Keep Your Quarters: The Switch Is Now King of the Arcade

8 min readMar 16, 2019

While elaborate MAME cabinets or Raspberry Pi emulation boxes have their place, when you just want to play some arcade games without any fuss or fiddling, nothing beats a good console port. Arcade game ports and compilations seemed to vanish from the console landscape after the excellent collections of the PS2 era, but with digital distribution now firmly in the mainstream and the gold rush for content on the Switch in full swing, arcade game ports seem to be making a minor comeback.

I host The Short Game, a podcast about short video games. (This article accompanies our recent episode covering arcade games on the Switch.) We’ve been celebrating great video games under 10 hours for almost five years (over 175 episodes!) and as we’ve often noted, arcade games are the original short games. Browsing the eShop, it seemed like one in five releases were some sort of arcade game port, so I got to wondering exactly how many arcade games were actually available on Nintendo’s newest darling.

I’ve put together a list of every arcade game currently available on the Switch (as of 3/12/19). I’m limiting my definition to games that appeared at one time on an actual arcade machine. I’m not counting “arcade-style” games (the “Arcade” section of the eShop is a confusing mess), nor am I counting pinball games. I’ve divided my list into arcade compilations and individual downloads. At the end of this article I’ve also included some info on arcade accessories for the Switch.

Just Tell Me The Total!

There are currently 249 arcade games currently available to play on the Nintendo Switch as of 3/12/2019. If you think I have missed any, please let me know on Twitter @raygank.

Now, the complete list:

- Individual Downloads -

Several developers are producing bite-sized ports of arcade games and releasing them for individual purchase on the eShop.

Sega Ages: Out Run — 1 game

A fantastic port of one of the most beloved arcade racers of all time. This port, like previous port to 3DS, was handled by powerhouse retro porting studio M2. It includes many extras and new features like remixed music and additional difficulty levels.

Arcade Archives releases by Hamster — 32 games

Hamster is by far the most prolific porter of arcade games to modern consoles, and their Arcade Archives series is gold standard for this sort of release. New games are released roughly weekly, and Hamster provides a nicely organized and updated list on their website. Of particular interest here are Nintendo arcade games like Punch-Out!! and Donkey Kong that have never before received official releases in their original arcade versions.

Many of Nintendo’s arcade games are available as official releases for the first time.

The 32 games currently available are:

10-Yard Fight
ALPHA MISSION
ARGUS
ATHENA
Atomic Robo-Kid
BOMB JACK
City CONNECTION
CRAZY CLIMBER
DONKEY KONG
DONKEY KONG JR.
DOUBLE DRAGON
DOUBLE DRAGON II The Revenge
EXCITEBIKE
FRONT LINE
HEROIC EPISODE
Ikki
Kid Niki Radical Ninja
Kid’s Horehore Daisakusen
Mario Bros.
MOON CRESTA
MOON PATROL
Ninja-Kid
OMEGA FIGHTER
PUNCH-OUT!!
Renegade
RYGAR
Sky Skipper
STAR FORCE
TERRA CRESTA
Traverse USA
URBAN CHAMPION
VS. SUPER MARIO BROS.

ACA Neo Geo releases by Hamster — 104 games

Hamster seems most of the way to releasing the entire Neo Geo catalogue. Far too many games list here, but again they have a nice list on their website. A few highlights from the collection

Blazing Star
Garou: Mark of the Wolves
King of Fighters ‘98
Magical Drop III
Metal Slug Series
Money Puzzle Exchanger
Neo Turf Masters
Pulstar
Puzzle Bobble 1 & 2
Samurai Showdown
Shock Troopers
Twinkle Star Sprites

“Johnny Turbo’s Arcade” releases — 13 games

Many Data East arcade games have been ported to Switch by Flying Tiger Entertainment under the “Johnny Turbo’s Arcade” banner. Johnny Turbo was the mascot for the Turbo Duo console in America and had nothing to do with Data East. Why is he here? We know the odd story, thanks to NintendoLife:

Johnny Turbo from a promotional comic throwing shade (and lasers) at the Sega CD.

“The apparent connection here is that Flying Tiger was founded by Johnny Brandstetter, the brand manager for the TurboGrafx-16 (PC Engine) in North America. The character of Johnny Turbo was based on Brandstetter, and we assume that since TTI’s collapse in the ’90s and Hudson Soft’s purchase by Konami in more recent years, he’s retained the rights to the character.”

Weird.

Bad Dudes
Break Thru
Fighters History
Gates of Doom
Heavy Barrel
Joe and Mac Caveman Ninjas
Night Slashers
Nitro Ball
Shoot Out
Sly Spy: Secret Agent
Super Burger Time
Two Crude Dudes
Wizard Fire

Psyiko arcade shooters — 9 games

These are mostly well regarded arcade shooters, ported to the Switch by Zerodiv. Gunbird 2 and Zero Gunner 2 are both games I played a lot on Dreamcast and definitely think are worth a try on Switch. Interestingly, Zero Gunner 2 isn’t exactly a port, it’s a from scratch rebuild since the source code was lost.

Dragon Blaze
Gunbarich
Gunbird
Gunbird 2
Samurai Aces
Sol Divide Sword of Darkness
Strikers 1945
Strikers 1945 II
Zero Gunner 2

Windjammers from DotEmu — 1 game

Flying disc “pong with a pulse” game Windjammers is notably absent from the ACA Neo Geo series, but it’s recieved a full rebuild with modern features by developer DotEmu, including online multiplayer.

Ikaruga — 1 game

I believe this is a port of the home console version, but Ikaruga is a notable and popular arcade shooter from Treasure.

- Collections and Compilations -

I love a good arcade game compilation release. These were much more common before the age of digital distribution, but even now they have a lot of value thanks to the curation and additional materials they often include.

Namco Museum Arcade Pac — 10 games

Namco has always been a better steward of its own history than its contemporaries, and the long running Namco Museum series is a testament to that. This isn't the largest collection in the series, but it includes the heavy hitters.

Dig Dug
Galaga
Galaga ‘88
Pac-Man
Rolling Thunder
Rolling Thunder 2
Sky Kid
Splatterhouse
Tank Force
Tower of Druaga

This collection also includes Pac-Man Vs. and (on its physical cart release) Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus. These aren’t technically arcade games, but they’re a nice inclusion. Pac-Man Vs. is particularly interesting on Switch as the original GameCube release required an impractical setup of multiple GameBoy Advance consoles connected to the GameCube via special cables. The Switch version just requires two Switch consoles.

Capcom Beat Em Up Bundle — 7 games

A great themed collection that includes most of Capcom’s best beat-em-ups for $20 on the eShop.

Final Fight (1989)
The King of Dragons (1991)
Captain Commando (1991)
Knights of the Round (1991)
Warriors of Fate (1992)
Armored Warriors (1994)
Battle Circuit (1997)

SNK 40th Anniversary Collection — 24 games

Digital Eclipse has done a great job bringing these obscure pre-Neo-Geo SNK games to the Switch. Not all are particularly fun to play today, but there are some real gems here and the presentation of the collection is top notch.

Of particular note is Ikari Warriors, whose unusual “loop lever” joystick was never properly emulated by MAME. This release successfully converts it to a twin-stick shooter, making it truly playable for the first time in years.

Alpha Mission
Athena
Crystalis
Ikari Warriors
Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road
Ikari Warriors III: The Rescue
Guerilla War
P.O.W.
Prehistoric Isle
Psycho Soldier
Street Smart
TNK III
Vanguard

Several games were added as free DLC after the initial release:

Chopper I
Fantasy
Munch Mobile
Sasuke vs. Commander
Time Soldiers
Beast Busters
Bermuda Triangle
ZMA Wars
Paddle Mania
SAR Search and Rescue
World Wars

Atari Flashback Classics — 30 games

Easily the largest and most comprehensive collection on the Switch, Atari Flashback Classics contains 150 games (!) but many of those are Atari 2600 and 5200 games. The collection includes 30 games in their original arcade versions:

Asteroids
Asteroids Deluxe
Atari Baseball
Atari Basketball
Atari Football
Atari Soccer
Avalanche
Black Widow
Canyon Bomber
Centipede
Crystal Castles
Fire Truck/Smokey Joe
Gravitar
Liberator
Lunar Lander
Major Havoc
Maze Invaders
Millipede
Missile Command
Monte Carlo
Pong
Pool Shark
Red Baron
Sky Diver
Space Duel
Sprint
Super Breakout
Super Bug
Tempest
Warlords

R-Type Dimensions EX — 2 games

This is a port of the PS3/Xbox 360 versions of these games, but they do include the option to play with the original pixel art and music instead of the ugly new 3D graphics.

R-Type
R-Type II.

Dragon’s Lair Trilogy — 3 games

You didn’t think we’d escape a port of Dragon’s Lair, did you? These games have been ported to everything from iPhone to HDDVD, and here they are on Switch.

Dragon’s Lair
Space Ace
Dragon’s Lair 2: Time Warp.

Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection — 12 games

Includes 12 street fighter games from the Street Fighter 1, 2, 3, and Alpha series. Yes, these count as 12 separate games. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Street Fighter
Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior
Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition
Street Fighter 2 Turbo: Hyper Fighting (online-enabled)
Super Street Fighter 2
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo (online-enabled)
Street Fighter Alpha
Street Fighter Alpha 2
Street Fighter Alpha 3 (online-enabled)
Street Fighter 3: New Generation
Street Fighter 3: Double Impact
Street Fighter 3: Third Strike (online-enabled)

Arcade Accessories

The Flip Grip is a $12 accessory for your switch that allows you to play with the screen rotated 90 degrees. This is ideal for games that were originally presented in portrait mode aka tate mode. Tons of games support the orientation required for this accessory. See Jeremy Parish’s comprehensive list here.

If you prefer to play your arcade games with a real arcade joystick there are a few options available for the Switch. Personally I think the best value is the 8Bitdo N30 Arcade Stick, which can be used with the Switch, PC, and with many retro consoles via 8Bitdo’s retro receivers. It’s a solid if not super high end option for just $60, and the buttons and stick can be easily swapped out for higher end Sanwa parts if you so choose.