(ThyBlackMan.com) Growing up as a kid on Jackson St., one of my favorite places that I would often frequent in the hood was called “Mr. Joe’s Pool Room” that was owned by an elderly black man named Joe Williams and the pool room was where you could shoot pool, buy cookies, candy, and drinks and you can enjoy yourself playing the arcades by pumping quarters in the arcade machine to beat the game.
Here are my top 5 favorite arcade games.
1. Cobra Command – This was definitely one of my favorite arcade games that I actually enjoyed playing at Mr. Joe’s Pool Room back in the day because I was so good in this game that by the time I got to stage 5 scene 2, I eventually got a Game Over because I couldn’t avoid all those big incoming missiles. One of the things that made this game better than The NES version which was actually a rescue mission game, was that you would get different power ups for the gun, missile, and speed and there were numerous enemies on the screen throughout the entire game from enemy tanks, fighter jets, helicopters, to big tough bosses in the underground like the big mecha robot at the end of stage 2. This game is definitely one of my favorite arcade games.
2. X-Men – This was another arcade game that I truly enjoyed playing at the pool room back in the day because this was basically one of my favorite genres of video games which is beat em’ up. This game had 5 playable X-Men to choose from which includes my two 
favorite X-Men in Storm and Wolverine. One of the things that I definitely enjoyed about this game that stood out from other beat em’ ups at the time was the fact that you can knock down your enemies and while they’re down, you can continue to kick them while they’re down until they’re defeated and then you could even do special attacks like the optic blast from Cyclops to the laser claw from Wolverine. you couldn’t beat down boss characters that were down like Fiero, Juggernaut, Emma Frost, Mystique, and Magneto. The Japanese version of the arcade was much easier than the U.S. version that had much shorter stages and energy recovery item while the U.S. version was much tougher with longer stages and no energy recovery items.
3. Aliens – This arcade game was based on the movie Aliens which was the successful sequel of the 1979 film Alien. And like the X-Men arcade game that came after, The Japanese version of the Aliens arcade was much easier than the U.S. version that had much shorter stages and energy recovery item while the U.S. version was much tougher with longer stages and no energy recovery items. One of the cool things that I loved about this arcade game was the fact that you can choose between the three-way missile, the three-way shooter, and my favorite weapon from the entire game in the flamethrower in which I definitely enjoyed burning the hell out of the xenomorphs. And then you had the power loader robot that can only be used in the later part of stage 3 (stage 2 in the Japanese version) and also the final showdown against a pissed off Alien Queen in stage 8.
4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Growing up, I was a huge fan of The Original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles back in the day because they not only love to eat their favorite food in the pizza, but also lay the smackdown on the baddies like Shredder and his henchmen like Bebop and Rock Steady. This arcade game was so badass because my favorite turtle back then was Leonardo and I absolutely loved to pick up and throw enemy foot soldiers several feet off of the screen and loved to beat them down and I loved the sound effects of this game in the form of when you put in quarters, you’ll hear “Cowabunga” which was definitely amazing to hear. Definitely one of the best all-time arcade games.
5. Ms. Pac-Man – I remember enjoying playing the living daylights out of Ms. Pac-Man not only at my old home, but also in the pool room at the arcades back in the day because this game had the four baddies on the screen at every level as well as pellets that you can not only eat for points, but my favorite thing about this arcade game was that you can eat the big yellow colored super pellets that turns the four baddies from their respective colors into blue so that you can eat them for bonus points. The farthest I made in any version of Ms. Pac-Man was level 23 and that moment made 23 my favorite number.
The Conclusion – Even though the arcade scene will never be as hot as it was in the 1980s and 1990s, the arcade industry has made so many games that are timeless classics like Pac-Man.
Staff Writer; Kwame Shakir (aka Joe D.)