cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/61531915
I was watching some random YouTube video that was listing arcade games for some reason (I honestly don’t even remember what the video was) and they mentioned a game called Cyber-Lip. I’d never heard of it before but it looked cyberpunk to me so I had to dig deeper. Apparently it’s a Neo-Geo arcade game made by SNK in 1990. It’s basically a mix between Contra and Metal Slug, except Metal Slug came out in 1996 (also made by SNK). So I guess this game must’ve been SNK trying out the Metal Slug formula.
Anyway, I have no idea what “Cyber-Lip” means, and I’m not entirely sure this game is cyberpunk beyond the first level. Except the main character is definitely a 90’s cyberpunk:
But this game got me thinking… what other cyberpunk arcade games are there? As obsessed as I am with cyberpunk, I can only think of a couple titles that are close. There’s the Tron and Discs of Tron games, although those are mostly cyberpunk-by-proxy due to their relation to the movie. But what else is there? The Aerosmith rail-shooter Revolution X?? There’s a shoot-em-up called Last Resort whose first level looks cyberpunk to me but I don’t think the rest of the game is. And that’s all I can come up with! That’s crazy to me.
Cyberpunk was in its peak of popularity while arcade games were still popular and yet I’m not aware of any other cyberpunk arcade games. I’m obviously thinking more of the “retro” arcade games here but even if I include modern arcade games, nothing comes to mind.
So help me out, what arcade games can you remember that even might be cyberpunk?
E-SWAT and Crackdown come to mind immediately. Gain Ground. Contra. Atomic Runner. Bionic Commando.
I’d recommend checking out some sort of catalogue of arcade games. You’re right, cyberpunk was big with gamers in the late 1980s, and there were dozens of games that had at least some cyberpunk theming.
It depends very much on how strict you want to be. I’m not familiar with Cyber-Lip, but from screenshots it doesn’t look that much more “cyberpunk” to me than Two Crude Dudes. I would call both of them more “futuristic urban decay”, which I admit is hard to differentiate.
I wouldn’t have called Contra or Bionic Commando cyberpunk (although they are kinda sci-fi) but I’ve never heard of those other games so I’ll definitely check them out, thanks!
And yeah, I’m setting a pretty low bar here. “Futuristic urban decay” is close enough to cyberpunk that I’d be at least interested in playing those games.