Best Indie Games With Arcade Action

Key Takeaways

• Modern games are sometimes heavily inspired by traditional arcade games for quick, accessible experiences.
• Vampire Survivors focuses on instant gratification and an addictive arcade-style loop.
• Death Road To Canada offers top-down arcade action with co-op and a zombie apocalypse setting.

Traditional arcade games are a beloved pastime for many, often providing challenging short-form experiences designed to eat loose change at an alarming rate. Despite being somewhat of a lost art, many modern games take heavy inspiration from those that were once played on arcade cabinets.

These games are often focused on providing players with short experiences that are quick to pick up and play. Despite their often accessible natures, these games also tend to provide quickly steepening difficulty curves.

1 Vampire Survivors

An Addictive Experience Focused On Instant Gratification

Featuring an entirely undemanding gameplay loop that’s more concerned with instant gratification than challenge or innovation, Vampire Survivors features all the trappings of an arcade machine, designed to offer players an addictive short-form experience. However, Vampire Survivors is great for those who want an undemanding, accessible experience with minimal controls and meta-progression.

This roguelite structure is somewhat contradictory to the arcade-style action of Vampire Survivors, but it dramatically helps the game’s accessibility. Players that want a more old-school, hardcore experience, however, should consider other titles.

2 Disc Room

A High-Intensity Arcade Experience Focused On Short Sprints

Taking place in an intergalactic slaughterhouse, Disc Room is a neat and intuitive arcade experience about, quite simply, avoiding (deadly) discs in a series of claustrophobic rooms. Disc Room is tightly focused on short sprints of gameplay that often meet truly violent ends, and the result is a fast-paced time-attack-style gameplay loop that’s easy to pick up and play.

Disc Room‘s hyper-short-form nature won’t be for everyone, and players should expect to die countless times to the variety of deadly saw-blades spinning around each of the game’s tightly-packed rooms. However, players on the lookout for a minimalist, high-intensity arcade experience should consider giving Disc Room a try.

3 Death Road To Canada

Top-Down Arcade Action In A Zombie Apocalypse

Featuring a gameplay loop similar to The Oregon Trail combined with a classic zombie apocalypse setting, Death Road To Canada offers an unforgiving, fast-paced experience from a top-down perspective. Retro pixel art, crunchy sound effects, and simple, intuitive action combined with light management gameplay result in an accessible title with a great deal of charm.

One of Death Road To Canada‘s greatest strengths is the addition of local co-op, which dramatically elevates the arcade action by emphasizing teamwork. For fans of top-down action, roguelikes, and zombie apocalypse settings, Death Road To Canada is worth a try.

4 Chop Goblins

A Brisk Old-School Adventure Packed With Charm

• Platform(s): PC, Nintendo Switch
• Released: 2022
• Developer(s): David Szymanski
• Genre: FPS

Chop Goblins is an old-school first-person shooter that focuses its efforts on providing short but wholly varied FPS action. This title, developed by DUSK creator David Szymanski, can be completed in roughly half an hour, but this brief playtime works in its favor, ensuring the experience never grows stale and making it perfect for those with little time.

The classic FPS action is complemented by arcade-style coin-collecting and the titular Chop Goblins themselves, Gremlins-inspired devils that spout crazy voice lines in ridiculous voices. Combined with its low price and bundles of charm, Chop Goblins is worth trying for any fan of arcade games and first-person shooters alike.

5 Post Void

An Arcade-Style FPS Roguelike

Post Void is a frantic first-person shooter with a roguelike structure that features the same rampant pace common in arcade games, combined with vivid imagery, relentless music, and hardcore action. Post Void won’t be for everyone, and its visuals may steer some players away right out of the gate, but its low price and instant action make it incredibly accessible.

Every run through Post Void is a non-stop rush that can end in the blink of an eye, but the game’s expressive movement controls and intuitive action make restarting a relatively painless experience. It also helps that Post Void is absent of needless complexities, keeping the fast-paced gameplay from getting bogged down.

6 Huntdown

A Nostalgic Throwback To Run-And-Gun Gameplay And 80s Cinema

Clearly made with arcade-style action in mind, Huntdown is a throwback to old-school run-and-gun games with a nostalgic veneer, though it maintains its own personality with talented voice work and a well-crafted sci-fi setting. As nostalgic as Huntdown is for games of old, it’s also clearly influenced by 80s and 90s action cinema, particularly with its over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek tone.

Huntdown is perfect for fans of arcade action who are nostalgic for run-and-gun shooters such as Contra or even Metal Slug. Overall, Huntdown‘s exaggerated tone and setting, pulpy attitude, and cover-based gunfights make it the perfect choice for fans of side-scrollers.

7 Downwell

An Arcade Action Roguelike With An Elegant Design

Downwell is a truly unique action roguelike that tasks players with barreling down a well, controlling their fall, and simultaneously battling enemies with their dual-purpose gun boots. This results in a gameplay loop that’s fresh and engaging, yet incredibly accessible, and it’s perfect for fans of arcade action.

The stark, minimalist visuals, intuitive gameplay, and short-form structure, combined with a naturally relentless pace, make Downwell an experience that would fit right in at any arcade. Furthermore, the game features an accessible price point.

8 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

Modern Arcade Action That Pays Loving Homage To The Classics

Paying homage to a true classic arcade game, Turtles In Time, as well as the franchise as a whole, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is a retro-style beat ’em up packed with arcade action and crafted with painstaking loyalty to the source material. Shredder’s Revenge combines nostalgic pixel art, crunchy sound effects, and old-school gameplay with a modern quality of life and an excellent soundtrack, offering one of the most faithful adaptations of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to date.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is a relatively short experience with a narrative that comes across as more of an afterthought than anything else. However, the beat ’em up gameplay is tremendously replayable thanks to multiple playable characters, satisfying action, and a multitude of boss battles. Furthermore, the game features local and online co-op that elevates the experience as a whole.