The first-person shooter genre is in a strange spot right now. Except for inescapable franchises like Call of Duty and Doom, big publishers have completely abandoned FPS games; conversely, the indie scene has been booming for years, producing one masterpiece after another. Gone are the days of AA releases that would try something new on a decent budget, many of which came, delivered hours of fun, and were promptly wiped from the gaming world's collective memory.
Personally, I love revisiting PC shooters from the late '90s and console games from the 2000s after the genre's controls were codified, as so many of these forgotten gems played well and oozed ambition or charm. Even if they might not have gone down as enduring classics that spawned endless sequels, these single-player FPS games were absolutely top-of-the-line when they debuted, and many of them still offer a decent way to spend a few hours today.
While I am going to mostly pick games that are still enjoyable nowadays, it isn't a priority, and I'm not sticking solely to titles that 100% hold up. In fact, the first FPS game was only perfect in its original context...
For the most part, handheld FPS games were not truly viable until, arguably, the PS Vita, and that system only had a handful of passable shooters. Even during the genre's peak overexposure, developers barely tried to tap into the PSP or Nintendo DS markets, with most attempts being poor ports of home console releases.
However, there was one exception that defied the odds and proved that shooters could work on weak-as-heck portable hardware designed to run top-down RPGs and Tetris in color. Duke Nukem Advance is absurdly fantastic considering the limitations imposed by the Game Boy Advance, and Torus Games expertly worked around the lack of joysticks by combining the R-trigger with the D-pad to allow for smoother movement.
Designed from the ground up, Duke Nukem Advance features everything you want from a portable shooter: fine movement, a satisfying shotgun, sprawling levels, destruction, keycards, and a forgiving auto-aim. Avoiding spin-offs and spiritual successors, this GBA exclusive should be remembered as the final great Duke Nukem game.
Look, I'm not going to pretend anybody should boot up a GBA emulator and play Duke Nukem Advance in 2026, as its appeal vanishes when played outside the context of its original hardware. However, it is still playable.
Alien Breed is primarily associated with isometric shooters, with the series enjoying two relatively fruitful eras during the early '90s and late 2000s. Those games warrant your attention, and I would recommend picking up the second-era trilogy compilation; however, between these two periods, Team17 tried to take the series in a first-person direction, with successful but largely forgotten results.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://gamerant.com/fps-games-forgotten-once-perfect-masterpieces/
