10 Best Arcade Shooters of the 1990s, Ranked

A popular mainstay of many arcades in the 1990s was shooter games, and there are tons of varieties. From rail shooters to scrolling vertical shooters and beyond, the decade was filled with the genre, and many great cabinets brought players into arcades for years. We’ve looked through the many shooters that were released throughout the ‘90s and selected the top ten. They’re ranked based on contemporary critics’ reviews upon release, their overall popularity, and how much fun they were to play. We’ve selected the top-rated entry in each franchise and compiled these ten excellent ‘90s shooters.

10) Star Wars Trilogy Arcade

Back in 1998, one of the most popular rail shooters was Star Wars Trilogy Arcade. The game is based on the Original Trilogy and was released alongside a pinball machine. Gameplay utilized a joystick for targeting, allowing the player to move a targeting reticule across the screen to shoot at targets. It included boss battles, an unlockable mission, special event triggers, and more. Star Wars Trilogy Arcade cabinet came in two configurations: an upright and a sit-down cabinet, the latter of which had several additional options, including a near-fully enclosed cockpit. It was a blast to play, and a great homage to the Original Trilogy.

9) Silent Scope

The first Silent Scope arcade game debuted in 1999 and distinguished itself from other rail shooters through its light gun and optics. Gameplay involves taking on the role of a sniper tasked with eliminating dangerous targets during a series of terrorist attacks. Instead of a lightgun attached far from the screen, the game’s rifle is mounted close to it, requiring the player to adjust their position to aim properly. The scope features its own small LCD screen that displays a close-up view of whatever it’s aimed at, providing a realistic mechanic that made the game incredibly popular.

8) The Lost World: Jurassic Park

Sega released The Lost World: Jurassic Park in arcades in 1997, coinciding with the theatrical release of the film of the same name. It’s also a sequel to Sega’s 1994 Jurassic Park rail shooter. Its plot closely mirrors the film’s, though it involves far more shooting at dinosaurs. Instead of blasting them with machine guns, the player shoots tranquilizer darts to disable the deadly dinos. The cabinet came in two versions: an upright shoot ’em up and a sit-down, cockpit-style rail shooter. Other than the configuration differences, the games are the same, and it’s a fun entry in the Jurassic Park arcade franchise.

7) Alpha Mission II

The SNK Neo Geo arcade cabinet featured tons of excellent games, and in 1991, the vertical scrolling shooter Alpha Mission II became a hot entry in the genre. Like other vertical scrolling shooters, the player controls a ship on the bottom of the screen that fires up at all manner of space-based enemies. It features power-ups, bombs for ground targets, and bosses. The game is visually stunning, features excellent audio, and is fun to play. It also limited continues, so you really had to play the game tactically, as you couldn’t rely on a stack of quarters to beat Alpha Mission II, making it a compelling shooter in the early ‘90s.

6) Virtua Cop 2

Virtua Cop 2 is the second in the franchise that was released in the 1990s, and the light-gun shooter was a huge hit in arcades throughout the latter half of the decade. The game consists of three levels in which the player moves along a path; they can choose how to proceed at branching points. This wasn’t an option in the first game, and it offered more dynamic gameplay that quickly became common in similar shooters. The Virtua Cop 2 arcade cabinet was a huge hit, generating strong sales in Japan and North America and selling thousands of units within the first year. Its success continued on home consoles, and a sequel followed in 2003.

5) The House Of The Dead 2

The House of the Dead was released in 1997 to critical acclaim, so it’s not surprising that Sega launched a sequel. What is surprising is that The House of the Dead 2 was released only one year after its predecessor, continuing its story. The rail shooter offered more violent zombie killing than the first title and was an amazing success, not only keeping the franchise going but also spawning a spinoff called The Typing of the Dead. It was also ported to the Sega Dreamcast and numerous other systems, including a Wii port in the compilation title The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return.

4) Time Crisis II

The first Time Crisis did exceptionally well, spawning a sequel released two years later. Time Crisis II is a light-gun shooter, and like its predecessor, it utilizes a foot pedal to move in and out of cover. This mechanic distinguished the Time Crisis franchise from its competition and quickly elevated it to becoming one of the most successful arcade shooter cabs of the 1990s. The sequel added several new gameplay elements, including the “crisis flash” system, elevating it over its predecessor. Time Crisis II’s success kept the franchise going, and it was ported to the PlayStation 2.

3) Terminator 2: Judgment Day

The 1991 light gun shooter Terminator 2: Judgment Day is one of the decade’s most financially successful games in the genre, and it’s also an excellent Terminator game. It follows the movie’s plot fairly well, though you play as a T-800 in one or two-player action carried out by unique light guns affixed to the cabinet. It’s one of the hardest arcade games out there, as it was designed to consume quarters while being fun enough to keep players interested. Unsurprisingly, Terminator 2: Judgment Day was ported to several home consoles, and in 2022, Arcade1Up released a home cabinet featuring recreations of its killer guns.

2) Smash T.V.

Smash T.V. is a twin-stick shooter developed and published by Williams Electronics in 1990. The game is much like The Running Man, as it pits players against hordes of enemies in a game show set in the far-off, dystopian world of 1999. The twin-stick shooter mechanic was somewhat unusual, as it allowed for control of movement with the left stick while the right stick managed the direction of fire. In this way, Smash T.V. was a precursor to console FPS games played with multiple thumbsticks. It’s a fun and funny game that absolutely tore through quarters, as it’s also a bullet-hell nightmare that’ll keep players feeding quarters into it until they run out.

1) Lethal Enforcers

The first entry in the Lethal Enforcers franchise is arguably the best, as it introduced digitized photographs as sprites in 1992, which was a novel approach at the time. Its visuals put it on par with Mortal Kombat, but its success wasn’t limited to graphics alone. Lethal Enforcers features great gameplay and an excellent lightgun revolver that functioned exceptionally well and was a lot of fun to use. Lethal Enforcers quickly became one of the most financially successful shooters of the early 1990s, ranking higher than the other nine thanks to widespread critical acclaim and overall popularity.

What’s your favorite shooter from the 1990s? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

10 Most Difficult Arcade Games Ever Made