What was nintendos first try at an arcade game

Donkey Kong was a reversal of fortune that ultimately launched a line of games in which Jumpman came into his own as Mario, joined by his brother Luigi. And it helped usher in a new age of gaming — one that has since seen nearly as many ups and downs as Jumpman himself. The game industry countered the claims, arguing that video games promoted dexterity and quick thinking, and that arcades were a wholesome gathering place where young people could network and build social skills — the golf courses of the high-school set, per TIME.

The slowdown affected the glutted arcade market — which had more than doubled between and — and home video game sales alike. Contact us at letters time. The result was one of the most popular arcade games of all time, one that turned Nintendo into a powerful player in the games industry overnight. Chances of it coming to Switch — High.

Nintendo has been pushing the fact that its arcade games had extra features not in the home versions, and the arcade Donkey Kong has a level that was missing from NES game though Nintendo later modded it back in and released it on Wii and 3DS Virtual Console as Donkey Kong: Original Edition. Sky Skipper is an action game where the player has to fly around in a plane dropping bombs on gorillas. These particular gorillas who wear headphones and carry baseballs for some reason have taken over the Wonder Kingdom and are causing a general ruckus.

Chances of it coming to Switch — Maybe. If you thought the space shooters were dead, you were wrong. It was almost identical to Space Firebird, except this time your ship was a lot bigger and you were now dealing with demon faces, not flaming birds. Chances of it coming to Switch — Almost zero. The enormous success of Donkey Kong meant a sequel was inevitable.

Sure enough, the follow-up came the following year but it did so with a twist. This time Mario was the villain: having captured Donkey Kong in the first game he was now keeping him in a cage.

Chances of it coming to Switch — Good. When Nintendo was in the early stages of developing Donkey Kong, it was supposed to be a Popeye game. Mario was supposed to be Popeye, Donkey Kong was supposed to be Bluto, Pauline was obviously Olive Oyl and the hammers Mario collected were cans of spinach.

After Donkey Kong became a smash hit, Nintendo was finally able to get the Popeye licence funny, that and so a new game was created with those characters. While doing this he must dodge Bluto and punch any other enemies or obstacles he encounters. And yes, naturally, he can eat spinach to become invincible for a while. Although Popeye was a fun game, Nintendo would need to get the licence again to be able to re-release it.

Following his debut appearance in Donkey Kong and what would eventually emerge to be a rare villainous performance in its sequel, it was time for Mario to get his own starring role. This is the game that established the Mario Bros as plumbers: set in a sewer, the pair have to defeat creatures that have started gathering there.

Mario Bros can be played either solo or in co-op mode, with both brothers on-screen at the same time. Donkey Kong may have been a big game for Nintendo, but it went a bit overboard with its order and ended up with a load more monitors than it needed.

It was decided the next game would have a two-screen display, with two monitors stacked on top of each other. That game was Punch-Out!! Right from the very first game the basic foundations of Punch-Out!! Fingers crossed! Being a VS System game, though, meant it could be played in different ways. For example, its dual-screen setup meant each player could play their own solo game against the CPU and not worry about the other person. Alternatively, both players could play against each other, with each viewing the game from their own perspective at the bottom of the screen.

Even better, since each screen came with two sets of controls, you could have a doubles match with two players per screen. Chances of it coming to Switch — Average.

The fact there are other VS games coming to Switch is positive, but Tennis is a basic game so Nintendo might not be in a rush to let Hamster release it.

Mahjong is one of those games that is massive in one region but more or less ignored everywhere else. Since Mahjong is barely known in the west, it should come as no surprise to you that VS Mahjong was only released in Japan, where its four-player tabletop cabinet went down well. Chances of it coming to Switch — Practically zero. This meant that while one player was batting with the camera behind their player, the other could be pitching but still have the camera behind them too.

Chances of it coming to Switch — Unlikely. If Hamster make it so that some Arcade Archives games can be played with two Switch systems, then this would be an ideal release.

If not, this is just the NES version. Much like the NES Golf, it features a variety of holes and a golfer who looks suspiciously like Mario. Despite its age, Golf still holds up quite well today, mainly because its three-press stroke system continues to be used by many modern golf games. Chances of it coming to Switch — Decent. Hamster also has previous in this field, having already ported Neo Turf Masters to the Switch.

Listen, you sexist pigs, women can play golf too. Nintendo obviously agreed, which is why it released a second version of Golf which replaced Mario with a female golfer instead. The arcade version features different stages, as well as one other major addition in the shape of a simultaneous co-op mode. Nintendo followed up Punch-Out!! For the most part Super Punch-Out!! Chances of it coming to Switch — So-so. Although the original Punch-Out!!

One of the boxers you face is a Russian called Vodka Drunkenski. He was renamed Soda Popinski for the NES version of the game, but this means if Hamster was to port the arcade version it would need to modify the ROM image, something Nintendo might not feel is worth the hassle. Balloon Fight is a unique entry in the VS System series in that it actually made its arcade debut before it was even released on the NES. Its main mode, however, has completely different levels, mainly because the arcade version features vertical scrolling rather than just single-screen stages.

The two-player co-op mode, then, gives each player the option to have their own screen focusing on their character: this means if one player floats upwards only their screen will scroll. Nintendo has already confirmed it. Nintendo, you pesky sods, stop trying to secretly force your space shooters on us! Chances of it coming to Switch — Moderate. Clu Clu Land is an odd little maze game in which players control a balloonfish called Bubbles. The twist is that Bubbles can only move by grabbing onto a post as she passes it and swinging round.

It should actually have been called Spinny Land. Instead of offering five tracks either solo or against the CPU, you race through seven tracks and have to do both: beat a certain time in solo to qualify for the race against CPU riders.

The idea was that this was supposed to be an epic street brawl with two guys punching each other all over the place. As you knock your opponent off the pavement and onto the road, they roll onto the next street i.

There are only two attacks — a light punch and a heavy punch — meaning it gets repetitive quite quickly. Chances of it coming to Switch — Slim. This vertically scrolling platformer had them scaling mountains to get back a bunch of vegetables that had been stolen by a large bird. The aim is to climb up all 32 mountains by breaking the ice above you and using your giant mallet to batter any enemies who come close.

Although the NES version already featured co-op play for two players, the arcade version adds 16 extra mountains, some new enemies and wind effects designed to throw you off course. A large chunk of the market was also dedicated to lightgun games. They were wrong. Released in December , Radar Scope was met with a collective yawn.

Its commercial failure sent to company into crisis. The project was given to Shigeru Miyamoto, a staff artist at Nintendo who had never developed a game in his life. What Miyamoto lacked in experience he more than made up for in creativity. He also brought with him a perspective unlike anything in gaming at the time. Rather than creating shooter games like Space Invaders or Centipede , Miyamoto wanted to infuse his game with a narrative, and he wanted the visuals to further reflect a comic book influence.

Originally, Miyamoto wanted to use the story of Popeye, the classic cartoon character that was always saving his love, Olive Oyl, from the villainous Brutus. Surprisingly, many ideas came to Miyamoto while he washed up in the company bathtub. At night when nobody was around, you could hang out there for a long time.

It totally saved me.