Joust

Oh my god with the fucking noises on this game.

A quick chaotic credit with an endearingly odd setting. Some may like the "What, you thought making an ostrich fly would be easy?" controls more than others, though they're part of the fun in the right mood. Port quality's a bit all over the the place; crucially, no two ever seem to handle at all the same. The NES one's actually kind of disappointing; funnily enough, it was the first game of Satoru Iwata, who'd shortly do a better job of things with Balloon Fight.

this concept could still be fun

Well, it did a good job of eating quarters, this is hard. It's still a solid experience though as far as arcade games go.

A game that turned your television speakers into a Satanic word generator.

Also-ran to Balloon Fight.