Summary
Sony’s PlayStation was a pioneer of three-dimensional console gaming. ThePS1’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.
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 brandCrash BandicootandSpyro The Dragonas their gaming mascots. Ultimately, the PlayStation brand decided to embrace its diversity, with vastly different games likeCrash Bandicoot, Metal Gear Solid,andTony Hawk’s Pro Skaterall 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 May 18, 2025 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 thebest PS1 FPS games?
Also known asLifeforce Tenka,Codename: Tenkawas developed by former British development and publishing team Psygnosis, who are best known for their work on theWipeOut,Lemmings, andDestruction Derbyfranchises.
The gamefeatures a futuristic settingand 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.
The World is Not Enoughwas the secondJames Bondgame to bereleased on the PlayStationand the first to be released on the Nintendo 64 since the genre-changingGoldenEye 007.Developer’s Black Ops Entertainment improved on their previous entryTomorrow Never Dieswith 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’sGoldenEye.This was especially disappointing as Eurocom’s N64version ofThe World Is Not Enoughwas released a month earlier and had an excellent multiplayer mode.
Disruptorwas the first game released by Insomniac Games,the company that would go on to develop the originalSpyro The Dragontrilogy.Indicative of being the company’s first game, it struggled to find its own identity, playing similarly to previously released games likeDOOMandDuke Nukem 3D.
Disruptordid have some innovations though, predominantly its Psionics. These Psionics gave players various abilities such as Heal, Shock, and Shield.
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.
Alien Trilogy, however, was released over four years after the thirdAlienmovie, giving developers Probe Entertainment plenty of time to make a game fitting of its corresponding films. This development time paid off, asAlien Trilogyprovided an enjoyable action experiencethat sold very well.
A bit of a special case, depending on the class chosen,Hexen: Beyond Hereticmight not qualify as a first-person shooter. Built using the ever-reliableDoomengine,Hexenis 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).
Descentis one of the many games on this list that took heavy inspiration from id Software’sDOOMand was commonly referred to as one of the 90’s “DOOMclones,” despite the player being confined to a spaceship.
Although the game took heavy inspiration fromDOOM,it also provided its influences on the genre, with itssix degrees of freedommovement and the fact that it was the first FPS game to feature true 3D graphics.
PowerSlave(also known asExhumedandSeireki 1999: Pharaoh no Fukkatsu) was developed by a now-defunct company known as Lobotomy Software, which also portedQuakeandDuke Nukem 3Dto the Sega Saturn.
PowerSlavetakes 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.
Jumping Flash! 2had the difficult task of trying to emulate the success of the award-winningJumping 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.
A somewhat forgotten 2000 FPS,Alien Resurrectionhad 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 Resurrectionwas ahead of its time, and it has aged better than mostPS1 FPS games, even titles that were better and more influential when they initially debuted.
Leaning into the IP’s horror roots,Alien Resurrectiongoes 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-hardAlienfanswill 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.
Duke Nukem: Total Meltdownis the name given to the PlayStation port of the game better known asDuke Nukem 3D.The game is heavily inspired byDoomand subsequently plays very similarly. Fast-paced, action gameplay that must be tackled head-on is present throughoutDuke Nukem’s third entry.
The game does have a few differentials, though, predominantly through the variety of environments that players fight in, something that the earlyDoomgames lacked. Unfortunately, the PlayStation port ofDuke Nukem 3Dwas 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.
