stage 1, the game is probably the easiest out of Arcade Gradius titles, Salamander and Spin-off combined, do a better research when talking about games instead of just putting skill issue bias on things like these, makes people go away when this is the first thing they might see.

[@Fortefyre]

*grabs notepad* play japanese versions of every Konami arcade game. I did play the japanese version of Gradius 2, even tried to save state to the 3rd level, didn't find it emotionally sustainable. Vulcan Venture I made it all the way through.

[@radiantansel202]

And sorry if I seemed a bit hostile, there is a lot of people going out there trying to look smart, I don't even know anymore, thanks for taking the notes. For Haunted Castle, there is also another revision (Ver.K iirc?) which is easier, you don't get killed every 2 bat bites for example, is still a nightmare to play tho. But as for Gradius, yeah, Vulcan Venture is way easier (Surprisingly an example where the opposite of difficulty happened, for some reason), but still@@Fortefyre

[@Fortefyre]

I will NEVER knock someone for being passionate about what they believe in, and it really means alot to me that you took the time to express your emotions about these time cherished games. I hope you do enjoy my other content, such as Generations or the Ready Go Gaming Show (start at episode 7 if you do, I was poop at editing back then lmao)

[@radiantansel202]

@@Fortefyre And I appreciate your point of view! Thanks, I actually will start checking out your other content, because I can also see some interest at the end of the day about all of this, which is what matters the most to me

[@ravensmadhouse75]

Double Dragon 3. That game was complete shit.

[@Fortefyre]

Oh no! I've never played it!

[@fourwingsweepa1705]

NBA jam was a money muncher

[@bruceaskew2107]

When I was younger the older guys use to gamble in the arcade on NBA jam on me , they would cash out big money back then and they would just keep giving me hands of quarters 🤣🤣

[@Fortefyre]

The hustle is real lmao

[@bruceaskew2107]

I never beat haunted castle 😡

[@Fortefyre]

Most people don't without cheats lmao.

[@mresturk9336]

Beating Haunted Castle is viable on Revision K. Most of the time though you are going to find Revision M cabinets: the quarter muncher version where everything but bats kills you in two hits.

[@thatonebritishidiot3037]

7:53 that's...that's just a straight up zaku from gundam lmao, konami struggle with originality, huh?

[@Fortefyre]

That was the way of designing back then, what even is a lawsuit lmao.

[@METAL1ON]

Gradius 2 is in no way hard seriously. You want hard try Gradius 3. Your criticisms of Gradius are way off you just were not any good at them. Pretty much every game going only gave you three lives too so what's the problem? you, this is a terrible video.

[@Fortefyre]

Did you play Gradius 2 in the arcade?

[@METAL1ON]

@@Fortefyre Yes and finished it couldn't get past stage 10 on Gradius 3 though.

[@Fortefyre]

Something tells me you're really great ar schmups lol. Have you tried Vasara?

[@METAL1ON]

@@Fortefyre I still play Gradius 2 to this day. kzbin.info/www/bejne/h6fcdHugrMeiaJo

[@METAL1ON]

@@Fortefyre Never heard of it I have been a Gradius fan since Nemesis 1 came out on the MSX when I was 13. That said I could only play the arcade versions once a blue moon since there were only a couple of arcades near me. The first time I actually got to play Graduis 2 was on an American air force base in the UK when I was 16 and within an hour or so of playing I did make it to the 5th stage. It was a couple of years later when I found another machine and finished it.