Retro Tech
The Best Arcade-Style Games on PS1, PS2 and PS3, for a Cabinet or a Stick
Part 9 of the thread Console field guide
- What makes the cut: short sessions, score chasing, instant action, and controls that work on a stick and buttons.
- PS1 is fighters and shooters, many of them Japan-only ports worth importing or emulating.
- PS2 is the high point for 2D fighters and shooters: the SNK and Capcom anthologies alone fill a cabinet.
- PS3 shines on PSN downloads: HD remasters, Capcom's arcade collections and modern arcade-style indies.
Three generations of PlayStation soaked up a huge amount of arcade history. Fighting games, shooters and beat-'em-ups came home by the hundred, and a lot of them play beautifully on an arcade stick or in a cabinet.
These are my lists for that job: games that are good in short sessions, reward chasing a score, drop you straight into the action, and don't need an analog stick. Games marked (JP) only came out in Japan.
PS1
| Genre | Games |
|---|---|
| Fighting | Battle Arena Toshinden and Toshinden 2, Bloody Roar 2, Capcom vs. SNK: Pro, Cyberbots (JP), Darkstalkers 3, Dead or Alive, Ehrgeiz, Evil Zone, Galaxy Fight, Gundam Battle Assault 1 and 2, Guilty Gear, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Mortal Kombat 4, Pocket Fighter, Psychic Force, Rival Schools, Samurai Shodown III, Soul Blade, Star Gladiator, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha, Tekken 2, Tekken 3, The King of Fighters '99, Tobal 2 (JP), X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Zero Divide 2 |
| Brawlers | Fighting Force, Fighting Force 2 |
| Shooters and arcade ports | Arkanoid Returns (JP), Detana TwinBee Yahoo! (JP), DonPachi (JP), Einhander, G-Darius, Gradius Gaiden (JP), Gunbird, Harmful Park (JP), In the Hunt, Magical Drop III (JP), Metal Slug X, Mr. Driller, Night Striker (JP), Omega Boost, Parodius, Philosoma, R-Type Delta, Raiden Project, RayStorm, Salamander Deluxe Pack (JP), Strikers 1945 and 1945 II, Strider 2, Tempest X3, Thunder Force V, Xevious 3D/G+ |
| Platformers and action | Bubble Bobble featuring Rainbow Islands, Bushido Blade 1 and 2, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Crash Bandicoot 1 to 3, Jumping Flash, Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, Mega Man 8, Mega Man X4 and X5, Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness, Pac-Man World, Pandemonium, Rapid Reload, Silent Bomber |
| Puzzle and oddballs | Devil Dice, Frogger, Incredible Crisis, PaRappa the Rapper, UmJammer Lammy, Pong: The Next Level, Q*Bert, Space Invaders, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, Tetris Plus |
DuckStation is the emulator to use, with Beetle PSX in RetroArch as the other strong option.
PS2
| Genre | Games |
|---|---|
| SNK fighters | Art of Fighting Anthology, Fatal Fury: Battle Archives 1 and 2, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, The King of Fighters 2000 and 2001, KOF 2002 Unlimited Match, KOF XI, KOF NeoWave, KOF Maximum Impact 1 and 2 (the second was sold in America as KOF 2006), KOF Collection: The Orochi Saga, NeoGeo Battle Coliseum, Samurai Shodown Anthology, Samurai Shodown V, SVC Chaos, World Heroes Anthology |
| Capcom fighters | Capcom Fighting Evolution, Capcom vs. SNK 2, Hyper Street Fighter II, Street Fighter Alpha Anthology, Street Fighter Anniversary Collection, Street Fighter EX3 |
| Arc System Works and friends | Arcana Heart and Arcana Heart 2, Guilty Gear X, X2, Isuka, XX #Reload (JP) and XX Accent Core Plus, Hokuto no Ken, Melty Blood: Act Cadenza |
| 3D and other fighters | Bloody Roar 3 and 4, Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore, Def Jam: Fight for NY, Inuyasha: Feudal Combat, Soulcalibur II and III, Tekken 4, Tekken 5, Tekken Tag Tournament, Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution |
| Shooters | Alien Hominid, Chaos Field, DoDonPachi Dai-Ou-Jou, Dragon Blaze, ESPGaluda, Giga Wing Generations, Gradius III & IV, Gradius V, Gunbird Special Edition, Homura, Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi Extra (JP), Mushihime-sama (JP), Psikyo Shooting Collection 1 and 2, R-Type Final, Raiden III, Shikigami no Shiro II, Space Invaders Anniversary, Trigger Heart Exelica Enhanced, XII Stag |
| Run and gun, and the rest | Metal Slug Anthology, Neo Contra, Odin Sphere, Rez |
PCSX2 runs most of these well on mid-range hardware. Upscale for a modern screen, and use a CRTCathode-ray tube. The deep, heavy glass TV everybody had before flat screens.More: CRT 90s TV: Channel Surfing Like It's 1996, on a Raspberry Pi shaderA small graphics program an emulator runs over the picture. The retro ones fake a CRT: scanlines, glow, curvature and all.More: CRT Shaders on the Steam Deck: Setting Up Mega Bezel in RetroArch if you want the look.
Tip
For vertical shooters on a horizontal screen, check whether the game has a rotated "tate" mode. On a cabinet you can turn the monitor; on a TV, a good tate option or an emulator rotation setting is the difference between a playable picture and a tiny one.
PS3
A lot of the best PS3 arcade material is on the PlayStation Network, so check that the download is still available to you before you plan around it.
| Genre | Games |
|---|---|
| Fighting | Arcana Heart 3, Battle Fantasia, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend and Chrono Phantasma Extend, Darkstalkers Resurrection, Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure HD Ver., The King of Fighters XIII, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Marvel vs. Capcom Origins, Mortal Kombat (2011), Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection, Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition, Street Fighter IV, Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, Ultra Street Fighter IV, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Virtua Fighter 5 |
| Shooters | 1942: Joint Strike, After Burner Climax, Raiden IV: OverKill, Sine Mora, Space Invaders Infinity Gene, Under Defeat HD |
| Run and gun | Hard Corps: Uprising, Metal Slug 3 |
| Beat-'em-ups | Castle Crashers, Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara, Final Fight: Double Impact, The Simpsons Arcade Game, TMNT: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled |
| 2D action and platformers | Bionic Commando Rearmed, Canabalt, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, DuckTales Remastered, Dustforce, Klonoa, Moon Diver, PixelJunk SideScroller, R-Type Dimensions, Rayman Origins and Legends, Retro City Rampage, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, Shovel Knight (and Plague of Shadows), Spelunky |
| Modern arcade | OutRun Online Arcade, Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+ |
RPCS3 is the PS3 emulator, and it's come a long way, but it needs a strong CPU and compatibility varies by game. Check its compatibility list for each title before you build a setup around it.
Heads up
A few shooters people associate with the PS3 era, like Deathsmiles, Akai Katana and DoDonPachi Resurrection, were Xbox 360 only at the time. Several turned up later on PS4, Switch or PC.
Setting them up for a stick
- 4:3 for the older games, and the widescreen option where a PS3 game has one.
- Map a six-button layout for the fighters: light, medium and heavy punch on top, kicks below.
- Map a coin button and a start button, and make exiting a game easy.
- Add scanlinesThe thin dark lines between the rows of a CRT picture. Old pixel art was drawn with them in mind, which is why shaders add them back.More: CRT Shaders on the Steam Deck: Setting Up Mega Bezel in RetroArch or a CRT shader if you like the look.
- Set up rotation for the vertical shooters.
My own cabinet is a 4:3 screen running CoinOPS, which is exactly the kind of setup these lists are for. The originals behind a lot of these ports are in the golden age of arcades, and the games that play well with a plain d-pad on the next generation over are in the d-pad-only GameCube and PS2 list.