Having a place to devote strictly to your love of video games is all but essential. Having to share one TV with your wife will inevitably bring up many “stop playing video games, Project Runway is on” conflicts. Adding an arcade man cave to your home also allows you to celebrate and legitimize your gaming passion you’ve had since a kid. Nothing is better after a long day at work than playing a vintage pac-man stand up. In order to get the ball rolling, here are 25 must-have games for your arcade man cave.
Contents
- 1 Pac-Man
- 2 Asteroids
- 3 Battle Toads
- 4 Doom
- 5 Mortal Kombat
- 6 Hydro Thunder
- 7 Goldeneye 007
- 8 X-Men
- 9 Donkey Kong
- 10 Time Crisis II
- About the author: Trevor Nelson is a content writer for GreatGiftsForMen.com and HomeWetBar.com and is eagerly waiting/planning for the day he has a spare room to deck out as a classic arcade man cave.
1 Pac-Man
It’s impossible to have a respectable arcade themed man cave without this classic. So simple yet so addicting, Pac-Man should be enjoyed in its classic splendor with a full size arcade cabinets.
2 Asteroids
Asteroids is another game that you should certainly have available in your arcade. With this game, it’s alright to simply play this on your TV, as long as you have the right controller. Playing any classic arcade game on an Xbox or PS3 controller is sacreligious.
3 Battle Toads
If you played this game as a kid, you probably tend to have some anger management issues when it comes to video games. Battle Toads was so great because it was the first game explicitly for hate-playing, laying the path for the frustrating masterpiece Dark Souls. Pick up a few controllers with this one, you may be throwing them around a bit.
4 Doom
Ideally you’ll play this game on an old, early 90′s CRT computer. Nothing says “hell” more then having to navigate Windows 3.1 in order to open this game. Full of demons, gore, and guns, this game is the perfect way to let off some steam.
id Software’s Doom logo
5 Mortal Kombat
Nothing captured the love of 90′s kids and ire of their parents more then Mortal Kombat. Fighting games still have trouble topping the game play and visceral fun this game acheived.
6 Hydro Thunder
Depending on the size of your man cave and of your bank account, get your hands on the actual sit-down arcade hardware for this one. Hydro Thunder is one of the newer arcade games on this list, but is infinitely fun.
7 Goldeneye 007
If you’re anything like me, your formative years disappeared into a black hole of Goldeneye. Make sure to play this on a classic N64 controller- a huge part of the Goldeneye experience is trying to play with that god-awful terodactyl claw of a controller.
8 X-Men
The X-Men arcade cabinet deserves way more love that it gets in throwback arcades. One of the best coop experiences, if you can find a stand up version of this in good condition, you and your friends will waste your life away (in a good way) infront of this close to perfect arcade game.
9 Donkey Kong
There are few old school games with as active of a competitive following as Donkey Kong. Like the best games in its day, Donkey Kong features simple game play relying on perfect timing and superb reflexes. Playing this game on a modern console just doesn’t do though, so you’ll have to keep your eyes peeled for the traditional hardware.
10 Time Crisis II
Your arcade themed man cave needs to have at least one point and shoot game, and Time Crisis II is arguably the best. A step up from the first installment from the franchise due to coop play, playing through Time Crisis II with a friend is the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon.