Huntdown might be something you’re interested in. 16 bit side scroll shoot ‘em up. It’s on mobile and switch and probably other platforms
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Sorry, I was referring more to coin-op stand-up arcade games, not arcade-inspired indie games. But yes, Huntdown is a fantastic game and I'm looking forward to the roguelike sequel Huntdown: Overtime!
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.
GunForce (Irem) maybe can fit
Speaking of Metal Slug, Gunforce 1 and 2 are other spiritual prequels to that game (especially 2) and might fit as cyberpunk for you - or at least sci-fi (they even have some screams that were later reused in MS)
I would say that Strider fits cyberpunk. Osman is a similar game and might also fit
Not sure Numan Athletics would fit, but I can totally see it as "official sports in a cyberpunk world"
Undercover Cops has a very gritty aesthetic (also reminiscent of Metal Slug) and the first boss is a cyborg.
Something to note is that a lot of sci-fi in Japan in the late 80s and early 90s started to mix with magic and demon stuff, or some sort of alien biotech, it's very easy to find examples of that in anime and games (like contra 3), but these themes were rarely consistent through the entire game, it was more common to find a bit of everything thrown together
Not arcade, but Neon Inferno might be worth checking out
I think it's because cyberpunk was an emerging genre at that point. Neuromancer was only six years old in 1990. Snow Crash wouldn't be out for another two years.
Cyberpunk also represents people's worries and fears regarding capitalism and what society will look like if it continues in the current trejectory, those fears weren't as pronounced in the 1990s.
Metal Slug was made by Nazca, a former Irem team that did GunForce 1&2.
2020 Super Baseball has cyberpunk like elements to it. I'm not sure you'd like it though unless you like arcade sports titles.
Maybe Check out Shadowgate or Syndicate while you're at it.
I used to love Syndicate.
