Several genuinely excellent puzzle games came out in coin-op arcade form, and each offered something different regarding gameplay. While not generally associated with high-octane arcade experiences, puzzle titles were a nice distraction from the fighting and shooting titles that dominated arcades at that time. They were also quite attractive to players who weren't keen on guts n' gore.
Today we're looking back at ten truly awesome coin-op puzzle games from the past. We're focusing specifically on titles that added something new and exciting to the puzzle formula that made them worth your investment.
Updated October 10th, 2022, by Chris Sanfilippo: Game preservation has come a long way in the past few years. For instance, compilation titles like Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium have given new life to long-forgotten puzzle games like Three Wonders and Pnickies. Furthermore, Hamster Corporation continues to re-launch rare arcade classics through its Arcade Archives series, including Money Puzzle Exchanger, Qix, and Soldam. So we decided to recognize these titles in our latest update.
15 Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo
What a classic! Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo, Capcom's ingenious take on the puzzle game formula, involved building up crystal blocks of a particular color, then shattering them with a circular crystal to inflict massive damage on your opponent. The premise was shockingly simple, easy to learn, and required only quick reflexes to outpace your enemy.
The game's style is straight-up charming, taking Capcom's fighting game characters such as Ryu, Morrigan, Chun-Li, and Felicia and putting them through the Japanese super-deformed washing machine for a little extra fun. The result is a comical, light-hearted parody of the company's fighting titles, built into puzzle form.
14 Pnickies
Two years before Puzzle Fighter, Capcom launched another falling-block (or "falling blob") puzzle game in Japan. This title, Pnickies, focused on battles between angels, demons, and the magical beings called Pnickies that intervene.
In Pnickies, Players arrange jelly blocks of the same color together to form blobs. Some of these blocks contain stars in them. Once a blob contains two stars, the entire blob clears from the playfield. Furthermore, players can organize these blobs to form chains of clears.
Pnickies features gameplay that feels akin to several titles on this list. For example, the build-and-destroy aspect of Pnickies parallels the later Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo, whereas the chain combo mechanics feel reminiscent of Sega's Puyo Puyo.
13 Three Wonders: Don't Pull
Another classic Capcom title is Three Wonders, an arcade compilation that offers three unique games: a platformer called Midnight Wanderers, a scrolling shooter called Chariot, and an action-puzzle game named Don't Pull. Most gamers will recognize characters from the first two games, such as Lou from Midnight Wanderers, who appeared as an assist character in Marvel Vs. Capcom: Clash Of Super Heroes.
Don't Pull is unrelated to the Midnight Wanderers/Chariot storyline. Instead, players take on the roles of Don (a rabbit) or Pull (a squirrel) and push boxes around a maze to defeat incoming enemies. While the game instantly evokes images of Bomberman, its source material is an earlier Capcom arcade game from the eighties called Pirate Ship Higemaru.
12 Magical Drop
SNK scored a few puzzle hits on the Neo Geo arcade system, one of which was Magical Drop. What made the game especially fun was the grab n' switch mechanic that involved collecting various drops from different columns and tossing them back up into those of a similar color to score points.
SNK's tongue-in-cheek approach was all over the game, featuring anime-inspired characters and sound effects that put a distinctly Japanese spin on the game. At higher levels, the game was always challenging but never irritating.
11 Money Puzzle Exchanger
What if we told you there is a game similar to Magical Drop but with more math? Money Puzzle Exchanger is precisely that. In this game, players grab and release coins on a playfield, similar to Magical Drop, but instead of matching colors, they must match small coin amounts together to form more expensive coins.
In other words, five 1-cent coins form a 5-cent coin, two 5-cent coins form a 10-cent coin, five 10-cent coins form a 50-cent coin, two 50-cent coins form a 100-cent coin, five 100-cent coins form a 500-cent coin, and combining two 500-cent coins clears them from the playfield.
Okay, this game isn't for everyone. But if you're looking for a new challenge, Money Puzzle Exchanger is a fun time!
10 Puzzle Bobble
Puzzle Bobble was the game that kicked off a myriad of smartphone knock-offs and for a good reason. The play mechanics were deceptively simple yet required a lot of eye coordination to master. Essentially, your task is to fire a bubble of a particular color into a nest of similar bubbles to pop them and score points.
The trick was rebounding bubbles off the sides of the screen to hit their target, which sounds easier than it is. By the end of a few play sessions, your marksmanship was sure to go up. The classic Bubble Bobble feel translates well into puzzle form, too. It's a fun little game to kill an hour with.
9 Columns
In many ways, Columns was Sega's answer to Tetris, which had gone on to achieve great success on the NES. In arcade form, the game is practically identical to the Genesis version and plays like a game all its own. For example, each column has three gems that can shift to create vertical, horizontal, and diagonal directions. Eagle-eyed players could also set up cluster attacks for more points.
Columns was, in many ways, a more relaxing form of Tetris. The dreamy music, ancient setting, and increasingly fast gameplay encouraged concentration, though never at the cost of your sanity.
8 Soldam
Jaleco's Soldam is a rare gem of a puzzle game with unique gameplay. In brief, the game feels like Gomoku but with a twist. Players must line up rows of the same colored nuts horizontally to clear them from the grid. However, the only way to change a nut's color is to position it between two nuts of the same color. Since nuts descend onto the grid in groups of four, arranging these groups to strategically change colors is vital.
Besides its compelling yet simple objective, Soldam also features excellent presentation. Each game mode has a distinct aesthetic, featuring unique game pieces, detailed backgrounds, and cute chibi characters. The Sekiero mode also touts beautifully drawn fairies that evoke the sprite-based artwork of the period.
7 Tetris
Everyone at some point has played Tetris! It's the great-granddaddy of puzzle games and has gone on to captivate players all over the world. However, its simplistic style of play masked a complex game that involved fitting various shapes together to form straight lines and prevent the screen from clogging up.
It has since received ports to every platform known to man (and then some), but the arcade version of Tetris was an excellent game to spot in the arcades, especially if you didn't have it readily available for play at home. So Alexey Pajitnov certainly has a lot to be proud of.
6 Battle Balls
Terrible name notwithstanding, Battle Balls was an excellent arcade game that took the classic puzzle formula and added a slight twist. The player would drop three balls in a triangular formation down into the trough and rotate them to create color combos and score points.
The added complexity of this system made it slightly more challenging to pick up than other puzzle games already on the market, and therefore it's not as widely regarded as others on our list. However, a little practice exposes an excellent puzzle game everyone should try.
5 Klax
Klax is a puzzle game that stands entirely on its own. The gameplay is very clever, relying on a conveyor belt system that transports blocks to the edge. Players must grab these blocks in a tray and lay them out to form a line and score points. With only five spaces to work with, this can get tricky very fast.
The tray allows one to hold several blocks at once, with the topmost block being the first to dump onto the play area. As the game gets more complex, it becomes harder to plan ahead, which is where the fun comes in. In turn, Klax is one of the most imaginative puzzle games around.
4 Qix
Qix is one of those brutally tricky arcade classics worth playing at least once, if only for the experience. Developed by the husband and wife duo Randy and Sandy Pfieffer and distributed by Taito America, Qix was one of the most popular arcade titles of 1981. But, of course, the game's unique nature also contributed to its fall from favor with gamers soon after its launch. These days, Qix holds cult-hit status.
On paper, the goal behind Qix sounds straightforward. Players must draw lines throughout the playfield to form boxes while avoiding contact with the Sparx traveling the playfield frame and the giant Qix floating inside the frame. Once the playfield gets 75 percent covered by boxes, the player wins. Unfortunately, while Qix's goal is simple, its enemies are tough to beat, contributing to the game's great difficulty.
3 Puyo Puyo
This puzzle title put a spin on traditional tile-matching games with something a little different. In Puyo Puyo, players aim to clear rows of slime-like creatures called Puyo by dropping and rotating them to form combinations. The trick is that Puyo may not connect diagonally, which adds a bit of challenge to the game. Furthermore, the gameplay becomes more heated when players learn to create chain combos from these matches.
The series enjoyed longevity thanks to ports to various systems, including iOS and Android. It may not be the first puzzle game that comes to mind, but it's definitely one of the most enduring.
2 Hatris
Alexey Pajitnov is best known for creating Tetris, but he didn't stop there. Hatris is a variation of his puzzle game formula but an entirely different game altogether. The game's object is to stack hats on six character heads at the bottom of the play area.
Two hats are dropped at once and can get swapped by the player and placed where they are best suited. But, of course, that's also part of the challenge. The player must strategize and keep stacking identical hats to keep the play area clear, but it's easier than it sounds.
1 Burger Time
Who could forget Burger Time? This Data East classic is still renowned as one of the best original puzzle games for its quirky gameplay and visuals. Players must assemble hamburgers by walking the character of Chef Peter Pepper across a grid-like structure reminiscent of Donkey Kong.
Enemy foods will chase after the well-meaning Chef, forcing him to navigate around the structure and crush them using the burger ingredients or stun them with pepper shots. It's equal parts action title and puzzle game, but definitely, one that requires some practice to get good at.