Cyber Sled and arena games with unique controls

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I just recently purchased a Namco NeGcon controller, mostly for Ridge Racer and similar games, but in reading up about the controller I learned that it originally was designed for the PSX port of Cyber Sled, which is a game that I haven't thought about in quite a while. It came out a scant six months after Virtua Racing (a game that is still, rightfully, heralded as a classic), and in my eyes was equally, if not more revelatory. My local arcade invested in a 4-player sitdown setup, and it was an incredible experience: a (more) futuristic version of Battlezone, in full shaded 3D, against other people? Incredible!

A few years later, I played the PSX port and it obviously didn't strike the same chord—I was just playing against the CPU, and the cool tread-based controls weren't there. I've yet to try it with the NeGcon but it hardly seems suited given the nature of the arcade's controls. But it got me thinking about this genre of games in general. Obviously there have been others, like that amazing Virtual On (where they did thankfully attempt to bring the arcade controls home), or Namco's later Tokyo Wars, and there are many, many games of this sort available for play online (usually sans the unique controls), but what struck me was that this style of game still seems sort of relevant to contemporary arcades due to the extra experience made available with haptics, specialized controls, and local multiplayer, but they just don't seem to be made anymore or exist in your average D&B or whatever (as far as I know). Looking later, I'm kind of surprised that Propeller Arena never seems to have been developed as an arcade game and was only developed for Dreamcast, because it would have made an amazing game in this style. But then again, I guess Sega also did Alien Front/Online and the arcade version bombed so maybe that's the reason.

One thing that is notable about this subgenre, if you want to refer to it as such, is that over time the direction of influence reversed from arcade->home to home->arcade, with games like Outtrigger taking essentially PCFPS style gameplay and porting it to arcade design style and controls. Tough to say how much this influenced the conceptual boxes outlining newer games vs. financial constraints. Always safe to bet on the latter but likely some mixture of both.

Still, I personally think the arcade Cyber Sled is a game that deserves to be championed as much as the Virtua Racings, Virtual Ons, Ridge Racers, and Suzuka 8 Hours of the world, and that the arena combat arcade game in general is an underappreciated genre. I'm sure there are other underappreciated games in this vein that I'm missing—any favorites of yours?