There's not shortage of video games that wax nostalgic for 1980s media and pop-culture, with some outright parodying it at the same time. These action-packed titles, from spin-offs of FPS franchises like Far Cry to indie games like Broforce, don't just parody one-liner spouting protagonists of 1980s blockbusters, but also draw on 1980s aesthetics, video game graphics, and synth music to form their audiovisual themes.
When the fashion and pop-culture of a certain decade of history goes out of style, it becomes "Retro" - which can, ironically enough, make it very stylish. The retro appeal of the 1980s has inspired several 21st-century filmmakers to make 1980s/early 1990s movie parodies like Kung Fury. Other creators, particularly people who grew up in or close to the 1980s, write stories like Ready Player One or create music in the Synthwave genre intended to earnestly homage, warts and all, a decade formative to their childhood years.
In the following action-packed video games, gamers will experience all sorts of tropes and trends common to 1980s/early 1990s cinema: street fighters and cyber-commandoes who sport sleeveless vests, bandanas, and fingerless gloves, for instance. Many of these games also satirize social ills that rose to prominence in the 1980s and still trouble the world to this day - greedy corporate culture, the botched "War On Drugs," excessive militarism, etc.
Broforce
Broforce is an homage to the patriotic American action movie and its hero from the 1980s/early 1990s. Published by Devolver Digital and made by the Free Lives game studio in South Africa, the co-op gameplay of Broforce resembles 2D side-scrolling games such as Contra, but with destructible terrain. During missions, players are air-dropped into enemy territory to shoot and blow up everything they see (for freedom, of course). Each selectable character, equipped with special weapons and abilities, is a non-copyright infringing version of a classic movie action hero, with names like Rambro, Brobocop, The Brominator, Ellen Ripbro, or MacBrover, among others.
Brigador
"Great Leader Is Dead. Solo Nobre Must Fall." These are the first lines of dialogue players hear in the isometric sci-fi combat game Brigador, made by indie studio Stellar Jockeys. Brigador takes place in a retro-80s cyberpunk city on a far-future colony world ruled by the corrupt military dictatorship of the recently deceased "Great Leader." Players of Brigador, controlling mercenary pilots with unique combat mechs, hovercrafts, and tanks, take on mission contracts from a megacorp trying to take control of the city of Solo Nobre, assassinating figures and wiping out enemy targets in cluttered urban environments. The neon-laced graphics, synthwave soundtrack, and anachronistic technology of Brigador's setting homages pretty much every 1980s science fiction film where interstellar mega-corporations control the future. It's also got a shockingly compelling companion audiobook written by Brad Buckmaster for those who want to dive deeper into its world.
Double Dragon: Neon
The first Double Dragon game was a 1987 arcade title that codified many features of the beat 'em up genre - hordes of street gang enemies, weapons and items players can pick up, side-scrolling co-op action, and a plot where the heroes have to rescue a hostage from a bad guy. The 2012 homage game Double Dragon: Neon takes this action-packed premise and dials it up to 11: protagonists Billy and Jimmy Lee have both the close friendship and ditziness of Bill and Ted, their nemesis is an homage to Skeletor from He-Man, and their quest to save their love interest Marian takes them across the world and into outer space.
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
This 2013 FPS, a spin-off of the original Far Cry 3, takes place in an alternate version of 2007 - a cyberpunk wasteland ravaged by nuclear war, marauding cyborgs, and mutant giant lizards called Blood Dragons that can shoot lasers from their eyes. Player take on the role of Rex "Power" Colt, a patriotic American Cyber-Commando who has to take down his former mentor Sloan and his rogue robotic armory. The gameplay of Far Cry 3 - Blood Dragon is one big shout-out to films like Predator, Commando, Robo-Cop, and Escape From New York, complete with one-liner quips Rex Colt utters every other time he takes down an enemy.