Preface: I live in rural America. The only arcades that don't have ticket dispensing schlock around here are run by carnies wandering their battered cabinets from one county fair to the next.
Dark Silhouette: Silent Scope 2. How many arcade gun games do you know with competitive multiplayer? If you only find a single cabinet, it's worth a cursory glance if only for the sniper mechanics and the overwrought voice acting. Dual cabinets, give quarters to strangers, it's that good.
Warzaid (World Combat for the international crowd). Time Crisis, in WWII, against an army of don't-call-them-Nazis skeletons. What also helped drive me to sink in quarters was the score ticker including a military rank which went up as my points did. Yes, it has fuck all to do with the game itself, but it still massages that same bit of the brain that causes people to go for prestige ranks.
CarnEvil. Picture House of the Dead 3, only designed for sadists instead of masochists and with a more varied visual style. Case study, here's the progression curve of "things you're likely to shoot at" in just one level of the game.
Xmas elves -> 50's gas station attendants in bumper cars -> fast food wage zombies throwing corn dogs at you-> boss battle against giant demon Santa.
Hydro Thunder. Two words: boost jump. Done well, this move throws you into shortcuts or on top of boost powerups to help you shave those seconds off the clock. Done wrong, you've just thrown your vehicle into reverse and burnt up your nitro meter for nothing. Not often you see risk/reward gambits like this in an arcade racer, much less done this well.
Honorable mentions go out to Crazy Taxi, The Grid, and Top Skater. Gimmicky? Sure. But to ask an arcade title to avoid having a gimmick is to miss the point of an arcade game in the first place.
Dark Silhouette: Silent Scope 2. How many arcade gun games do you know with competitive multiplayer? If you only find a single cabinet, it's worth a cursory glance if only for the sniper mechanics and the overwrought voice acting. Dual cabinets, give quarters to strangers, it's that good.
Warzaid (World Combat for the international crowd). Time Crisis, in WWII, against an army of don't-call-them-Nazis skeletons. What also helped drive me to sink in quarters was the score ticker including a military rank which went up as my points did. Yes, it has fuck all to do with the game itself, but it still massages that same bit of the brain that causes people to go for prestige ranks.
CarnEvil. Picture House of the Dead 3, only designed for sadists instead of masochists and with a more varied visual style. Case study, here's the progression curve of "things you're likely to shoot at" in just one level of the game.
Xmas elves -> 50's gas station attendants in bumper cars -> fast food wage zombies throwing corn dogs at you-> boss battle against giant demon Santa.
Hydro Thunder. Two words: boost jump. Done well, this move throws you into shortcuts or on top of boost powerups to help you shave those seconds off the clock. Done wrong, you've just thrown your vehicle into reverse and burnt up your nitro meter for nothing. Not often you see risk/reward gambits like this in an arcade racer, much less done this well.
Honorable mentions go out to Crazy Taxi, The Grid, and Top Skater. Gimmicky? Sure. But to ask an arcade title to avoid having a gimmick is to miss the point of an arcade game in the first place.
