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.

The Short Game Podcast

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

Outrun

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

Gunbird 2 Arcade Flier

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

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.

8Bitdo’s N30 Arcade Stick

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.