MAME freaks: What are the best arcade games from the 90s that have never received home ports?

[MidnightRider]

Just a heads up, with me, this'll be mostly beat 'em ups.

Armored Warriors - Another Capcom beat 'em up. Kind of a take on Cyborg Justice, but with giant mechs, and easier controls.

Asterix - European Konami beat 'em up, centered on picking up enemies(what direction you press when you do determines your throw). Also kind of difficult, I think you can actually game over, regardless of coins.

Battle Circuit - Another Capcom beat 'em up, of the wackier variety.

Battletoads - Very different from the console versions(gory too).

Bubble Memories: The Story of Bubble Bobble III - only arcade exclusive Bubble Bobble game.

Bucky O'Hare - Konami beat 'em up/run 'n gun hybrid.

Denjin Makai - Beat 'em up, one of the best. This is kinda tough because it does have a half ass port on the Super Famicom(which is still one of the better ones on the console) called "Ghost Chaser Densei."

Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder - Only arcade exclusive Golden Axe.

Guardians/Denjin Makai II - Probably the greatest arcade exclusive beat 'em up.

Dungeon Magic - Another beat 'em up, isometric view, kind of like the lovechild of Landstalker & Streets of Rage. It is on a compilation for the PS2 though.

Mega Man: The Power Battles; & Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters - Basically Mega Man, if they mashed some of the games together, and eliminated everything but the boss battles.

Metamorphic Force - Konami beat 'em up that uses the X-Men engine, and introduces were-creatures as playable characters.

Muscle Bomber Duo: Ultimate Team Battle - Tag team version of Saturday Night Slam Masters.

Night Slashers - Horror beat 'em up, one of the best arcade exclusives.

Nitro Ball - Run 'n gun & pinball combination.

Osman - Arabian themed Strider clone.

Riding Fight - beat 'em up that takes place mostly on hover boards. Has an effect similar to SNES' mode 7.

Ring of Destruction: Slam Master II - European fighting game sequel(as in no pinning/submission this time) to Saturday Night Slam Masters

Rollergames - Completely different than the NES game, it's like a beat 'em up sport.

Shadow force - 6 button Technos arcade exclusive beat 'em up, that involves playing as ninja who can possess the bodies of their enemies.

Snow Bros. 2 - The original got ported to the NES, Game boy and Genesis, but this remains arcade exclusive.

Spider-Man: The Video Game - Beat 'em up by Sega.

Super Dodgeball/Kunio no Nekketsu Toukyuu Densetsu - Probably the only arcade exclusive Nekketsu/Kunio game, large sprites, fighting game style super moves, optional defeated character recruitment, it's pretty good.

The Simpsons; & X-Men - Unless you're counting X-Box Live. Konami beat 'em ups.

Undercover Cops - Another beat 'em up, and again, it did have a Super Famicom port. If you go for this, be sure to also get, and only ever use, the "Alpha Renewal Version." The worldwide release was basically an unfinished demo(a lot of moves missing among other issues) compared to the Japanese release, so "Alpha Renewal" fixes that

Vendetta; and Violent Storm - XYXZYZ brought up Crime Fighters, these are it's sequels(Crime Fighters, Vendetta, Violent Storm, in that order). Violent Storm plays like a Capcom beat 'em up, but adds jump attack cancels into other jump attacks, and hitting enemies while they're on the ground(which is a staple of the Crime Fighters trilogy).

Warrior Blade: Rastan Saga Episode III - The only arcade exclusive Rastan game, this Japan only release is similar to the Golden Axe series, but has a more impressive move set, and unique random moments between stages that can bring random luck(good or bad).

Warriors of Fate - Capcom beat 'em up, in the 3 Kingdoms, but with names changed for the U.S. release. Has a Saturn version, but that never left Japan.

Wild West C.O.W. Boys of Moo Mesa - Similar kind of run 'n gun to Sunset Riders.

WWF Wrestlefest - Probably the best licensed arcade wrestling game.

[Ed Oscuro]

The Punisher does have a Genesis port, but it goes in the 50-100 dollar range these days and imo isn't worth it so you're better off just getting it on MAME

I will check it out all the same, thanks for the heads up! I'm kind of expecting it to be a different game actually, but maybe my usual expectation that "Capcom didn't bother with ports" is wrong here. I know there's some SNES ports (or something of the same name) of a couple beat-em-ups as well.

Just a heads up, with me, this'll be mostly beat 'em ups.

Excellent run-down here. Quite a few of these titles have seen some discussion lately on the Shmups Forum boards.

The Simpsons doesn't have a sterling reputation - I had the chance to play a real (aging, with some graphics faults) machine some years back and just never got around to it. Konami were uneven with their licensed titles; some are amazing (I'd include GI Joe and Aliens in this category, although Aliens is definitely more of a "Konami original" with shrinky-dink aliens and all kinds of other wackiness) and some were bad. If it has pizza in it, be wary...

If you are going to mention beat-em-ups and Konami, it's probably worth mentioning that the Japanese (possibly European?) release of Metamorphic Force has much kinder mechanics and no boss rush, and many players feel this improves it.

I think any list of Konami beat-em-ups should include Gaiapolis. Much different format than most beltscrollers, but still plays very well.

About Shadow Force - I thought this was decent too but somebody made a comment that I realized is true:

What I don't like about Shadow Force is that it's actually a vs. 1 enemy game disguised as a belt fighter. Other opponents will wait patiently for their turn when you're busy fighting a comrade.
It's trying to bring the genre closer to Street Fighter, but it cuts the nerve of the genre with this, as crowd control / managing many opponents at once is an integral part of the gameplay experience imo.
I still find it ambitious and fascinating, just not very fun to play.

Other games worth mentioning here: Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon (some kind of Cave / Toaplan lineage in this one, worth a look just for the art).

Armored Warriors also reportedly has little room for error - not more difficulty in execution, but much higher penalties for getting hit. Then there's Battle Circuit at the other end of the spectrum (again reportedly).
Light Bringer/ Dungeon Magic (Taito) is interesting too - tilted isometric perspective brawling. I personally like the brutal single-screen gun-slinging shenanigans of Dead Connection far more, but the fantasy game is neat too.

Right now I think the only arcade brawler I have is The Combatribes, unless you take into account home console ports of something like Cyberbots or the SNES port of King of the Monsters.

[MidnightRider]

Combatribes has an SNES port. If I remember correctly, it doesn't have all the moves the arcade version does, and typical of pre-MK2 era SNES, there's no blood.

Actually, The Simpsons is often fondly remembered, from what I've seen.

I'll be the first to admit, I'm not very observant. All the same, I had some fun every time I went through Shadow Force.

[Detonator]

I'm not very familiar with the 90's arcade games but I think Raiden Fighters series is pretty damn good. I doubt there was a home conversion.

[Leo_A]

I'm not very familiar with the 90's arcade games but I think Raiden Fighters series is pretty damn good. I doubt there was a home conversion.

The entire Raiden Fighters series of three games is available on the Raiden Fighters compilation for the Xbox 360. And it's a retail release to boot. One of the few classic gaming surprises that the Xbox 360 has provided at retail.

The only part of the Raiden franchise that doesn't have a home conversion that could be coined arcade accurate would be the excellent spin off from the Raiden franchise called Viper Phase-1. It's a shame too since not only is it a great game but they probably could've easily brought it home with the Raiden Fighters series since it ran on the same hardware. We don't even have a stripped down home port of that one from back in the day on a system like the Playstation.

Several of the games in this thread have arcade accurate ports or emulations at home. And one that has been mentioned in here just got removed thanks to the Xbox One. Killer Instinct 3 or whatever the new game is called also includes an arcade conversion of the original Killer Instinct.

So another can be crossed off the list.

[Rickstilwell1]

64th Street: A Detective Story is a Final Fight type of game that hasn't been on a console. It's by Jaleco.

Oh and nobody mentioned the 1993 game, Sega Sonic the Hedgehog.

[Leo_A]

Oh and nobody mentioned the 1993 game, Sega Sonic the Hedgehog.

I recently watched a play through. I don't think we're missing much with this one. Way too scripted and it didn't look like it controlled very well. Granted it's a track-ball game and I'm not sure how it was being controlled via emulation, but it didn't look too suited for its native control or a modern analog stick.

Pretty graphics though.

[Jorpho]

Indeed, I recall that the official word from Sega was that the game was not included in Sonic Gems simply because it wouldn't be the same experience without the trackball. (But then, there have been a great many other arcade games released on consoles despite originally being designed to use a trackball.)

[Rickstilwell1]

I found that game kind of exciting just for the fact that it was about keeping moving forward or else an obstacle is going to get you. I've only ever played it with an analog stick but even with that method there's only a couple obstacles that are that hard to get past. Most of the game is very doable via analog stick.

[Mangar]

JThe Simpsons; & X-Men - Unless you're counting X-Box Live. Konami beat 'em ups.

The Simpsons received a home port on the Commodore 64 actually. May have been the one of, if not the last U.S Released C-64 Games. I'm very familiar with it, because I was running a pirate (or warez if you must) group at the time, and I was literally beaten on releasing this first by 4 hours. Sad.....

As for the topic: Not sure if this was the 90's, but my favourite mame arcade game by far that never received a home port is - Mr. Do's Run Run. I absolutely love it.

[Jorpho]

The Simpsons received a home port on the Commodore 64 actually.

There was also an official PC port at the time, which of course looked rather nicer than the C64 version, but was still missing some of the features from the arcade version, like combo attacks.

[Rickstilwell1]

I just realized another fun arcade game that never received a home port: Space Invaders '95.

[Leo_A]

Space Invaders '95 is on Taito Legends 2 for the Xbox/PS2/PC and Taito Memories Gekan for the PS2.

[Neb6]

Starblade was released for home systems, but none of them had the horsepower to replicate the original machine.

Because of that, I still consider it to be a "Not yet officially released for home systems" 90s arcade title.

And as far as I know, the MAME emulation of this game is still a bit rough around the edges.


I was also going to say Galaxian 3, but then I spotted this:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/572918-ga...ages/box-11824

[Leo_A]

Starblade in arcade form is on the Japanese Wii Virtual Console.



And apparently it's on iOS as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namco_Arcade_(iOS)

[OrdinaryOtaku]

Looking for some good 90's games that are still MAME exclusive, for example: Gaiapolis.

The MVS Puzzle Bobble games never received home ports, and they're pretty kewl. I suggest playing them.

[BetaWolf47]

Gaia Crusaders: Really great combo-oriented beatemup. From the same developer as Sengoku 3 for Neo-Geo (although I'm not sure if that got an AES release).

X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter got horrible PSX ports, and the Saturn versions were never released in English. Check those gems out on MAME.

By the way, about the Taito Legends games... here's a kicker: they're just MAME frontends. The original MAME programmer was directly involved in them, and on the PC versions, the folders have the same eight character names as the MAME ROMs. I'm almost certain the actual MAME emulator has overtaken Taito Legends in accuracy. That doesn't stop them from being great compilations, though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicola_Salmoria

[evildead2099]

Sega's Star Wars Trilogy: Arcade (1998). Check it out at http://segaretro.org/Star_Wars_Trilogy_Arcade