There's a huge array of roguelikes that might fit your wants.
this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2026
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Roguelikes came to mind for me, too. Some of them are basically "what if Donkey Kong kept going forever, but also you held onto some powerups, even after a game over. Oh and Donkey Kong sometimes talks to Mario about the existential nature of failure."
The two I've played the most:
- Dead Cells
- Hades
Was thinking just that. Somehow, Enter the gungeon entered my mind. But then also Hades, because it has such good storytelling
In Dicey Dungeons, you do turn-based battles by rolling dice and assigning them to your moves, which are tiles that fit on a grid. There's a set of storylines about a bunch of characters who have been turned into anthropomorphic dice.
Just Shapes and Beats is a rhythm-bullet hell hybrid where you dodge graphical patterns set to electronic music. You play through a campaign, including boss fights and goofy animated cutscenes, to unlock more tracks in free-play mode. There's also co-op!
Ash & Adam's GOBSMACKED is a single-player arena FPS. You battle robots in a series of arenas with a set of wacky weapons, with shops in between. At the start of each run, you have to buy yourself a starting loadout using the money you got from previous runs, but you can't choose the same items as your last run. Buying an item for the first time at a shop unlocks it so you can choose it as a starter in a future run.
If you're willing to stretch your definition of arcade-style, Uncle Chop's Rocket Shop has you repairing spacecraft with the help of an old manual but plenty of things kill you, including not making enough money to pay rent. You go through a time loop story where you take what you learned in the previous loop to make it further next time. There are different endings based on what you did in a loop.
The Rogue Prince of Persia. Other rogue-like games would probably work, too.
Another chance for me to talk about Chrono Ark? Sure why not.
I don't know if roguelike deckbuilder falls under your scope of arcade-like, but Chrono Ark has absolutely amazing gameplay combined with a full fledged visual novel between (and occasionally during) runs. And the story is actually quite interesting, and takes some turns you don't see coming and touches on some pretty interesting themes.
Cannot recommend it enough.
Castle Crashers is an oldie, but goodie.
As others have said, look into the Rogue-like genre. (And also Rogue, itself, if that's your thing.)
I feel that Rogue Legacy and Rogue Legacy 2 deserve some mention here, for being essentially Mega-Man gameplay, but perfected.
In particular, Rogue Legacy 2 has difficulty sliders that can make it extremely arcade-like, such as maxing out both player and enemy damage, to make every encounter a one-hit kill.