Funny MAME games - help me complete the list

[KenToad]

I've been compiling a list of funny MAME games to add as a genre to Hyperspin. I've been hunting around the Internet and using my own experience, but I bet there are a lot that I've missed.

Help me out! I'm looking for games that are funny for adults, but I'm keeping this list pretty much SFW, so no porn games, please.

Here's what I have so far:

Anteater - a maze game where you extend an anteater's tongue deep underground
Arch Rivals - basketball precursor to NBA Jam with punching and pantsing.
Arm Wrestling – the lesser known dual screen twin of Nintendo’s Punch out
B. Rap Boys – super wacky beat ‘em up full of 90’s ‘tude
Bad Dudes versus Dragon Ninja – data East classic for the ages
Bank Panic – three doors, three buttons
Battle Circuit – Capcom sets new standards for strangeness in a beat ‘em up
Blazing Star – a Neo Geo classic with amazing Engrish and a space baby as a final boss
Bonk's Adventure/B.C. Kid - get angry and bash everything with your huge noggin in this special arcade edition that features an extensive level select and 2 player co-op
Boogie Wings – excellent and unique shooter where your plane has a hook that can pick up everything and you can run as fast as you can fly
Butasan – Pigs and Bombers – control a pig among other pigs in a field of bombs and don't get blown up
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs – an excellent beat ‘em up where you can bully dinosaurs
Calorie Kun vs Moguranian – maze game where you eat stuff and can get stuck in the tunnel because you're too fat
Captain Tomaday – you control a flying tomato shooting down vegetables
Caveman Ninja – now known as the first game in the Joe and Mac series
Chicken Shift – eggs, termites, and wooden ramps, what could go wrong?
Cosmo Gang the Video – trippy reimagining of space invaders
Crazy Climber – everybody hates you for not using the stairs
Crazy Climber 2 – still crazy after all these years
Diet Family – shooter where you struggle to not get fat
Dino Rex – wonderfully cheesy digitized graphics
Domino Man – the guy from Tapper has a nightmare
Dynamite Dux – surreal beat ‘em up starring the twisted spawn of Woody woodpecker and Daffy duck
Exterminator – you control a disembodied digitized hand killing hordes of vermin with your finger gun
Fancy World-Earth of Crisis – bubble bobble with teenyboppers
Fantastic Journey/Gokujyou Parodius – excellent and intentionally bizarre Gradius parody
Farmer’s Rebellion – like seven samurai if one farmer had killed everyone
Fire Trap – crazy climber’s dream of what he looks like
Ganbare Ginkun – stick figure minigame madness
Go Go Mr. Yamaguchi – was never localized for some reason
Gridlee – abstract suggestive graphics at their finest
Guardians of the Hood – digitized cross-fitters from Chicago live out their fantasies
Gunbarich – like Arkanoid, but weirder and with pinball flippers
Guzzler – maze game where you drink a lot of water and spit it out
Hatris – Tetris with hats
I’m Sorry – a game for Japanese businessmen who don’t like taxes
Irritating Maze, The – excellent trackball game with zany Japanese flair
Journey – from the Golden age of game design starring the digitized faces of the 80's band
Jump Kids – toddlers run the gamut of emotions in this bubble bobble clone
Last Resort – another classic Neo Geo shooter, but you are rewarded for killing innocent bystanders and get to see actual bodies plummet out of ships you destroy
Marchen Maze – I suppose a game loosely based upon Alice in Wonderland has to be pretty weird
Metro Cross – sci-fi track and field, but bad
Mug Smashers – sometimes a game’s blandness is its greatest strength
Munch Mobile/Joyful Road – not Herbie goes on a trip
Jue Zhan Tian Huang – insanely shameless transplant of fighting game sprites into a beat ‘em up
Narc – a classic game with over the top violence clearly inspired by Robocop
Night Slashers – gloriously gory beat ‘em up, the Japanese version has red blood and other changes, but the text of the cheesy story is in Japanese
Ninja Baseball Bat Man – a modern classic
Ninja Clowns – yup
Nitro Ball – sporty homage to Smash TV that is a strange mash-up of pinball and run and gun, with extra points being awarded for shooting enemies into holes or pinball drop targets
Outfoxies – twisted James Bond
Pac & Pal – Pac-Man uses harsh language against the ghosts and steals fruit from a child
Parodius Da! – first arcade title in the classic series
Pigskin 621 AD - hybrid rugby/football game that lets you punch and give your team different strategies, like "scatter" or "bad attitude"
PuLiRuLa – just play it
Quiz and Dragons: Capcom Quiz Game – hope you’re brushed up on your 20 century trivia
Rock ‘n Rage – control a rockstar raging in another dimension
Screw Loose – imagine Robotron, but all the good ideas are taken
Scud Hammer – a PG version of one of those Japanese beat-up-annoying-people games
Smash TV – this classic aged better than the Running Man movie it spoofs
Snacks ‘n Jackson – with a trackball and a sneeze button, control a clown head on a stretchy neck in this nightmare fuel of a game
Space Bomber – hilarious and fun space invaders-esque game
Space Invaders 95: The Attack of Lunar Loonies – space invaders Parodius
Stone Ball - Soccer with very large cavemen using very large clubs
Survival Arts – another in a long line of hilariously bad Mortal Kombat imitations
Tapper – control a bartender trying to send the drunks under the table before they get you
Tattoo Assassins – one of MAME’s most glorious moments was adding this absurd Mortal Kombat clone that was never widely released to the public
Timber - guy from Tapper is a lumberjack and that's okay
Time Killers - the folks who made Golden Tee try to outdo Mortal Kombat by adding dismemberment and the result is hilariously terrible
Toki – control a spitting ape in this classic
Total Carnage – smash TV sequel that featured Saddam Hussein as an alien in disguise
Trio The Punch - Never Forget Me... – poster game for so bad it’s good, I can’t tell if this was intentional or not
Uncle Poo – maze game with fart attacks, could’ve been worse, I guess
Vendetta - Asia Version U - some versions of the game supports 4 players, but the Japanese (Asia Version U) 2 player version of the game has more hilarity *Warning* In addition to the absurd levels of violence present in all versions of this game, the Asia Version U adds extra homophobia and animal abuse, so steer clear if you don't want to experience that.
Vs. Block Breaker – Arkanoid clone where the balls are hamsters that splat on the ground and walk away
Wall Street – save suicidal stockbrokers and then steal money while destroying tanks with your magic powers
Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa – what happens when a committee of executives dreams up a successor to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Windjammers – only slightly more ridiculous than ultimate Frisbee (seriously, though, Ultimate is fun and so is this game)
Wizard Fire – more over-the-top Data East goodness, mostly the cut scenes, though
Wonder Momo – mildly exploitative Japanese humor game starring a young woman fighting off masked weirdos onstage while an audience of men watches
Zero Team 2000 - beat 'em up that ticks all the boxes, exploding scenery and enemies, toilet paper and jewelry popping out of oil drums, cool nods to other games in the genre like Double Dragon and 4 player support ... the older game New Zero Team is only two players and has different levels, but is otherwise similarly fun
Zunzunkyou No Yabou – space invaders-esque with a lot of Japanese cultural idiosyncrasy

[DaveMMR]

Arch Rivals - cartoon PG violence and basketball. You can even pants other players.

[KenToad]

Arch Rivals - cartoon PG violence and basketball. You can even pants other players.

Definitely!

I guess Pigskin as well? I need to play it again.

[Thenasty]

Stone Ball prehistoric soccer game

[Thenasty]

How about Bonkz Adventure, use your Head will ya.

[KenToad]

Perfect! I'll add Stone Ball and Bonk.

[BadMouth]

In the Japanese version of Vendetta, there are enemies dressed like Mr. Slave who prance around and attack by humping you.

[KenToad]

In the Japanese version of Vendetta, there are enemies dressed like Mr. Slave who prance around and attack by humping you.

Hmm, I have Asia version D and version U, but no Japan.

*Edit* Looks like it was version U i.e. vendetta2pu.

Thanks! I'll add it soon.

[KenToad]

I played the Japanese version of Vendetta. The homophobia and animal abuse (you do fight dogs in the other versions of the game, but not as many and they just pull on your leg instead of humping you) is pretty over the top in the Japanese version. I'm going to add a warning to the list, just in case some folks would rather not experience it.

By the way, Vendetta is a really well done beat 'em up. The hand to hand attacks and weapons are satisfying and it's great to be able to kick the enemies when they're down. The game doesn't overstay it's welcome, either.

[mahuti]

Genius list. Nice one.   

[KenToad]

Genius list. Nice one.   

Thanks!

[bobbyb13]

This whole premise is all at once absurd and hilarious and awesome.

Thank you for introducing me to a bunch of games I never would have tried otherwise!

[Zebidee]

Love seeing Cadillacs and Dinosaurs on that list. It was playing that game that I had the opportunity to explain to my (then) 8 year old daughter:

"when firing the Uzi be sure to use short controlled bursts"

[KenToad]

This whole premise is all at once absurd and hilarious and awesome.

Thank you for introducing me to a bunch of games I never would have tried otherwise!

Great to read that. Thanks!

[KenToad]

Love seeing Cadillacs and Dinosaurs on that list. It was playing that game that I had the opportunity to explain to my (then) 8 year old daughter:

"when firing the Uzi be sure to use short controlled bursts"

Great advice! 

[Titchgamer]

Great List forming there
Vendetta is one of my fave beat em ups and I watched a interesting video on Dynamite Dux the other day:


I cant think of any games to add right this second as I think you have all the ones I would of said.

[KenToad]

Thanks!

Yep, I happened to see that video, as well. It seems like certain game coders might have been a little ... frustrated. 

[Thenasty]

how about COWBOYS of Moo Mesa (something like that).


Cowboys western shoot out but instead of Cowboys, COWBOYS are COWS.

[KenToad]

how about COWBOYS of Moo Mesa (something like that).


Cowboys western shoot out but instead of Cowboys, COWBOYS are COWS.

It's there, under W for Wild West. 

Also, I added Time Killers and Timber to the list.

[Zebidee]

Monster Farm Jump (Monster Rancher in USA?)

Crazy game where you jump on some kind of pogo stick across a world of floating blocks. Of course, you are high up in the clouds so if you fall....

There are special blocks that give you bonuses (or penalties) if you jump on them.

Simple gameplay yet it is quite addictive and has cool music.

Real arcade game but not sure it is in MAME yet - I play it with Zinc on my cabinets. There are Playstation versions.

https://www.arcade-history.com/?n=monster-farm-jump&page=detail&id=3449

[BadMouth]

how about COWBOYS of Moo Mesa (something like that).


Cowboys western shoot out but instead of Cowboys, COWBOYS are COWS.

It's there, under W for Wild West. 

Then you might as well add Battletoads and to a lesser extent Bucky O'Hare although I don't find any of them outright funny.
...but they are silly.

Also, I added Time Killers and Timber to the list.

The only list Time Killers belongs on is a list of games that suck.
I thought it was awesome as a kid.  Nostalgia wore off in 30 seconds when I realized how bad of a game it is.

[KenToad]

Yeah, I'm using funny in its widest possible meaning, could be silly, absurd, ridiculous, etc. Not every game will make everyone laugh, but they are all interesting in some way, at least to me.

Battletoads is a good recommendation, especially for people who only know the tamer NES version. I haven't played Bucky O'Hare in a while, can't remember how goofy it is.

Yeah, Time Killers is bad. Trio the Punch is bad. Exterminator is bad. Guardians of the Hood is bad. Wall Street is bad. Survival Arts is Bad. Tattoo Assassins is bad.

To me, all these games are interesting in other ways and sometimes laugh out loud funny.

Anyway, I appreciate your input. I was actually hoping more people might dispute or debate certain games on the list. For example, I may remove Wizard Fire. I haven't played it in a while. The cut scenes are silly and the voice acting is cheesy, but otherwise I remember it being a pretty standard isometric beat 'em up.

[KenToad]

Monster Farm Jump (Monster Rancher in USA?)

Crazy game where you jump on some kind of pogo stick across a world of floating blocks. Of course, you are high up in the clouds so if you fall....

There are special blocks that give you bonuses (or penalties) if you jump on them.

Simple gameplay yet it is quite addictive and has cool music.

Real arcade game but not sure it is in MAME yet - I play it with Zinc on my cabinets. There are Playstation versions.

https://www.arcade-history.com/?n=monster-farm-jump&page=detail&id=3449

Great recommendation! It works fine for me using MAME .201. I'll add it to the list soon.

[Haze]

The most notable omissions from this list are JJ Squawkers and Charlie Ninja, the latter especially.

For lesser mentions....

Urachacha Mudaeri is one of the wackier mini-games things, worth a play, but some sections require knowledge of Korean as it mixes in some quiz bits.

"The Destroyer From Jail" also added last year has that 'So bad it's good' quality, although speech is still missing.

Bio-mechanical Toy might also fit your criteria for being a very colourful and over the top run & gun / platformer

Sega's Body Slam isn't a very good game, but does have a unique look for the wrestling genre.

Burglar X usually appears in these lists.

Heavy Smash a fun futuristic over-the-top sports game, plays like a mix of football and basketball.

Waku Waku 7 on the NeoGeo

Saru-Kani-Hamu-Zou (the Japanese clone of Vs. Block Breaker) is far better than the regular version you have in the list simply for the attract mode intro...

Puzzle! Mushihime-Tama likewise for the intro if you like Japanese sing-a-longs (it's the sequel to Uopoko, another worthy addition, but themed around one of the Cave shooters)

speaking of Cave shooters, Muchi Muchi Pork! is a game about flying pigs...

Pastel Island is in-your-face colourful with rainbow cycling effects etc. (although pretty much just a glorified 'get all the dots' maze game)

Acrobatic Dog-Fight is an older shooter, but still has quite the silly art style to it.

Sega's Cool Riders should need no introduction, it's Outrunners, but... strange.

Saboten Bombers is mad cactus based single screen platforming, although if we're going for single screen platforms and bombs I prefer Penguin Bros, but that isn't quite as frantic so probably doesn't fit.

Twin Eagle 2 isn't a good shooter, but you can destroy almost everything and anything that ridiculous seems to fit.

[KenToad]

The most notable omissions from this list are JJ Squawkers and Charlie Ninja, the latter especially.

For lesser mentions....

Urachacha Mudaeri is one of the wackier mini-games thing, worth a play, but some sections require knowledge of Korean as it mixes in some quiz bits.

"The Destroyer From Jail" also added last year has that 'So bad it's good' quality, although speech is still missing.

Bio-mechanical Toy might also fit your criteria for being a very colourful and over the top run & gun / platformer

Sega's Body Slam isn't a very good game, but does have a unique look for the wrestling genre.

Burglar X usually appears in these lists.

Heavy Smash a fun futuristic over-the-top sports game, plays like a mix of football and basketball.

Waku Waku 7 on the NeoGeo

Saru-Kani-Hamu-Zou (the Japanese clone of Vs. Block Breaker) is far better than the regular version you have in the list simply for the attract mode intro...

Puzzle! Mushihime-Tama likewise for the intro if you like Japanese sing-a-longs (it's the sequel to Uopoko, another worthy addition, but themed around one of the Cave shooters)

speaking of Cave shooters, Muchi Muchi Pork! is a game about flying pigs...

Pastel Island is in-you-face colourful with rainbow cycling effects etc. (although pretty much just a glorified 'get all the dots' maze game)

Acrobatic Dog-Fight is an older shooter, but still has quite the silly art style to it.

Sega's Cool Riders should need no introduction, it's Outrunners, but... strange.

Saboten Bombers is mad cactus based single screen platforming, although if we're going for single screen platforms and bombs I prefer Penguin Bros, but that isn't quite as frantic so probably doesn't fit.

Twin Eagle 2 isn't a good shooter, but you can destroy almost everything and anything that ridiculous seems to fit.

This is amazing! Thank you, Haze.

Twin Eagle 2 is actually one of my 9 year old son's favorite arcade games for exactly the reasons you mentioned and we've laughed a lot while playing it, can't believe I forgot about it for the list.

[Haze]

Here are some more 'lesser' ones.

BC Story is a caveman themed Track and Field game

Popo Bear is snake with pandas (I think it's SFW, but it's BMC and they do sometimes put adult images in)

Puzzli 2 Super is a cute puzzle game with cats and fish

Vamf x1/2 is a Korean beat 'em up with unique art style

Mouse Shooter GoGo is another cute puzzle game, this time with a mouse theme.

[Titchgamer]

Bio mechanichal toy looks fun totally trying that out