Great pick up and play games?

[xarcade]

Resident Evil: Mercinaries is great for pickup and play on the 3DS. And so are the Gameboy and SNES emulators, using the Cubic Ninja exploit. Same goes for Smash Bros.

 

[jeffensminger]

Any fighting game or magical drop. I always have a capcom fighter or the drop in my cab.

 

[RBjakeSpecial]

Spelunky is like the quintessential pick up and play game. You only get 1 life, level layouts are random, and the game is short (but not that you're going to beat it easily).

OH DEFINITELY. I love this game so much. I found it perfect for the short burst play.

Some more recommendations:

Strategy fans:
Democracy 3 - you can rock through a game pretty quickly and get some good results.

PSP:
Darius Burst - so fun to just play a challenge for a few minutes or see how far you can get.

 

[Jarofmayo]

Almost any of the kirby games are great pick up and play games.

 

[JLZ]

Luftrausers and Spelunky are both great if you've only got a few minutes to spare.

I find if I have people over who aren't really into old school / arcade gaming, the one game that everyone seems to really like is Shock Troopers.