Summary
- Sony's PlayStation challenged Nintendo's dominance in the console market with its successful sales and diverse game selection.
- The PS1 struggled initially to find its identity but found success with a variety of games like Crash Bandicoot and Metal Gear Solid.
- The PlayStation brand had successful first-person shooters that showcased the console's capabilities and popularity during the mid-nineties.
Sony's PlayStation was a pioneer of three-dimensional console gaming. The PS1's huge sales gave Nintendo serious competition in the home console market, a market that Nintendo had dominated in the years prior. Nintendo's sales were pushed by its iconic collection of mascot characters like Mario , Link , and Donkey Kong , as well as its recognition among consumers as being the company with the best platformers and collections.
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Despite the PlayStation's excellent sales, it initially struggled to find an identity. It was originally marketed as a console for older gamers than its N64 counterpart. However, Sony soon decided that it wanted a slice of Nintendo's pie and tried to brand Crash Bandicoot and Spyro The Dragon as their gaming mascots. Ultimately, the PlayStation brand decided to embrace its diversity, with vastly different games like Crash Bandicoot, Metal Gear Solid, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater all proving to be very successful. One of the original PlayStation's many successful genres was first-person shooters, which were rapidly growing in prominence when the console debuted in the mid-nineties.
Updated on February 1, 2024 by Mark Sammut: The PlayStation was not exactly synonymous with shooters, but that was not for a lack of trying. In fact, Sony's original console has quite an expansive selection, at least for its era. What are the best PS1 FPS games?
On-rail shooters like Time Crisis will not be included.
16 Codename: Tenka
Gamefaqs Rating: 3.33/5
Codename: Tenka
- Released
- May 31, 1997
- Developer(s)
- Psygnosis
- How Long To Beat
- 4 Hours
Also known as Lifeforce Tenka, Codename: Tenka was developed by former British development and publishing team Psygnosis, who are best known for their work on the WipeOut, Lemmings, and Destruction Derby franchises.
The game features a futuristic setting and predominantly pits players against robotic enemies. One of the most unique features of the game is how the player doesn't collect new and improved weaponry like in most shooters but instead finds weapon modifications that change how their gun is fired.
15 007: The World Is Not Enough
Gamefaqs Rating: 3.28/5
The World Is Not Enough (PS1)
- Released
- November 7, 2000
- Developer
- Black Ops Entertainment
- How Long To Beat
- 5 Hours
The World is Not Enough was the second James Bond game to be released on the PlayStation and the first to be released on the Nintendo 64 since the genre-changing GoldenEye 007. Developer's Black Ops Entertainment improved on their previous entry Tomorrow Never Dies with more gadgets, tighter gameplay, and smarter enemy A.I.
Despite these improvements, the development team again made the baffling decision to not include a multiplayer mode, frustrating players who were hoping for a split-screen mode similar to the N64's GoldenEye. This was especially disappointing as Eurocom's N64 version of The World Is Not Enough was released a month earlier and had an excellent multiplayer mode.
14 Disruptor
Gamefaqs Rating: 3.59/5
Disruptor
- Released
- November 20, 1996
- Developer(s)
- Insomniac Games
- How Long To Beat
- 5 Hours
Disruptor was the first game released by Insomniac Games , the company that would go on to develop the original Spyro The Dragon trilogy. Indicative of being the company's first game, it struggled to find its own identity, playing similarly to previously released games like DOOM and Duke Nukem 3D.
Disruptor did have some innovations though, predominantly its Psionics. These Psionics gave players various abilities such as Heal, Shock, and Shield.
13 Alien Trilogy
Gamefaqs Rating: 3.45/5
Alien Trilogy
- Released
- November 30, 1996
- Developer
- Probe Entertainment, Sculptured Software
- How Long To Beat
- 7 Hours
Movie tie-in games are often looked down upon predominantly due to the rushed development that is needed to ensure that they are released in line with the movie release date.
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Alien Trilogy, however, was released over four years after the third Alien movie, giving developers Probe Entertainment plenty of time to make a game fitting of its corresponding films. This development time paid off, as Alien Trilogy provided an enjoyable action experience that sold very well.
12 Hexen: Beyond Heretic
Gamefaqs Rating: 3.56/5
Hexen: Beyond Heretic
- Released
- October 30, 1995
- Developer(s)
- Raven Software
- How Long To Beat
- 10 Hours
A bit of a special case, depending on the class chosen, Hexen: Beyond Heretic might not qualify as a first-person shooter. Built using the ever-reliable Doom engine, Hexen is a dark fantasy epic with a relatively ambitious level design, three character archetypes that support either melee, ranged, or both, and a grim aesthetic.
Heretic's sequel improves upon many of its predecessor's ideas, providing an overall superior and more timeless experience. Just to be clear, the game still very much plays like a '90s shooter, but it has enough charm to be worth revisiting (although, the PC version is unsurprisingly better than the PS1 iteration).
11 Descent
Gamefaqs Rating: 3.8/5
Descent
- Released
- March 17, 1995
- Developer
- Parallax Software
- How Long To Beat
- 14 Hours
Descent is one of the many games on this list that took heavy inspiration from id Software's DOOM and was commonly referred to as one of the 90's "DOOM clones," despite the player being confined to a spaceship.
Although the game took heavy inspiration from DOOM, it also provided its influences on the genre, with its six degrees of freedom movement and the fact that it was the first FPS game to feature true 3D graphics.
10 PowerSlave
Gamefaqs Rating: 3.73/5
PowerSlave
- Released
- October 31, 1996
- Developer
- Lobotomy Software
- How Long To Beat
- 11 Hours
PowerSlave (also known as Exhumed and Seireki 1999: Pharaoh no Fukkatsu) was developed by a now-defunct company known as Lobotomy Software, which also ported Quake and Duke Nukem 3D to the Sega Saturn.
PowerSlave takes players to Egypt and tasks them with taking down a plethora of enemy types, including mummies, scorpions, and evil spirits. The console version of the game implements elements from the Metroidvania genre, as players must find new weapons and artifacts that let them explore previously inaccessible areas.
9 Jumping Flash! 2
Gamefaqs Rating: 3.73/5
Jumping Flash! 2
- Released
- August 31, 1996
- Developer
- Exact
- How Long To Beat
- 2 Hours
Jumping Flash! 2 had the difficult task of trying to emulate the success of the award-winning Jumping Flash!. Developer's Exact didn't try to reinvent the wheel and kept the gameplay very similar to its predecessor.
The game did add performance medals, though, adding replay value to the game by rewarding players for completing levels in different ways.
8 Alien Resurrection
Gamefaqs Rating: 3.51/5
Alien Resurrection
- Released
- October 10, 2000
- Developer
- Argonaut Games
- How Long To Beat
- 7 Hours
A somewhat forgotten 2000 FPS, Alien Resurrection had the misfortune of being tied to a generally disliked movie; furthermore, the game came out years after the film's release, so it could not even take advantage of the project's hype. Still, Argonaut Games deserves a lot of props for putting together a fun, atmospheric, and challenging first-person shooter with a fairly modern control scheme. Utilizing the dual thumbsticks for aiming and movement, Alien Resurrection was ahead of its time, and it has aged better than most PS1 FPS games, even titles that were better and more influential when they initially debuted.
Leaning into the IP's horror roots, Alien Resurrection goes out of its way to stress that the Xenomorphs are extremely vicious and dangerous. Consequently, this is not quite an all-out action shooter and instead plays out closer to a survival horror game with FPS combat. Nowadays, only die-hard Alien fans will likely get a kick out of this release since there are way too many modern FPS games that cover similar ground; however, this title deserves some recognition.
7 Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown
Gamefaqs Rating: 3.61/5
Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown
- Released
- December 2, 1997
- Developer
- Aardvark Software
- How Long To Beat
- 10 Hours
Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown is the name given to the PlayStation port of the game better known as Duke Nukem 3D. The game is heavily inspired by Doom and subsequently plays very similarly. Fast-paced, action gameplay that must be tackled head-on is present throughout Duke Nukem's third entry.
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The game does have a few differentials, though, predominantly through the variety of environments that players fight in, something that the early Doom games lacked. Unfortunately, the PlayStation port of Duke Nukem 3D was far from perfect. It struggled with constant frame rate issues and lacked a split-screen multiplayer mode despite the feature being in the other versions of the game.