Top 10 light gun games

Games and guns, it's like an unfortunate match made in heaven. These days there are anxious parents, politicians and religious groups worried that 11 year-olds who play Call of Duty will one day gun down their class mates, whilst simultaneously overlooking facts like 11 year-olds shouldn't be given access to Call of Duty, America's gun laws are way too lax or truly disturbed people need little reason to commit acts atrocity. Anyway, I'm getting a little off topic here. This month's top 10 is light gun games, one of the few types of game you're still likely to see in an arcade, which is ironic, as it's up there with pinball games as one of the very oldest forms of arcade entertainment, going back to the 1930s. This bunch are all a lot more modern than that though.

Operation Wolf/Operation Thunderbolt

Despite the fact light gun games have been arcades for decades before video games entered the amusement industry, for most arcade throwbacks the granddaddies of the genre are Operation Wolf and its sequel Operation Thunderbolt. At the time, Arnold Swartzeneggar was one of the biggest action heroes around and was synonymous with the Uzi 9mm, so getting to hold the replica on the cabinet was a thrill in itself.

Mad Dog McCree

Full Motion Video (FMV) in video games never fails to be cheesy, even when people have tried to use it seriously, but when it's used knowingly, as with American Laser Games' 1990 Western, Mad Dog McCree it's even more fun. The hammy acting, the distinct lack of any actual gun shot wounds and every Cowboy cliché under the sun, it's all here.  This game is now available on Wii, so you can still enjoy the cheese today.

Virtua Cop

The Sega Model 2 arcade system powered some great examples of the 90s polygon insurgence, which saw more and more video games move away from sprites in favour of 3D models. The Virtua series is worthy of an article all of its own, with Sega attaching the name to everything from sports games and driving simulators, to beat 'em ups and law enforcement. Virtua Cop pre-dates Namco's Time Crisis by a year and like many of the Virtua games tried to be more serious and realistic. Whatever, it was still great fun.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day

Back in the early 90s, Terminator 2 was a cultural phenomenon. Arnie being suitably robotic, Linda Hamilton butching up, but somehow still managing to be sexy, a Guns 'n' Roses sound track that rocked the cinema and the best CG we'd ever seen. Translate this to the arcade and of course we get a light gun game. This shooting gallery of mechanical mayhem may not have looked as good as Robert Patrick's liquid metal T-1000, but who wouldn't want to fill one of those cyborg monsters full of hot digital lead?

Ninja Assault

Ninja's are fast, agile, deadly assassins, employing shadows and camouflage to move through the night unnoticed, so when you think about it, the best way to deal with such a deadly foe is probably to blow them away with a machine gun. I never really understood the disparity between your weapons and the attackers, but it was a blast nonetheless.

Point Blank

So far this list has been full of soldiers, criminals and killer robots, so let's change gear and talk about one of the cuteness, craziest light gun games of all time, Namco's Point Blank. Instead of a cheesy story as with all the other games in this list, Point Blank was technically a mini-game collection, where the player could chose what stage they wanted to play next and no single stage took more than a 30 seconds to a minute to complete. The game used similar guns to Time Crisis, so you got that same great recoil action and in context with the game's visuals, the pink and cyan guns made a lot more sense than with Time Crisis.

Ghost Squad

Nothing Sega's Ghost Squad does is particularly original, in fact it employs every wrote trick and set piece in the book, but there's something about the way it brings all these familiar elements together that makes it a joy to play. It's like a really good cover band, who, despite playing another band's music, still manage to rock the house. This is a game I first discovered on the Wii and it demonstrates Nintendo's uber-popular console is a great platform for light gun action.

Police 911

Taking of motion gaming, before Microsoft's Kinect camera or even Sony's EyeToy camera, Konami's Police 911 used a similar system way back in 2000 to give players the opportunity to dodge digital bullets for real. It worked surprisingly well and made for one of the most energetic arcade experiences outside of Dance Dance Revolution or Final Furlong. As the image above shows though, as with all motion gaming, it required good amount of space for players to fling themselves around.

Silent Scope

Now we're taking serious action. Silent Scope wasn't about flicking the trigger as fast as possible, instead it was about patience and accuracy as you played the part of a sniper. In another brilliant innovation by Konami, the scope on the gun didn't actually magnify the the screen in front of you. Instead it contained a 2nd, mini screen, which rendered your target separately. This provided a crystal clear view of the action (not obscured by the sights rendered on the main screen), whilst still having the main screen for you to do your spotting. The gun was great to hold and required the player to really shunt themselves around to get the best angles. Brilliant stuff.

Time Crisis series

As a self-confessed arcade aficionado, it's easy to think I need to pluck some oft-forgotten treasure to top a list like this, but the truth is sometimes the most popular games are popular for a very good reason. Such as it is with Namco's Time Crisis. It's a former classic here on Arcade Throwback and who would argue with its status as one of the greatest, if not the great light gun game ever. Aside from the great gameplay, Time Crisis's double whammy of the recoil on the gun and the pedal to take cover and reload put it well ahead of the competition. Each new instalment added features that elevated the series even further, with co-op coming in the first sequel and different weapons in the second. It's a game any arcade nut would want in their private collection.

MTW