The 1980s were part of the golden age of arcade video games. Coin-op arcade machines had more power than any home console and much more elaborate games. Video gaming became part recreational activity, part cultural phenomenon, and part social activity for audiences of all ages.
Arcade video games were built to make as much money as possible. As a result, they were visually appealing, addicting to play, and usually very difficult. This combination created many games that were smash hits at the time and remain fondly remembered. Some titles particularly stand out from their fellows in sheer quality.
10 Defender
Defender was a 1981 video game that cast the player as a spaceship pilot protecting the Earth from alien invasions. It played similarly to some other games. It was a side-scrolling shooter where the player had to avoid obstacles and defeat enemies. However, Defender set itself apart with other gameplay goals.
Defender players had to do more than fight and survive. They also had to protect astronauts from abduction. If an alien ship picked up a human, the player had to shoot it down and catch the astronaut before they fell to Earth. This created frantic gameplay with multiple shifting priorities that audiences warmed to.
9 Dragon's Lair
Dragon's Lair's main selling point was its beautiful art style. Unlike the computer-rendered graphics of most other arcade games, Dragon's Lair used the storage capacity of LaserDisc to present players with hand-drawn animation. The actual gameplay was very simple. Players watched randomly-ordered events, each of which required a specific button press to succeed, much like a modern quick-time event.
However, Dragon's Lair's gameplay was secondary. It showcased the potential video games had to be visually stunning and the warm response of audiences to this approach. It became a must-play game that bolstered the industry in 1983. Even with its high price and limited gameplay, many still remember it fondly.
8 Joust
Joust wasn't a game about horseback combat, as the name might imply. Instead, the players controlled knights who rode ostriches into battle. They had to make their ostrich fly by tapping a button and ride into enemies to defeat them. Joust required careful precision to hit enemies when the player's lance was higher to unseat them.
This novel gameplay helped put Joust on the map. However, it was best known for providing one of the first instances of polished and effective two-player cooperative gameplay in a video game. It helped popularize the concept of games that let friends fight side-by-side against a game's challenges.
7 Missile Command
Missile Command was one of the 1980s' first significant arcade video games. It reflected the Cold War era of its release. The player controlled anti-missile defenses attempting to protect six cities from nuclear attack. They had three batteries of ten missiles, each of which they guided with a trackball to shoot down as many missiles as possible.
Like many early arcade games, there was no way to win Missile Command. The levels got increasingly more difficult until the player failed to protect their last city. Despite this grim denouement to the game, it proved a smash hit with audiences. Its difficulty curve, frantic gameplay, and rewarding player skill over luck remain a winning combination today.
6 Double Dragon
Double Dragon was one of the first beat-'em-up games to reach a global audience and find wide success. It let two players control a pair of brothers as they fought their way through the Black Warriors street gang and their henchmen. It codified many of the tropes of side-scrolling beat-em-up games, such as equipping enemies' weapons and side-scrolling progression in and of itself.
Double Dragon was popular with audiences for combining well-crafted combat gameplay with aesthetics and storytelling from action movies. Double Dragon did more than spawn several sequels. It set the direction for the beat-'em-up genre as a whole. The Double Dragon franchise is a long-running one, but few of its games are as beloved as the 1987 original.
5 Dig Dug
Dig Dug took an unconventional video game premise and ran with it. Players controlled a miner who had to tunnel underground to fight many types of enemies. In Dig Dug, the player had to plan their route and use two different methods to dispatch enemies without getting hit themselves.
Dig Dug let players defeat enemies either by inflating them with an air pump or dropping rocks on them by digging out the ground underneath. Either method required careful strategy on the player's part. The aesthetic, tactical gameplay, and replayability of Dig Dug made it a big name in arcade gaming.
4 Frogger
Frogger took simple gameplay and made it exhilarating. The player controlled a family of frogs attempting to return to their home at the top of the screen. However, they had to cross obstacles such as a busy road and an alligator-infested river to do so. Players had to move in one direction at a time to cross these obstacles.
Frogger became infamous for its high difficulty and addictive gameplay. It had the most ways to die of any video game of the time. Players had to use precise timing to avoid obstacles like cars and alligators' mouths. Many still regard it as one of the best video games ever made.
3 Galaga
Galaga was one of many immensely-successful space-themed shooters of the 1980s. However, it rose above many of its contemporaries as a standout example of arcade gaming. The player controls a ship at the bottom of the screen, firing at the Galaga aliens above them.
Galaga's reflexes-based gameplay and sci-fi aesthetic proved appealing to gamers. It had several innovations over other shooters of the time, such as the option of losing a spaceship to later acquire a powerful "dual-fighter" with greater firepower. It's still considered one of the 1980s' best games.
2 Pac-Man
Every gamer alive and many non-gamers know of Pac-Man. It was one of the 1980s' first major successes in arcade gaming that remains beloved to this day. Pac-Man players control a circular, mouth-like figure as he eats his way through a maze, pursued by four ghosts.
Pac-Man's challenging and addictive gameplay led it to great success. It combines genuine thrills as the player flees from ghosts and genuine catharsis when they eat a power pellet and turn the tides against their pursuers. Pac-Man was one of the highest-grossing games ever made. It still has a strong cultural legacy.
1 Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong is best known as the first game to feature Mario. Since then, its protagonist has become the single most recognizable character in all of video gaming. In Donkey Kong, players controlled Mario as he fought his way up a collection of platforms to save his girlfriend, Pauline, from the titular gorilla.
Players had to jump over barrels, avoid them on ladders, or smash them with a hammer. As they did this, they had to climb closer to Donkey Kong and Pauline. It pioneered the platforming genre and popularized it with audiences. Since then, the Mario franchise has continued to be one of gaming's most successful.