Well, at least, compared to the Japanese.

I went to my local Wunderland today(A very nice nickel arcade), and instead of the classic American arcade games I'd grown to love(Simpsons, X-Men, Punisher, Avengers, etc, etc), I found that they had updated themselves with a large deal of Japanese arcade games. Mind you, I'm not talking about games MADE in japan and ported here like Tekken or Marvel Vs Capcom; these games were made in Japan and stayed there except for imports like these; many of them still had the cost stickers in Yen, as well as Japanese titles and instructions.

To be frank, these games blew me away. They have so much more variety and uniqueness to them, it is no wonder arcades are still big in Japan.

I'll start with my favorite game, an odd title called Panic Park. This game has a very simple layout; there are two handles set into the machine in a large semi-circular slot in the front. They can each slide all the way to either side. There are no buttons other than the start buttons. The game is simple; each player's character can move left or right on the screen on varying mini-game style levels(Indeed, each of the 5 random levels in the game can last from 10 to 60 seconds), with varying objectives such as catching a slowly falling piece of money, dodging various obstacles, or staying centered on a large plate as sections fall off. The challenge is that you are competeing against each other; you can force one players character to the side by forcing that player's CONTROLLER over to the side, creating a great, extremely entertaining reverse tug of war as you try to shove the other player to the side. The game is extremely simple and fast paced, but is an absolute blast to play, and is easily the most fun arcade game I've played.

Then there's the arcade version of Gamecube's F-Zero GX. Now, they could have gotten away with just porting over the console game to the arcade, but they took it a step furthur, allowing you to customise your vehicle by bringing in a Gamecube memory card and sticking it in an assigned slot, allowing a much deeper arcade game than most.

Then there was a game that I cannot think of the name of, though I can tell you it is their answer to the console & arcade light gun game Silent Scope. In Silent Scope, you play a sniper in various missions such as sniping a kidnapper running through a football game or sniping from one tower to another. However, the Japanese counterpart of this game focuses on a much more realistic take on sniping. The missions, like Panic Park, are quite short(Many are ended with a single shot, such as assassinations or taking out a fleeing car), but requiring you to take careful aim in between, manually adjusting your sights, creating a very fast paced and addictive game. It is also supplemented by a story presented in comic form, but since it was entirely in Japanese, I could not understand a bit of it.

There were many more examples than this, including Guitar Freaks, a drum game, and a very unique game based on Fist of the North Star, but that should give you enough of an idea of what I mean when I say we don't really know how to make a great arcade game :O