Fantasy

Also known as: N/A

Developer: SNK

Maybe I've just seen a lot of unicorns and dwarves and such mixed in with the word "fantasy" that I guess I was expecting something along those lines…or a poorly-designed adult title. Either one. What I didn't expect was to play a game that feels more like a console game, with various levels designs and such…like starting off by needing to land a hot-air balloon on a pirate ship while avoiding enemy fire, then navigating through the ship, and on through various other stages like a jungle. There are ten different scenes in total, according to the flyer…but they also include the introduction and the ending as "scenes," so it's more like eight stages, where after the pirate ship, you wind up in a jungle, a native village, and back in your hot air balloon for the final chase that eventually take you over the London Bridge…all to save your beloved Cheri who had been kidnapped. And in classic arcade fashion, after you save Cheri and see the ending, she gets kidnapped again and you're expected to go through that who process all over again. Maybe the main character fantasizes about Cheri getting kidnapped constantly? I'd fantasize about not having to go through the trouble of constantly having to save her, personally. Or of having the roles reversed - let me get tied up to a pole and almost eaten by cannibals and let her come and save me. Anyway, Fantasy is a pretty ambitious game for the time, and it's passable for what it is…but I feel like it tries too many different things. It's a case of having a variety of game styles in one arcade cabinet, but not a single one of them is excellent. They're all just merely passable. Still, the novelty of playing through it all is enjoyable enough to make it worth your while…I just can't imagine that too many folks bothered to come back and play it again once they made it through the first time.

Review added: 04/06/2026

Final Fight

Also known as: Final Crash (Bootleg - Japan)

Developer: Capcom

If you've only played Final Fight on the Super NES and loved it, but have never played the arcade original, then you would probably be blown away by the differences. As a child, I loved the Super NES Final Fight…and then as I got older, I managed to play the arcade version of the game and I was blown away. Not just by how much more I enjoyed the arcade version, but by how much was lacking in the Super NES port. The arcade version of Final Fight is one of the better brawlers that you could play - with nice, large characters on screen, and you may see half a dozen enemies or more flooding the screen at once to try to take you down. The number of enemies on screen means that Final Fight never has a chance to feel boring or repetitive since you're constantly brawling for your life and trying to prevent members of the Mad Gear Gang from swarming in on you. While taking down that swarm, you'll find that while the attacks in this game are fairly basic, there is a strategy involved for defeating your opponents, using as few quarters as possible. Each boss and character has a weakness/pattern that you can exploit to obtain victory….but let's face it. Final Fight is an arcade game. The goal of an arcade game is to make it so difficult that players have to keep pumping quarters in to see the end, but not so difficult that they give up. Thankfully, with Final Fight, Capcom made a very good brawler that most fans would gladly plop dozens of quarters in to rescue Mike Haggar's daughter over and over again.

Review added: 11/10/2025

Frenzy

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Stern Electronics

Berzerk was a pretty big success for Stern Electronics, so it's natural that they wanted to capitalize on it and create a sequel. If you've played Berzerk, then played Frenzy, you'll notice the similarities immediately…and it also won't take too long to start noticing some of the differences, too. The first thing that you may notice is that in Berzerk, the walls were "electrified" and would kill you (and enemies) on contact…in Frenzy, they won't harm you by touching them. However, some walls are destructible, meaning you can only hide behind a wall for so long before the enemies shoot a hole through it and are able to get you. The other walls reflect shots, so if you aren't careful with your aim, you could find your bullets ricocheting back at you, causing yourself to lose a life. Likewise, though, if you're clever enough, you can trick some of the enemies into shooting themselves using the same tactic. Another difference, Evil Otto, the smiley-faced psychopath, was invincible in Berzerk. However, in Frenzy, he is a mere mortal man. Shooting Otto once removes his smile, shooting Otto a second time makes him frown, and shooting Otto a third and final time, puts the abnormally happy fellow down for good….well, kind of. Another Evil Otto usually spawns right after one is taken down, and each time you wipe out an Evil Otto, the next one seems to get faster…so, while you can fight back against Evil Otto in this game, it's usually best to just leave that smiling sicko be, unless you've got no choice but to defend yourself. Also new is that every four rooms will introduce you to a "special" room with unique elements to them, four different types of room in total - Big Otto, Power Plant, Central Computer, and Robot Factory. Big Otto shows a massive Otto in the room…and if you happen to kill Evil Otto in that room, the big guy will go into a rage and send four more Evil Ottos into the room, all of them moving at a high speed. In the Power Plant room, shooting the power plant will disable all robots, allowing you to freely escape the room without issues. In the Central Computer room, the opposite occurs - shooting the computer will cause the robots to move and shoot erratically. Lastly, the Robot Factory room, you'll get an endless sea of robots appearing until you exit the room and enter the next area. All in all, Frenzy does a very good job of taking most of what made Berzerk so fun, and adding to it. I know it puts me into a Frenzy of wanting to play more.

Review added: 04/06/2026

Frisky Tom

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Nichibutsu

The North American arcade flyer for Frisky Tom has a cartoon of a nude woman in a bathtub (with the naughty bits covered up by bubbles) and ol' Frisky Tom standing next to the tub with some mice looking on. If you're wondering if Tom is a pervert, then you can be at ease knowing that Tom only wears hats too big for his pin head, so the hat is covering his eyes, so when you're playing Frisky Tom and take the role of the pin-headed plumber, rest assured that you aren't playing as a pervo. Anyway, there IS a reason for the cartoon lady on the flyer (and on the cabinet marquee) since the goal of Frisky Tom is to get as much water as possible to the lady's shower. While this sounds simple enough, those dastardly mice don't really want anyone to be able to bathe, so they have fun breaking pieces of the water piping that Tom needs to climb and fix. Now, if you're saying to yourself, "Mice breaking waterlines doesn't sound dastardly, that just sounds mischievous,"…Well, if that's all they did, I'd agree with you. However, once the mice begin setting up explosives to blow up the water tank…well, that's pretty dastardly, isn't it? So, aside from trying to fix the broken pipes, you also need to climb over and "fall" past the lit fuse for the explosives to snuff out the fuse and prevent everything from going boom. There are also three different kinds of mice that ol' Tom will be exposed to - yellow, purple, and white. The yellow mice are harmless (aside from their destructive nature) and Tom can knock them off the pipes for points. Purple mice will kill Tom, and will often dive from the pipes in an effort to end his life….yellow mice will turn into a purple mouse if they stay on the screen long enough to damage a pipe, so trying your best to provide pest control while repairing pipes and putting out bombs is key to survival. The last mouse, a white mouse, is the one with matches - these are the mice that light the fuse for the bomb, so you've got to be on the lookout for them, otherwise by the time you notice the fuse is lit, it may be too late. Overall, Frisky Tom is a passable game. I wouldn't consider it a must-play game, but it's still decent, frantic (or would it be frisky?) fun while it lasts.

Review added: 04/06/2026

Frogger

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Konami

Frogger was one of the more popular arcade games of its day, and has since been immortalized in our culture through the episode of Seinfeld where George doesn’t want his top score to be lost…and I must admit, I’m a bit more fond of that Seinfeld episode than I am of this game. Don’t get me wrong, Frogger was solid for its time, but it just never hooked me like some of the other games from back then did, like Donkey Kong or Pac-Man. For those who have never played it, the goal of Frogger is to move from the bottom of the screen to the top of the screen and into the little coves up at the very top. In the way of your progress is a freeway full of traffic and a river full of hazards…like deadly water…because frogs hate water and can't swim, I guess. But anyway, putting the “avoid the water as a frog” logic aside, the end result of Frogger is a pretty solid game. It takes good timing and minor memorization to get your frogs up to their coves, and the gameplay is addicting enough to keep you coming back for more until you finally get those little web-footed amphibians to their little homes at the top of the screen.  I may not have ever been the biggest fan of Frogger when compared to other games at the time, but I still think that it's a very solid game. I can also still appreciate it for what it is – one of the best arcade games ever made, and one that many folks still look back at fondly today.

Review added: 07/31/2020