16 Best PS1 Shoot 'Em Ups

Gunbird came out in Japan for the PlayStation on December 15, 1995, and in North America it was renamed Mobile Light Force. It is a vertical shooter where your ship is an anime character, and between levels and before boss fights a story plays out about the heroes collecting pieces of a magic mirror so they can make a wish. The first three stages are picked at random from four. One of the cast, Yuan Nang, is a parody of Sun Wukong from Journey to the West, cloud somersault and all.

Bring a friend if you can. The cutscenes in two-player games are packed with silly dialogue, and finishing the first loop as a pair gets you an ending made for that pair of characters. The North American release cut the fan art gallery, though the files are still on the disc.

Sexy Parodius plays like the rest of Konami's Parodius series, with one new catch. Each stage has a special mission, like collecting a certain amount of coins or destroying a certain object. Whether you complete it decides if you can go on, or which stage comes next. Vic Viper is in the cast, along with a lot of characters who look like they wandered in from a cartoon.

The home ports keep simultaneous two-player co-op, and that is the way to play it. When certain characters fly close enough together, a third shot appears between them, from swirling purple shots to homing hearts. The PlayStation version was later included in Parodius Portable on the PSP. Despite the name, it is about as racy as a seaside postcard.

Darius Gaiden was Taito's third arcade Darius. It was first called Darius III, and the name changed because its story takes place between the first two games. Gaiden is the Japanese term for a side story. There are twenty-seven stages, and you only play seven of them in one run, picking your route as you go. You can capture minibosses, which then fight for you for a short time before they self-destruct.

The home conversions were well received, and critics liked how responsive the controls were. The music split people: some found it bizarre and unfitting, others loved how strange it is. The first level's song is called "Visionnerz (Hallucinated People)", so you have been warned. Players who like shooters keep pointing newcomers to it.

This is the PlayStation version of Taito's 1978 arcade game, the one that started it all. Space Invaders was the first fixed shooter and set the template for the genre. As you defeat them, the invaders move faster and the music speeds up with them, which is still one of the most stressful sounds in gaming. A mystery ship crosses the top of the screen now and then for bonus points.

The arcade original was a huge hit, and by 1982 it had grossed $3.8 billion. It is the oldest idea on this list by about two decades. Players still put it on their lists of PS1 favourites, right next to much bigger games.

Gamera 2000 was developed by Surveyor Corp. and released by Daiei Digital Entertainment in Japan on April 25, 1997. You play Jack, a pilot whose jet fighter flies alongside the giant monster Gamera against alien monsters. It plays like Panzer Dragoon: the jet follows a set path, and you aim at monsters coming from all directions. You can also tell Gamera to fire homing attacks or a charged attack that clears the screen.

Some stages drop you to the ground on a futuristic bike, and live-action video moves the plot along between stages. It came out only in Japan. Players who found it call it a wild ride and a great shooter, and if you like monster movies, it is the closest you will get to flying in one.

DonPachi was Cave's first game. Its publisher, Atlus, asked for a shooter in the spirit of Toaplan's, and the team argued over how close to Toaplan it should be. It was later ported to the Saturn and the PlayStation with some changes. Clear the game and a second loop begins, where enemies fire denser bullets and explode into more bullets when you destroy them.

The story has a nasty twist. The enemies are your own comrades, sacrificing themselves so only the best pilots pass the test. DonPachi was popular in Japanese arcades, yet Cave later called it a "creative failure". The PlayStation version has since been re-released on the PlayStation Network. Players name it right alongside its sequel, which is coming up a few spots higher.

In Strikers 1945 II you pick one of six World War II fighter planes and fight through eight stages with machine guns and bombs. The first four stages come in random order. In Japan's arcades it was the sixth most successful game of the month in the November 15, 1997 issue of Game Machine. Kuusou Kagaku ported it to the PlayStation and the Saturn for Psikyo.

Agetec released it in North America in 2001 under the title Strikers 1945, without the II. So if you own the American disc, you own the sequel. It got a good port, and players often name it in the same breath as Metal Slug X as the arcade games the PS1 handled best. It is a fine pick for a short session.

Thunder Force V came out in 1997, and the PlayStation port, Thunder Force V: Perfect System, followed in 1998. Work on it first started on the Sega Mega Drive. There are seven levels, and you can play the first three in any order. The box promised five spectacular weapons with multiple power-up levels and "a speaker-imploding soundtrack", and for once the box was not lying.

One critic said its boss fights were a strong point, for their designs and their music, and some of those tracks are based on music from earlier Thunder Force games. Fans of the series will hear old friends in there. Players who want a shooter that still holds up put it near the top of their list.

DoDonPachi was Cave's second game, and its title mixes the sound of gunfire with a word about bees. Here it means "angry leader bee". Your bomb depends on how you are firing when you press the button. During standard fire it is a big explosion that wipes out enemies and their bullets, while during laser fire it works differently. On bosses, hits build up a counter that pays out at the end.

Clear the first six areas on one credit, losing at most two lives, and you reach a second loop with a seventh area and far more bullets. That is the bullet hell most people picture when they hear the words. Cave followed it with DoDonPachi DaiOuJou in 2002. Players with a soft spot for shooters keep it on their PS1 lists.

In the Hunt is a side-scrolling shooter where you pilot a submarine, the Granvia. Its designer, Kujo, wanted a shooter set in water, with scrolling the player controls and two players at once. The idea for submarine warfare came to him while relaxing by a water fountain. In Japan it was called Kaitei Daisensō, or Undersea War. Your weapons include a powerful machine gun, a wave cannon and a "cracker" shot that sends out a barrage of bullets.

Critics gave the home versions mixed reviews and complained about slowdown, but they praised the detailed graphics. One reviewer called it "a great rental". It has since gained a cult following in Japan, and players here remember it fondly too, often naming it first when someone asks for a PS1 shooter.

RayStorm is a Taito shooter set hundreds of years in the future, one of three "Ray" games. RayForce came before it, and RayCrisis followed as its prequel. You pick one of two R-Gray ships, with a third secret ship in the home versions, and fight through eight stages. Hold the missile button and you lock on to several enemies at once, which is the whole trick of the series.

American reviewers liked the PlayStation version's graphics and effects, though some called the gameplay simplistic and dated. Extra Mode keeps your score when you continue. Players remember it as "Bullet hell with great graphics and soundtrack", and shooter fans keep recommending it.

Harmful Park was made by a small company called Sky Think Systems and released only in Japan. It is a side-scrolling shooter set in an amusement park. An evil scientist has taken over Heartful Park, and his colleague, who feels too old to stop him, sends her two slacker daughters instead. They fly in on some kind of motorcycle armed to the teeth with strange weapons.

It has been called a cute 'em up, and it does look a lot like Konami's Parodius games. The opening is long, the story is nonsense, and that is part of the fun. Shooter fans name it next to the famous shooters on the system, and players hunting for Japan-only discs keep it high on their list.

G-Darius is the fourth arcade Darius and the first one with 3D polygon graphics. The PlayStation port was published as G Darius. After each boss you pick the next zone on a branching path. There are 15 zones, named with the Greek letters alpha to omicron, and you only need to clear five in a row to reach one of five endings. Your ship is a Silver Hawk, built by scientists using reverse-engineered Thiiman technology.

The game came back in 2021 on the Switch and PS4. An update in 2022 added G-Darius for Consumer, which is the Japanese PlayStation port, so the version from this list is easy to play today. Players rank it a hair behind the next game, close enough to call it a tie.

R-Type Delta is the fourth game in the R-Type series and the first to use 3D graphics. It is a shoot 'em up set in 2164, and the first stage has you trading shots with enemies on the ground.

The game received generally positive reviews from critics. Players who want a PS1 shooter that still holds up name it again and again, and they point shooter fans to it first. If you have played the older R-Types, this is the one that feels like a sequel and a remake at once. If you have never played one, it is a hard and handsome place to start.

Omega Boost was the first game made by Polyphony Digital after Gran Turismo, and it is the only game they have made that is not a racing game. You fly a giant robot whose booster pack lets you move in any direction and circle enemies with a lock-on. The story is wonderfully overcooked. An AI called AlphaCore builds a shaft on a mined-out planet to travel back in time and change ENIAC, the first general-use computer, and the Omega Boost goes after it.

Some reviewers called it too short, with nine levels and the same number of special missions to unlock. The music changes by region: the North American version opens with Loudmouth and plays Static-X during the title screen and the final boss. Players rank it second only to the game at number one.

Einhänder came out in Japan on November 20, 1997, and in North America on May 5, 1998, from Sony Computer Entertainment. It is a futuristic side-scrolling shooter with simulated 3D gameplay, set during a war between Sodom, a colony on Earth, and Selene, a colony on the Moon. Points from destroyed cores are multiplied by your hit counter, and when the multiplier flashes, every core pays a large bonus. If your pilot dies, they are promoted two ranks and given the Sirius decoration, then wiped from the records.

The techno and trance music is by Kenichiro Fukui. Critics praised the gameplay and graphics, and only knocked it for being short and having no two-player mode. Players say it still looks gorgeous and holds up, and they recommend it more than any other PS1 shooter.