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Each year, dozens of first-person shooters are released across consoles and PC, and still, gamers can’t get enough of them. Call of Duty continues to top the sales charts. A new Doom, one of the granddaddies of the genre, is on the horizon. Even Nintendo is readying a big return of the closest thing it has to a first-person shooter with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond finally launching next year after years in development hell.
While most gamers at least have some familiarity with early FPS games like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, and Half-Life, there were plenty of others released in the ‘90s that we’d love to see make a comeback. These are the forgotten ‘90s first-person shooters that deserve a remake.
Jumping Flash! (1995)
Yes, it’s debatable whether Jumping Flash! fits into the traditional definition of an FPS, but it is played from the first-person perspective, and you’re armed with a laser (even if it is also kind of a platforming collect-a-thon). There’s a lot going on here in a game that was essentially a really impressive tech demo for what the PlayStation 1 could do at launch in terms of graphics and new gameplay ideas.
A sequel followed a year later, and then Sony just kind of gave up on the series, though you can at least download Jumping Flash! on your PS5 nowadays. It’s a little rough going back to now, but there’s still some fun to be had, and it’s easy to see tons of potential for a modern remake, especially as a PSVR 2 game. And we all know that Sony could use a killer app for that peripheral.
Hexen: Beyond Heretic (1995)
Though id Software is still known for its work on some of the biggest FPS games of all time, many gamers have forgotten one of the more interesting shooter series it published back in the ‘90s. Hexen was actually the second game in a series of four, though it’s still the best. While most other FPS games of the era focused on gunplay, in Hexen, you could choose from a fighter, mage, or cleric, allowing for combat that focused more on melee fighting, spellcasting, or a combination of the two.
Microsoft now owns the full rights to Hexen after purchasing both id and Activision Blizzard (which bought Hexen developer Raven Software many years ago). They certainly have more than enough talented studios on hand that they could put together a really fantastic remake if they wanted to, though it may not be a priority given how many other better known are now under the Xbox umbrella.
The Terminator: Future Shock (1995)
Like the movie franchise itself, The Terminator has a very mixed history in games, littered with both classics and some of the very worst the medium has to offer. Future Shock still holds up as one of the better games based on the movies, though. Maybe its design was sent back in time by Skynet, because in 1995, this really did feel like a game from the future thanks to large, open levels that could be freely explored, and the ability to drive vehicles, a rarity in the FPS genre at the time. And it featured a really awesome soundtrack.
The biggest knocks against Future Shock were that it could slow down when there was too much action on-screen (not surprising with those big levels) and that you could do so much, the controls could feel overly complex at times. But with the benefit of a modern remake, those are fairly minor issues that could be easily cleaned up.
Disruptor (1996)
Today, Insomniac Games is one of the most respected studios in the industry, but in the mid-90s they were a small rookie developer just looking to break into the industry with a Doom clone for the PS1. While Disruptor wears its inspiration on its sleeve, it actually tried to innovate with “psionic powers” that let you shock enemies, generate a shield, or heal yourself. Really, it was rather ahead of its time with these ideas as they’ve become extremely common in other shooters in various forms.
Despite strong reviews, sales were below expectations. Keep in mind that this was still a year before GoldenEye 007 on the N64. Gamers really weren’t used to first-person shooters on consoles. The good news is that things turned out well for Insomniac in the long run, and given how far along the studio has come over the years, it would be really interesting to see what they could do now with a fresh take on Disruptor.
Outlaws (1997)
When games embrace the classic setting of Old West TVs and movies, they usually turn out great. Just look at Red Dead Redemption. But for whatever reason, it’s rare to see games that take place in the Old West. Outlaws (which ran on the same excellent engine as the much more popular Star Wars: Dark Forces) was a LucasArts FPS that didn’t just look and feel like an old spaghetti western but also tried to push the fledgling genre forward with its gameplay.
It was one of the first FPS titles to require reloading your guns, and it was the first to feature a sniper zoom. Despite its novel gameplay ideas, and being well reviewed upon release, it’s largely forgotten now. But again, with so few Western games on the market, a big-budget remake could get quite a bit of attention from gamers.
X-Men: The Ravages of Apocalypse (1997)
In the ‘90s, quite a few first-person shooters received total conversions or expansions that required a base version of another, more popular game to play. X-Men The Ravages of Apocalypse was one such total conversion for Quake, and it’s pretty insane in hindsight. It looks and plays exactly like Quake, just with new weapons and levels, and all of the enemies have been replaced by “cyborg clones” of the X-Men. That means instead of mowing through dozens of monsters in each level, you now go around shooting Bishop, Cyclops, Psylocke, and the rest of the team over and over again.
It’s not the best FPS or even the best Quake total conversion. Yet, a lot of people who played it still reminisce about it just for the inclusion of the X-Men. And while it would be great to see Ravages of Apocalypse make a comeback, it might be a tough sell to get Marvel and Disney to greenlight a game that lets players repeatedly shoot Wolverine into a bloody pulp.
Redneck Rampage (1997)
Just from the name, you probably have a pretty good idea of what to expect from Redneck Rampage. Yes, it’s a sprite-based shooter set in the American South with all the stereotypical jokes you’d expect. But it even goes further than that with additions like a “drunk meter,” which lets you take more damage the more you drink at the expense of coordination. Oh, and if you eat too many health items too quickly, you’ll start farting, which will affect your ability to sneak up on enemies.
Redneck Rampage is maybe something of an acquired taste (though the psychobilly soundtrack goes surprisingly hard), but there are some really interesting ideas here. Remake it today with a sharper script and solid FPS engine, and it could be a really good M-rated shooter unlike anything else other developers are releasing nowadays.
Shogo: Mobile Armor Division (1998)
Timing is everything in the video game market. It doesn’t matter how good a game is, if it launches at the wrong time, it can destroy the game’s sales. In theory, Shogo: Mobile Armor Division had everything going for it. The developer, Monolith Productions, was coming off of several successful projects, including the FPS Blood. The graphics were top-notch for the time. And the shooting felt really solid, with the action taking place either on foot or inside a mech.
But, Shogo had the bad luck of releasing in the shadow of Half-Life. It really didn’t matter what the game did at that point. A really good FPS was not going to sell much in the face of one of the biggest and most revolutionary games of all time in an already crowded genre. But a remake could definitely give Shogo its due now.
South Park (1998)
Look, the first South Park game (released just a year after the show debuted on Comedy Central) is not good. It’s hard to recommend going back to it now for any reason other than for a couple of minutes of cheap laughs. But there is some potential here. Being able to explore the town of South Park itself is technically impressive, and the game did the best it could to capture the spirit of the show with situations like throwing urine-soaked snowballs at killer turkeys. It even included voices from the show, though they repeat way too often.
The quality of South Park games has drastically improved over the last decade thanks to greater involvement from series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developers who actually care about the source material. If the game were remade today to be more in line with something like High on Life, it could actually be one of the better shooters on the market.
The Wheel of Time (1999)
Even many fans of The Wheel of Time books don’t know that there was a game based on the series, though it’s not because the game was bad. The Wheel of Time was incredibly innovative for its time between the dozens of “ter’angreal,” or magical artifacts you could equip for offensive spells, shields, or healing, and a unique Citadel multiplayer mode that was based on capture the flag, but also incorporated traps and player-controlled guards. Running on the first iteration of the Unreal Engine, it still looks sharp today.
The problem was that The Wheel of Time was released in the face of much more popular FPS titles like Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament. There was just no way it could compete with those games, and sadly, it never found much of an audience of its own. Still, the game feels so far ahead of its time that a remake wouldn’t even need to change much to be a standout modern title.
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