While there are a lot of gamers who never got to experience it, there was something special (and something unusual) about the era of arcade gaming. Begging your parents for some change in order to get absolutely decimated in a few rounds of your favorite game was a must for many kids.
There might still be ways to get your fix of arcade action these days, but something like that isn’t going to be occurring every day. Everyone remembers how brutally hard those arcade games could be, even if they were a lot of fun, which is exactly why tons of modern games feel as if they would have been perfect for the arcade generation.
10 Elden Ring
Let’s be honest, just about any Souls game could take this spot. The games are all brutally hard and demand that you master their intricate mechanics, along with plenty of trial and error. I can’t think of a description of any game that better matches what comes to mind for most people when they think of classic arcade games.
You’d be throwing hard-earned quarters you could be putting toward a house at a machine all day just to beat a single Elden Ring boss. When you’d finally give up, some arcade ace would probably stroll up and beat that same boss first try without taking damage. Is this incredibly specific because this exact thing once happened to us? We'll let you decide.
9 Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
You could be the odd one out, but most people would absolutely love to play an arcade version of this underrated gem of the beat-em-up genre. Grabbing a group of friends to brawl through the streets of Toronto isn’t just the kind of thing an edgy youth can do for real (though that really be a good idea), it’s something that would be magical in an arcade.
Anyone who’s played this gem knows it’s packed with simple mechanics, thrilling gameplay that would definitely make the game a quarter-stealer, and some incredible music. The game may not have Michael Sera in it, but that’s a small price to pay for an awesome side-scrolling beat-em-up.
8 Cuphead
No one would be ready for a Cuphead arcade game. If this game was around back in the days of arcades, it probably would have single-handedly kept the entire industry afloat, and that’s just from the first few bosses.
We all may have beaten that first boss on the first try, something that loaded us with confidence, but things started to go downhill in a hurry. Who needs an ultra-cool, ultra-violent arcade cabinet to attract players when you’ve got 1950s-style big-band jazz?
7 Enter The Gungeon
It’s hard to believe that Enter The Gungeon wouldn’t be a smash hit in arcades. The game has so much personality, and it could easily be tweaked to allow for a more fulfilling multiplayer experience. Imagine how chaotic a four-player run would be with just the Unicorn Horn.
The game balances difficulty with reward, and it being an excellent roguelike means that it would never get old to play. That dastardly rat would probably always end up getting on everyone’s nerves, but swapping info to take him out would be reminiscent of a bygone era.
6 Super Meat Boy
Considering Super Meat Boy helped revitalize simplistic arcade-style games for modern audiences, it just makes sense to include it. No one would want to think about how much money they’d spend trying to beat the game because everyone knows it would be quite a bit.
Everyone would be drawn to the adorable and confusingly bloody little Meat Boy, and they’d stay because all they’d want to do is save the day, even if they keep running into those darn buzzsaws. Even if you aren’t amazing at platform games, you’ll always have time to get as frustrated as possible while playing an excellent game.
5 Dragon Ball FighterZ
Everyone needs a bit more Super Saiyan chaos in their lives. The best way to do that would be to throw one of the most exciting Dragon Ball games in recent years onto an arcade. While the modern style of the fighting game might not fit exactly, the game has everything a classic arcade did.
Awesome music, incredibly loud sound effects, and eye-catching super moves. Dragon Ball FighterZ would have stolen all the kids from Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter 2 in a heartbeat, especially since it would have done what many anime properties of the time did, confusing American audiences with what point of the story the actual anime is at.
4 Celeste
Who wouldn’t want such a relaxing, yet somehow incredibly stressful game to play in an arcade? It’s almost hard to not imagine watching some kid trying to collect as many strawberries as possible only for them to game over for the fifth time.
Celeste is one of those games you’d see at the arcade that looks easy, but it’s also one that you know you’d never be able to beat off a single quarter. It is deceptively difficult, but the game also might have been a good way to help players in the same way it has in the modern era.
3 Hades
Hades is one of those stylish games that you know all those cool older kids would be hogging in the back corner of the arcade. The kind of title that you’d always want a turn on, but it would always be so popular that you’d never get a chance.
Once again, the roguelike gameplay makes it a perfect choice for an arcade, and the number of different ways a score could be determined would make it ultra-competitive. Everyone would always be pawing at the screen wishing they could make the top-score list, but sometimes, a boss is never truly defeated.
2 Monster Hunter Rise
It’s hard to even begin to imagine how a game like Monster Hunter Rise couldn't have dominated the arcade scene. It’s one of those gimmicky arcades that Capcom seems to love, and while most people are always down for some competitive fishing, hunting monsters would probably be a lot more popular.
It’s easy to think of how the arcade loop would work for a game like that, and the forced replayability means players would probably always end up experiencing something new on their hunts. As far as losing goes, you can do a lot worse than being forced to cough up a few quarters after being mauled by a huge dinosaur-like creature.
1 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Does anything even need to be said about this? Whether playable with up to four people or on a massive screen with eight, Super Smash Bros Ultimate would have been the ultimate arcade experience. You’d be able to get destroyed by complete strangers without iconic levels of Nintendo lag.
With that said, you could also get really good with one of those characters you'd never heard of before playing the game and be that person that sits on the machine all day ready to take out anyone brave enough to challenge you. No one’s going to condone that behavior, but people probably will respect it.