Any good arcade-like games exclooosively on a console?

[Malenko]

Ideally I'd like a list of games that would have been great in the arcades but were only ever a console game.  I am adding a small smattering of console games to my emulation machine , and I want to keep the games in the same spirit. I get that this is subjective but I'd like to see what you guys/gals come up with. Not trying to add hundreds of games either

Best example I can think of is Weaponlord on SNES/Genesis.


my "rules":
Not a console port of an arcade game or an arcade collection (ie no midway hits, tmnt hyperstone, etc)
  - PC-10 games are exempt
  - Games that make the games playable on standard controls, like Marble Madness - NES are exempt
  - Games that share the name with an arcade game but are vastly different are exempt

Works with "standard" arcade controls, no trackballs ,spinners, flight sticks, analog controls , etc

Games that are good, not just ones that could have been an arcade game (ie don't suggest Zoop pls)

If there is a game that's multi-platform, please suggest the "better" version but also what other platforms its on.

If there's multiple in a series, just list the best one ( ie Streets of Rage 3) unless more than 1 is worth having on the list



my list so far, subject to change:
Clayfighter 2 - SNES
Comix Zone - Genesis
Eternal Champions - Sega CD (also on Genesis)
Fighters Megamix - Saturn
Final Fight Mini Mix - NES
Final Fight 2 - SNES
Gradius V - PS2
Ice Hockey - NES
Pipemania - NES
R-Type III - SNES
River City Ransom - NES
Rock n' Roll Racing - SNES (also on Genesis)
Shinobi III - Genesis
Sonic 3 w/knuckles - Genesis
Streets of Rage 3 / Burning Knuckle 3 - Genesis
Super Double Dragon - SNES
Super Mario 3 - NES
Tecmo Bowl - NES (its only the same in name to the arcade game)
Weaponlord - Genesis (also on SNES)
Zombies Ate My Neighbors - Genesis (also on SNES)

[KenToad]

Harmful Park is a great ps1 exclusive shooter with arcade-y controls.

[Malenko]

Harmful Park is a great ps1 exclusive shooter with arcade-y controls.

I can honestly say I've never heard of that game, but I'll check it out, thanks!

[KenToad]

Genesis

Alien Soldier
Battle Mania (Trouble Shooter) 1+2
Contra Hard Corps
Gaiares
Gleylancer (amazing music!)
Granada
Gunstar Heroes
Musha
Ranger-X
Steel Empire
Alisia Dragoon
Eliminate Down
General Chaos
Xeno Crisis

SNES - IIRC, none of these games need the shoulder buttons

Space Megaforce
Axelay (uses shoulder buttons for weapon selection, but can be remapped in-game)
Majuu Ou (King of Demons)
Tetris Attack
Umehara Kawase
Choujikuu Yousai Macross - Scrambled Valkyrie (difficult, especially until you learn the tactics of the ship morphing and turning enemies to your side.)

PS1

Galaga Destination Earth
Gunners Heaven (Rapid Reload)
Pepsiman
R-Type Delta
Tempest X3

[Howard_Casto]

Knowing you you've already added it but MK Trilogy comes to mind. 

[pbj]

X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse..... apparently.

Also, I know it’s not “console exclusive” but the Xbox version of Streets of Rage Remake is worth an install.


 

[Malenko]

Well this would be on a PC, so I'd just use the PC version of BoR SoRR.
Also running the win10 patched MKT for PC.

[opt2not]

Gradius Gaiden
Einhander

Both exclusive PS1 games.

[MrThunderwing]

OK, so I know this topic's old, but I can see a few missed off the various lists I think you should also add Malenko:

Megadrive
Shadow Dancer and Eswat (both have arcade versions with the same name, both are vastly different to their arcade counterparts though)
Thunderforce 4
Thunderforce 3 (slightly different to the arcade game Thunderforce AC)
Rocket Knight Adventures
Revenge of Shinobi
Mystical Fighter

PSI

Ray Tracers (fun Chase HQ like game)
Thunderforce V (also on Saturn, probably easier to emulate on PS1)

PS2
R-Type Final
Thunderforce 6

Edit:
Ooooh, thought of a couple more:

GBA
Astro Boy: Omega Factor (Treasure awesomeness)
Gunstar Super Heroes (ditto)
Ninja Cop (AKA Ninja Five O - amazing Rolling Thunder/Shinobi/Bionic Commando hybrid by Konami)

PC Engine
Parasol Stars (AKA Bubble Bobble 3)
Gunhed

PC - Modern
Return of the Ninja Warriors

[Malenko]

Megadrive
Rocket Knight Adventures

Between Road Rash II and Skitchin'   

Also, that game goes for $80 CIB, ask me how I know...

[MrThunderwing]

Go on then... How do you know?

Wasn't sure if I still owned a physical copy of it myself, so had to consult a photo I took last time I got my Megadrive games out of storage. Yup, still got it, 3rd from left.

[pbj]

Genesis throw down?  Now I’ve seen everything.

I’m in the process of getting supplies together to burn EPROMs so I can convert a huge box of sports games…. So unless you two want to see eight copies of Joe Montana 2 I already lost this contest.

[BadMouth]

When I had console games on my arcade setup, Demon Attack for the Atari 2600 actually saw a decent amount of play.

[Malenko]

Go on then... How do you know?

Cause that's close what I paid for it, got a bit off cause I bought a bundle. Pricecharting has it at 92 for US and 78 for PAL.  Its the *ONLY* game I dropped any real money on. A friend had given me his copy ages ago and I lost it....I've  always had a soft spot for it.

No "throwdown" just kinda happy with my ever slowly growing collection.
I've added primal rage, pro quarterback, nhl all star hockey 95 , world championship soccer II, spiderman, jungle book and another copy of NFL quarterback club since that pic, lol. I'd still like a copy of UMK3 but not for what people are asking for it. Sonic 3 and S&K would be nice too, just to complete the sets. I think I need to bite the bullet and buy a ton of repro cases.

[MrThunderwing]

I've only ever dropped 'real' money on 2 games. The first was my Saturn version of Radiant Silvergun that I bought about 10 years ago for £90. I'd fairly recently bought an Action Replay 4-in-1 and now being able to play imports on my UK Saturn, it seemed like a pretty essential purchase. The second was Ninja Cop on the GBA, which I bought loose for about £60. The stupid thing was I used to own the game, I bought it from a regular game shop before it got stupid expensive, but I sold it with a collection of other GBA games when I upgraded to a DS. A few years later I had a real hankering to play it again, looked through the little collection of GBA games I'd kept and upon realising it wasn't there, realised I'd sold it with the others, d'oh! Looking online I saw that prices for it were on the rise, so I quickly snapped up another copy for way more than I'd normally dream of paying for a GBA game, but, ehhhh, I considered it a penance of sorts for being stupid enough for selling it in the first place. I used to have Guardian Heroes on the Saturn, bought back in the day from a regular secondhand game place for about £10, that I sold on eBay about 15 years ago for next to nothing. Man, I could kick myself for that now...

[Malenko]

I'd fairly recently bought an Action Replay 4-in-1 and now being able to play imports on my UK Saturn, it seemed like a pretty essential purchase.

Cool, now you can download the 2 fire pro wrestling games I translated on Saturn.

or my NBA Jam hack with Craig Stadler , Sonic , and the MKII player Ninjas:
https://segaxtreme.net/threads/lets-hack-nba-jam-tournament-edition.25195/#post-182391 

[pbj]

Anyone else remember the time I begged this forum to pay me $300 for a stack of Saturn games and a Z64?  I think about it all the time.  Would have been at least one mortgage payment these days.

[bobbyb13]

When I had console games on my arcade setup, Demon Attack for the Atari 2600 actually saw a decent amount of play.

Man, the Imagic guys (that was them, right?) made some great games back then.
I wound up liking theirs and Activision's games (Kaboom! anyone?) more than the in house stuff.

And my mortgage is terrifying.
I hope the kids are perpared to pay this place off when they are sprinkling me in the bananas.

[Frogbull]

NES
River City Ransom (Street Gangs in Europe)
The Battletoads of 1991, why Nintendo didn't release it in Arcade on the PlayChoice-10 will stay a mystery for me

Mega Drive Genesis does what Nintendon't
Rocket Knight Adventures

SNES
Contra III: The Alien Wars (Super Probotector: Alien Rebels in Europe)

Saturn
Panzer Dragoon
Guardian Heroes

PlayStation
Ace Combat 2
Mortal Kombat Trilogy
R4: Ridge Racer Type 4
Crash Team Racing
Time Crisis: Project Titan

N64
Mario Kart 64, we had to wait 2005 for the first Arcade Mario Kart (Mario Kart Arcade GP)
F-Zero X, fortunately we had F-Zero AX

Dreamcast
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2

PS2
Time Crisis II, ofc it's a port of the Arcade Game but its enhanced graphics would have deserved another Arcade release
Rocky

Other
NBA Jam: On Fire Edition
Ridge Racer 6
Ridge Racer 7
Street Fighter X Tekken
Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers
Dragon Ball FighterZ

[pbj]

I finally sat down and played through Guardian Heroes.  Guess I bought it on Xbox 360 at some point.  I owned the Saturn import back in the day and thought the reason I didn't like it was all the Japanese.

It's.. ehh.... not that great.

[KenToad]

I finally sat down and played through Guardian Heroes.  Guess I bought it on Xbox 360 at some point.  I owned the Saturn import back in the day and thought the reason I didn't like it was all the Japanese.

It's.. ehh.... not that great.

So, just like every other non-arcade port on the Saturn? 

[MrThunderwing]

I finally sat down and played through Guardian Heroes.  Guess I bought it on Xbox 360 at some point.  I owned the Saturn import back in the day and thought the reason I didn't like it was all the Japanese.

It's.. ehh.... not that great.

I think it's a game very much of it's time. I loved it back in the day on the Saturn, but I probably wouldn't have much time for it now (as evidenced by the fact I've also got it on 360 too and have barely touched it). The big appeal for me back then was the fact it was a 2D beat-em-up that made good use of all the Saturn's 2D abilities and sprite scaling power at a time when more-or-less everything else was polygonal and beat-em-ups weren't really a thing anymore. It also had a rockin' soundtrack and the anime style FMV intro was way above average compared to yer average Saturn game. I bought it when I was at university and living in a shared student house, so I always had a buddy on hand to play the story mode in 2 Player mode (definitely more appealing than single player) and the branching storyline added to the re-play value. Plus the fact you could unlock EVERY single character to play as in the battle mode, from the biggest most screen filling boss to the lowliest NPC was pretty cool. I always thought the way you had the three horizontal planes on the screen to jump back and forth between was a bit weird though.

[Malenko]

So, just like every other non-arcade port on the Saturn? 

I do love when people clown a system by disqualifying its strongest asset.

Fighters Megamix, Astal, Dragon Force, Fire Pro 6Men Scramble, Clockwork Knight, Shining Force 3, Policenaughts, Shining the Holy Ark, Assault Suit Leynos, Albery Odyssey , Grandia, Legend of Oasis, Magic Knight Ray Earth, Iron Storm, Bulk Slash and tons more. Near perfect arcade ports are just a bonus. Saturn probably has the best console port of Theme Park too (and Sega CD has the worst)

I translated Fire Pro (both of them, but one is an arcade port so I cant add it to the list) and a group of people localized Bulk Slash, and the 2nd and 3rd scenarios of Shining Force have been translated too.  Lots of games to enjoy.

[Gilrock]

I'll admit I don't remember the games in the kind of detail you guys post...still think you're cheating and looking it up.  I had a Saturn and don't remember any of those games just listed but I remember Panzer Dragoon Saga.  I believe it was the highest rated game on Saturn.

[pbj]

Bulk Slash is translated?  Man, that is an unobtainable blast from the past I forgot about 25 years ago.  Very interesting thread on SEGA Xtreme, too.  It is crazy how much the Saturn scene has heated up in the last two years.  I felt like a leper in the 90s when I kept insisting to everyone they were missing out.

[Malenko]

I still play genesis , Saturn and other old consoles. And I don't mean emulation, I mean playing the actual consoles.  For the more expensive games I play them on an ODE. 
I am an active member of the Saturn hacking community so thats why the older games are still pretty fresh in my head. I have to occasionally google NES games and stuff because I am still getting old.


Bulk Slash is more than just translated, they hired voice actors to redo all the dialog the pilots say and everything.

[KenToad]

I've been trying to enjoy Saturn games for years. The library of exclusives is just so damn stale. I'm glad that you guys are localizing and improving games. It definitely seems like the Japanese library at least had some life in it. I haven't tried Bulk Slash yet, for example. But, I've tried pretty much all those games listed and they just aren't that fun.

Even some of the games I enjoy for a few minutes, like Radiant Silvergun (arcade port, but with console exclusive features), suffer from a distinct lack of personality. Sure, I like the sword power-up and switching between 6 unique weapons and color chaining are interesting mechanics, but the look of the game is just so white bread. The music is good, but it isn't enough. Radiant Silvergun looks like they took Pulstar and stripped it of any sign of life. Despite that, I do like Radiant Silvergun's gameplay and recommend either the Saturn or Arcade version on your arcade cabinet, especially if you have a 6-button layout.

Back on topic, check out the European version of Shinobi on the Saturn for some cool tunes and laughable cutscenes and gameplay.

[Frogbull]

You Rom Hacked NBA Jam and edited player faces sprites to include Sonic? It's great, love that idea!

EDIT: I didn't saw it directly, but you even made the body palette blue Respect sir

[Malenko]

I added Sonic, the MKII ninajs (Scorpion, SubZero, and Reptile) , and of course... Craig Stadler.
https://segaxtreme.net/threads/lets-hack-nba-jam-tournament-edition.25195/

The library of exclusives is just so damn stale

no arcade ports and they have to be console exclusives? You are really painting the system into a tiny corner.  I love the 90s JRPGs and Fighters Megamix is the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---. PSX has the better library by far but I still enjoy the nail in Sega's coffin a lot.

[Howard_Casto]

I've always said that if a console stood on good arcade ports alone there isn't much point in owning it.   We've had MESS/MAME for 20 years now.... if there is an arcade version you should be playing that version with very few exceptions.   This is one of Sega's major problems, particularly with the Saturn and Dreamcast.   I have both of those but I'm also an eclectic weirdo, so I don't think my preferences should count. 

[Malenko]

I've always said that if a console stood on good arcade ports alone there isn't much point in owning it.

To be fair most people, myself included, played most of those 16 bit games on the snes instead of the arcade.  Mind you we know enough to understand that the ports aren't as good as the real deal, but to the average joe they are the same.

[pbj]

I am way, way better on Genesis MK1 and prefer it to the arcade game.  And yes, it’s because it’s what I had at home.

And I was playing MAME in the 90s…. 25 years ago, Howard.

[thomas_surles]

Battletoads & double dragon. (Nes, snes, gen) snes being the best version.

Beavis and butthead (snes version)

Elemental master (genesis)

Might as well have clay fighter 621/3 or sculpters cut on the 64 even though I liked the snes ones better

[thomas_surles]

Battletoads & double dragon. (Nes, snes, gen) snes being the best version.

Beavis and butthead (snes version)

Elemental master (genesis)

Might as well have clay fighter 63 & 1/3 or sculpters cut on the 64 even though I liked the snes ones better

[Malenko]

I am way, way better on Genesis MK1 and prefer it to the arcade game.  And yes, it’s because it’s what I had at home.

That's sort of how I feel about MKII on the SNES, except I owned the MKII arcade machine for like a decade or so.

I don't agree that the arcade version is always the best version. Sometimes the console port has improvements over the arcade version. Tekken got extra modes and actual endings, Soul Calibur / Edge got extra characters and modes, SF Alpha games got extra modes and characters as well. Cant play as Link in the arcade version of Soul Calibur   If you wanna go more retro I think the coleco version of mouse trap plays better than the arcade version and I liked Rygar on the NES better than the arcade. Im sure most of us would rather player turtles in time on SNES over the arcade version.

I have a darksoft MultiCPS2 and still play Alpha 2 and 3 on my Saturn sometimes. Nothing wrong with enjoying both.

[KenToad]

The biggest issue with the arcade fighters in particular was the quarter munching design. The first one or two fights after you insert a quarter to start or continue are almost always super easy, then the AI kicks in and takes the average player's quarter. In many cases, the game would actually cheat, like SFII the charge shots become instantaneous or the computer opponents get extra frames of invincibility, etc.

That's the reason why the home versions tend to be easier. The cheating arcade versions are so annoying that I rarely play them single player. If you're playing against another human, though, the arcade versions are almost always superior, especially factoring in good quality arcade controls.

BTW, I never understood the love the for the SNES Turtles in Time. You lose health when you do the special attack by hitting attack and jump together (even when you miss) and it's limited to 2 players. The SNES version is great, but the arcade version has better graphics, sound, and gameplay.

[Malenko]

and it's limited to 2 players. The SNES version is great, but the arcade version has better graphics, sound, and gameplay.

being limited to 2 players is a limit that is rarely ever a factor. I owned/restored an original TMNT and I had more than 2 people play it at a time exactly ONCE.


Graphics, meh the arcade is slightly prettier. Sound? a push. Gameplay? SNES is *significantly* better.  Tighter controls, improved mechanics (you can control when you fling guys at the screen and stuff)  fixed hit boxes, getting rid of Tokka and Razher in favor of Bebop and Rocksteady, trial mode, versus mode..... the SNES is just the better game overall.

[Gilrock]

Maybe I was too old and missed out on a good game but in my 20's there was no way I would play a game based on a stupid turtle cartoon.

[KenToad]

and it's limited to 2 players. The SNES version is great, but the arcade version has better graphics, sound, and gameplay.

being limited to 2 players is a limit that is rarely ever a factor. I owned/restored an original TMNT and I had more than 2 people play it at a time exactly ONCE.


Graphics, meh the arcade is slightly prettier. Sound? a push. Gameplay? SNES is *significantly* better.  Tighter controls, improved mechanics (you can control when you fling guys at the screen and stuff)  fixed hit boxes, getting rid of Tokka and Razher in favor of Bebop and Rocksteady, trial mode, versus mode..... the SNES is just the better game overall.

No, the extra frames in the arcade are very noticable. So is the increased enemy count. The SNES first stage music has the energy drained out of it. Gameplay: um, you can easily control the throws in the arcade. Tighter controls? Hit boxes? You've gotta be kidding. Bebop and Rocksteady are in the first game. And I've definitely played 3 and 4 player Turtles more than any trial or versus mode.

The only thing the SNES version improved is that you can play it while sitting on a couch. 

[Malenko]

If you think Beebop and Rocksteady were in the arcade version of Turtles in Time, we aren't talking about the same game; that or you don't know that they *ARE* in the SNES release.
Beebop and Rocksteady are now the bosses of the pirate ship level, Tokka and Rahzar got moved to the new Technodrome level.
Rat King was added to "Sewer Surfin" and Slash replaced the sandman clone in the pre-historic level
Type of throw is randomized in the arcade release (set up a debug break and look at the code). Throwing enemies at the screen is now controllable and a requirement for the one Shredder fight.
Hitboxes are one of the few things to complain about in the arcade release and they were fixed in the SNES (and Genny Hyperstone) release.


None of that up there is an opinion, its factual data.