"Hey, everybody! Welcome to The Most Iconic Light Gun Shooters ever, sponsored by Le Spiced Bean Cafe. I'm Gulliver Sullivan, owner and chief barista here at Spiced Bean, and I'd like to offer you all a 10% discount on your next order of raw muffins.
"Just use the code 'spicedbeanlightgun20' when you come in and we'll fix you right up. Can't wait to see you guys! We just finished a refurb down here at Le Spiced Bean, and the joint is looking FRIGID! We stripped everything back to the raw brickwork, and It is deck, brah!
"But hey - enough of my hard-sell, let's get on and check out the most iconic light gun shoot 'em ups of all time! It's gonna be wack, yo!"
"Just use the code 'spicedbeanlightgun20' when you come in and we'll fix you right up. Can't wait to see you guys! We just finished a refurb down here at Le Spiced Bean, and the joint is looking FRIGID! We stripped everything back to the raw brickwork, and It is deck, brah!
"But hey - enough of my hard-sell, let's get on and check out the most iconic light gun shoot 'em ups of all time! It's gonna be wack, yo!"
DUCK HUNT
One of only two console-only entries on this list, Nintendo's Duck Hunt is as iconic as games get. Its status is all the more remarkable given that - presumably due to its bloodsport theme - it's one of the few Nintendo blockbusters never to get a sequel.
What isn't generally known is that Duck Hunt was - in certain respects - itself a sequel, specifically to a 1976 mechanical Nintendo toy thing developed by Game Boy inventor Gunpei Yokoi. It did this: projected ducks onto the wall of your home. Look, here it is now:
What isn't generally known is that Duck Hunt was - in certain respects - itself a sequel, specifically to a 1976 mechanical Nintendo toy thing developed by Game Boy inventor Gunpei Yokoi. It did this: projected ducks onto the wall of your home. Look, here it is now:
WILD GUNMAN
Just like Duck Hunt, Wild Gunman was inspired by a Gunpei Yokoi light gun projection nonsense - albeit one that had appeared in arcades. Gunpei Yokoi? More like "Guns Please" Yokoi!!!!! Though only ever commercially released for the NES, the more familiar version of Wild Gunman did appear in Back to the Future Part 2 as an arcade machine - or "baby's toy". Here's the original Wild Gunman now:
"Hope you're all enjoying the list. Just wanted to let everyone know that things are pretty primo for me right now. Preeeeeetty primo indeed. Le Spiced Bean is going great guns. We do an adorbs artisan almond latte onto which we sprinkle just a handful of soy-roasted chia seeds, and it is to die for! Don't forget to grab one when you're next in town.
"Oh - and while I have you, Saturday nights are party night down at Le Spiced Bean. We've got stellar DJ Odin on the decks, and entry is free before 10pm! You only need to remember two things: your dancing shoes, and an empty belly for the all-you-can-eat seitan buffalo tenders ! LOL!"
"Oh - and while I have you, Saturday nights are party night down at Le Spiced Bean. We've got stellar DJ Odin on the decks, and entry is free before 10pm! You only need to remember two things: your dancing shoes, and an empty belly for the all-you-can-eat seitan buffalo tenders ! LOL!"
OPERATION WOLF
Do you think Wolf from Gladiators has ever had to have an operation in a hospital? If so, do you think he or the surgeons working on him were aware of the game Operation Wolf? And if they were, that they made a joke about it? It scarcely matters to be honest. The main thing to remember about Taito's Operation Wolf - released in 1987 - is that it pretty much gave birth to the modern arcade light gun shooter genre.
"Whassssssaaaaaap!!!!!? Ha ha. Yep - that's the kind of craziness you can expect down here at Le Spiced Bean. We're like a family - a crazy family. Sure, we fall out from time to time, but what family doesn't? I mean, even my wife isn't talking to me right now, and she left me and took the kid because of that tiny - barely nothing - infraction with that college student we had working here over the summer. Heck, at least I got my Spiced Bean family at my shoulder! Whazzzzzaaaaappp, Spiced Bean Family?!?!!!!!! LMAO."
DYNAMITE DUKE
Though not associated with Operation Wolf, Seibu Kaihatsu's Dynamite Duke played very similarly. The key difference was that - unlike most light gun games - it was played in third-person rather than from a first-person perspective. Seemingly realising that this was a mistake, Seibu made Duke's torso transparent, allowing you to see through him to his enemies - making him the first "trans" video game protagonist!!!
MAD DOG McCREE
A 1990 laserdisc shooter, Mad Dog McCree certainly turned heads in arcades, due to its live action footage. It was developed by American Laser Games, who had previously developed training simulators for the police, or "po-po". The eponymous antagonist, Mad Dog, was played by a local rancher in New Mexico, where American Laser Games was based. Idiots will no doubt become engorged to hear that the guts of the cabinet were based upon an Amiga 500 motherboard.
"Sorry for mentioning the situation with my wife just now. Just want you to know that, all round, I'm feeling pretty zen about life. Things are going great, and not even all those reports of there being bears in the local area is gonna knock me off my stride."
LETHAL ENFORCERS
Using digitised footage rather than streaming its graphics from a laserdisc, Konami's Lethal Enforcers received criticism for its allegedly realistic violence. Famously, it was ported to most home systems - bundled with a pair of brightly-coloured light-guns; a blue one for boys, and a pink one for girls.
VIRTUA COP
Finally bringing the light gun genre into 3D, Sega's Virtua Cop remains one of the most influential games of all time. Its legacy extends not just to on-rails shooters, but free-roaming first-person games, including Rare's Goldeneye 007. Goldeneye's director Martin Hollis admits that "the gameplay model was Virtua Cop with a bit of Doom, plus some Mario 64".
"Coo-eee! Any big bears up in the hizzaaaaayyy?!"
TIME CRISIS
The first light gun game which gave the player the ability to dive into cover - by pressing down on a foot pedal - Namco's Time Crisis (and its later sequels) were known for their absurd, over-the-top, action. It's one of the few light gun franchises which have endured, with Time Crisis 5 being released as recently as 2015. Get this: it now features TWO pedals, allowing you to choose where exactly you want to take cover.
HOUSE OF THE DEAD
Mixing the slightly silly horror of Resident Evil with the finesse of its Virtua Cop series, Sega's House of the Dead boasted branching paths through the levels.
Oddly, the Saturn port of House of the Dead featured the voice of NASA astronaut Richard A. Covey saying "Challenger, go at throttle up" - the final words spoken by Mission Control before the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded. Notably, Sega released a spin-off - a reworked version of House of the Dead 2 - called Typing of the Dead, in which players defeated zombies by typing words as quickly as possible. You know: just like in real life.
House of the Dead is the only game on this list to have been treated to a terribly-received film adaptation (plus a sequel), directed by the amusingly-named Uwe Boll.
Oddly, the Saturn port of House of the Dead featured the voice of NASA astronaut Richard A. Covey saying "Challenger, go at throttle up" - the final words spoken by Mission Control before the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded. Notably, Sega released a spin-off - a reworked version of House of the Dead 2 - called Typing of the Dead, in which players defeated zombies by typing words as quickly as possible. You know: just like in real life.
House of the Dead is the only game on this list to have been treated to a terribly-received film adaptation (plus a sequel), directed by the amusingly-named Uwe Boll.
SILENT SCOPE
Arguably the last, great, arcade light gun shooter, Komami's Silent Scope was a more considered and precise reworking of the usual scattershot light gun formula. Mounted on the arcade version was a sniper rifle. In addition to being able to see the full screen, the light gun scope featured a smaller screen which offered a zoomed-in view of the scene. Digitiser The Show co-host Larry Bundy Jr has one in his back garden.
RSS Feed
