I came of age during the arcade scene resurgence of the early 90s brought on by the likes of Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, and the other games that helped birth the fighting game genre we all love today. For many years, I didn’t have access to a lot of arcade machines outside of the seedy pizza shop downtown and the huge Alfy’s in the next town over. When an actual arcade opened up a 20-minute bus ride away from me, I would go every chance I got. It’s where I first got my hands on Mortal Kombat II, Time Crisis, and that old VS Super Mario Bros. cabinet.
But the Alfy’s is where I have my absolute favorite arcade experience. This pizza parlor/buffet was the happening spot after church or for birthday parties. It had roughly six arcade games, including a four-player Ivan “Ironman” Stewart’s Super Off Road cabinet. This was “the” game to play anytime you were at Alfy’s. I’m surprised the machine didn’t break more because there wasn’t a visit to the joint where the machine wasn’t constantly in use. It was my favorite, until “it” arrived.
Destructoid has written about Ninja Baseball Bat Man before. It’s an extremely rare arcade machine with less than 50 being sold in the US. How my local shop ended up with one of them I’ll never know but I’m so glad it did because Ninja Baseball Bat Man is the best arcade game I’ve ever laid my hands on.
Created by Americans with a Japanese eye for visuals, Ninja Baseball Bat Man lets up to four players control baseball players as they work together to recover artifacts stolen from the Baseball Hall of Fame. It’s a splendidly dumb 90s game concept that modern games could learn a lesson from. Nothing in this game makes sense. Jose, Roger, Straw and Ryno -- and I was always Ryno -- are all baseball players, but America's most boring profession sport isn’t the theme of the game. Anything goes in NBBM as you fight guys with pumpkins for heads, an emaciated dog, a possessed violin, a sentient slot machine and whatever other magic mushroom-induced ideas that manifested in the minds of Irem’s US developers. It’s balls to the window to the wall crazy and I want it.
With so few cabinets in existence, I will probably never get a chance to own one or even see one in the flesh again. But damn, if I had the opportunity to own just one arcade cabinet, this would be it.
via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/if-you-could-own-just-one-arcade-cabinet-which-one-would-it-be--495071.phtml