When I was kid video games were not allowed in the house. This horrible rule led to me spending a lot of time at friends' houses and at a downtown arcade. The experiences at my friends' houses were like Retro Game Challenge, the experiences at the downtown Arcade were more like Grand Theft Auto.  

 

Some of the games I played at that downtown arcade blew my little pre-teen mind.  Most of these have been ported to consoles, but some have (almost) been lost.  

 

For nostalgic reasons I refuse to let these games be forgotten, so I would like to share three arcade gems that no one should ever forget:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Willow

The Game – This game was developed by Capcom and came out in the summer of 1989.   It was a simple platformer/brawler game, but the graphics were beautiful for the time.  Madmartigan is playable in the game, and while Willow Ufgood uses magic to attack enemies, Madmartigan uses his blade.  

The Port – Capcom did release a NES version of this game later in year, but instead of focusing on action like its arcade-counterpart did, it was more akin to Link’s Adventures.  It was not a bad game at all, but compared with the arcade version it was quite a disappointment.  No port of the actual arcade game is planned.

 

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Tecmo Bowl

The Game – In 1987, Tecmo released the first version of Tecmo Bowl.  It was a 4-Player Arcade Game with a screen that was twice the length of a normal arcade game.  Only two fictitious teams were available, but the ability to break tackles and play with three friends made this a hit at the arcades.  The only downside was it cost about three quarters to play one full game.

 

 

The Port – Tecmo Bowl was released on the Wii’s Virtual Console early last month for $6.  I have not played it in 20 years so I don’t know how it has held up over time, but it does have 4-Player support, something no Tecmo Bowl ever had again.

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Ninja Gaiden

The Game – The arcade version of Ninja Gaiden came out in 1988.  It was nothing like the NES games that appeared later.  It resembled Double Dragon – it even had Two-player Co-op  – but it did have a lot of the elements that the modern Ninja Gaiden games have like flips, throws, and graphic violence.  

 

What they draw was for me was the continue screen.  A Saw would be slowly lowered towards a tied up Ryu, and if you did not continue in time the screen would turn red with blood.  Did I mention that this was more violence than an 11-Year old had ever seen?

The Port – It was an unlockable in Ninja Gaiden Black on the Xbox, but sadly it does not work if you play that it on the 360.  It has been released in Japan on the Wii’s Virtual Console, so perhaps an English version will soon be available. 

 

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That is my trip down Memory Lane, and be sure to comment on other great Arcade games that time seems to have (almost) forgot!