Favorite MAME games of each category?

[honkey]

Now that I have got MAME full configured, I have been sampling a lot of games. I was wondering what games are the most popular of each category. Here is my list:

Shoot 'em ups: Metal Slug 3
Fighter: Street Fighter II: World Warrior (although, I am really bad at it with a keyboard)
"Classic": Galaga
Beat 'em ups: Battletoads
Light Gun: Point Blank (I wish Time Crisis was playable though)
Sports: Tecmo Bowl (Blitz isn't playable for me and I haven't figured out the DC emulator)
Vertical Shooter: DoDonPachi (Had never played before yesterday... Insanely addictive)
Puzzle: I've got nothing

A lot of these arcade games I never actually played in an arcade since they were before my time, so here I am trying to figure out what is good. What is your list? Feel free to add more genres.

[Cynicaster]

Now that I have got MAME full configured, I have been sampling a lot of games. I was wondering what games are the most popular of each category. Here is my list:

Shoot 'em ups: Metal Slug 3
Fighter: Street Fighter II: World Warrior (although, I am really bad at it with a keyboard)
"Classic": Galaga
Beat 'em ups: Battletoads
Light Gun: Point Blank (I wish Time Crisis was playable though)
Sports: Tecmo Bowl (Blitz isn't playable for me and I haven't figured out the DC emulator)
Vertical Shooter: DoDonPachi (Had never played before yesterday... Insanely addictive)
Puzzle: I've got nothing

A lot of these arcade games I never actually played in an arcade since they were before my time, so here I am trying to figure out what is good. What is your list? Feel free to add more genres.

Shoot 'em ups: Robotron 2084

Fighter: Tekken 2

"Classic": All of them

Beat 'em ups: Final Fight

Light Gun: none

Sports: Golden Tee

Vertical Shooter: DoDonPachi

Puzzle: Klax

[brad808]

My favorites change very often but as of today probably:

Shooting: Robotron 2084
Fighter: Super Street Fighter II X: Grandmaster Challenge
Classic: Burger Time
Beat 'em ups: Aliens vs Predator
Light Gun: Area 51/ Maximum Force
Sports: NBA Hangtime
Vertical Shooter: Ketsui
Puzzle: Tetris: The Grandmaster 2

[Necro]

Shoot 'em ups: WTF is in this category?  So many things could be in here...not really sure.
Fighter: To be determined
"Classic": Burgertime
Beat 'em ups: Aliens
Light Gun: none (No lightgun yet)
Sports: Track and Field
Vertical Shooter: Space Invaders (Does that count?)
Puzzle: Tetris or Trog (Is trog a puzzle game?)


Also, where did you get these categories from?  BEcause one thing I hate is the MAME 'category' files categories...they kind of are 'lacking' imho.  But, that's me.    

[honkey]

Shoot 'em ups: WTF is in this category?  So many things could be in here...not really sure.
Fighter: To be determined
"Classic": Burgertime
Beat 'em ups: Aliens
Light Gun: none (No lightgun yet)
Sports: Track and Field
Vertical Shooter: Space Invaders (Does that count?)
Puzzle: Tetris or Trog (Is trog a puzzle game?)


Also, where did you get these categories from?  BEcause one thing I hate is the MAME 'category' files categories...they kind of are 'lacking' imho.  But, that's me.    

I just picked genres based on what I was most interested in hearing about. There are a lot of games I just overlook because there are so many, I wanted to see what the most popular of various genres would be.

[RetroBorg]

Shoot 'em ups: Defender

Fighter: Karate Champ

"Classic": Mr. Do!

Beat 'em ups: Double Dragon

Light Gun: Police Trainer

Sports: Track and Field

Vertical Shooter: Juno First

Puzzle: Tetris Plus 2

[honkey]

Shoot 'em ups: Defender

Fighter: Karate Champ

"Classic": Mr. Do!

Beat 'em ups: Double Dragon

Light Gun: Police Trainer

Sports: Track and Field

Vertical Shooter: Juno First

Puzzle: Tetris Plus 2

Funny you mention Double Dragon. I really liked DD 3 on NES when I was younger, but playing that one on MAME kind of sucks. It is a little choppy even though it says 100% and the graphics are WAY worse than the first Double Dragon. Does anyone know why they changed the graphics for DD 3? I love the original Double Dragon, but the 3rd sucks!

[Paul Olson]

Shoot 'em ups: Metal Slug 3
Fighter: X-Men: Children of the Atom
"Classic": Donkey Kong
Beat 'em ups: Golden Axe
Light Gun: Area 51/ Max Force
Sports: NBA Jam
Vertical Shooter: Tempest
Puzzle: Bust A Move

[danny_galaga]

I'm pretty sure 'shoot 'em ups' or shmups are games like Raiden, Ikaruga, 1942 etc. Metal Slug I think is in the 'run n gun' genre.

So my favourite shoot em ups in mame are Raiden, 1942, Bells n Whistles, Zero Wing.

For run n gun my favourite would have to be Commando. Metal Slug is bloody excellent too, but not so great on my cocktail cab. On an interesting side-note, I'm pretty sure Commando, a run n gun, uses the 1942 'engine'. Funny how doing almost the same thing, but substituting a P38 Lightning for a commando, changes the genre...