The bright lights and cacophony of the arcade might seem like an odd home for the intricate exploration of a Metroidvania or the precise jumps of a platformer. Designed for short, quarter-grabbing sessions, arcade cabinets had to adapt these genres to their profit-driven environment. They did so through clever, often condensed, mechanical integration.

For platforming mechanics, the focus was on immediate, skill-based challenges. Games like *Ghouls 'n Ghosts* and *Strider* offered tight, responsive controls for jumping and attacking, but with a brutal difficulty curve. Levels were linear but packed with environmental hazards and enemy patterns to master. Progression was gated not by acquiring new abilities, but by pure player skill and memorization. Reaching a new screen was the reward. The "power-up" was a core arcade platformer mechanic, often appearing from defeated enemies or blocks. These temporary upgrades, like the spread shot in *Contra*, increased the player's effectiveness, creating moments of powerful dominance that encouraged further play.

True non-linear, ability-gated exploration—the hallmark of Metroidvania—was rare in arcades due to the format's constraints. However, games incorporated proto-Metroidvania ideas. *Black Tiger* featured large, multi-path levels where players could backtrack to previously inaccessible areas after purchasing key items from shops using collected treasure. This created a small loop of non-linear progression. Similarly, *The Legend of Valkyrie* offered branching paths and hidden secrets, rewarding players who explored beyond the main route.

The ultimate arcade adaptation was the continue system. In a home Metroidvania, you explore, die, retry, and eventually succeed. Arcades monetized this loop. Getting a "Game Over" meant inserting another coin to continue from the same spot, directly tying progression to investment. This transformed the acquisition of skill and knowledge into a tangible revenue stream for arcade operators.

Thus, arcade machines incorporated these mechanics by focusing on their most immediate and addictive elements: precise control, rewarding power-ups, and a difficulty curve that perfectly balanced challenge with the tantalizing offer of progression—for just one more coin. They provided a distilled, intense hit of genre excitement, paving the way for their home console successors.