The Best Arcade Shooter Games Ever, Ranked

Voting Rules
Vote up the classic shooting games you spent all your coins and tokens on.

When it comes to the best arcade shooting games of all time, what tops your list? From light gun shooters to your classic run and gun action games, there's a ton of awesome shooting games out there. In fact, some of the best classic arcade games are shooters. It's games like these that so often took our quarters and tokens at the arcade back in the day. Whether you miss the good old days of 80s arcade games or you're heading to the arcade today, take a trip down memory lane with this list of the greatest arcade shooting games. 

There's a long list of killer shooters, but perhaps the best of these thrilling games include hits like Time Crisis, House of the Dead 2, and T2: Judgment Day. Of course, you can't forget the ultimate classics, such as Space Invaders, Asteroids, and Galaga—which were some of the earlier shooter games to hit arcades. Don't forget your 90s arcade games either, featuring popular favorites like Virtua Cop and The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Simply put, everyone has that one shooting game they head straight to when arriving at the arcade—what's yours?

Check out the list of arcade shooters below and vote up the games you think are the best of all time. 

Photo: Metal Slug / SNK
Ranked by
  • Time Crisis
    1
    218 votes
    • Developer: Namco
    • Genres (Video game): Light gun, Shoot 'em up, Action game, Light gun shooter, Rail shooter
    Time Crisis is a light gun shooter arcade game released by Namco in 1996. It was later ported for the PlayStation in 1997, bundled with the Guncon light gun controller.
  • Metal Slug
    2
    238 votes
    • Developer: Nazca Corporation, SNK Playmore
    • Genres (Video game): Action-adventure game, Shoot 'em up, Run and gun
    Metal Slug is a run and gun video game developed by Nazca Corporation and published by SNK. It was originally released in 1996 for the Neo Geo MVS arcade platform. The game is widely known for its ...more
  • Galaga
    3
    1981
    194 votes
    • Developer: Namco
    • Genres (Video game): Shoot 'em up, Action game, Space combat, Science Fiction
    Galaga is a fixed shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco in Japan and published by Midway in North America in 1981. It is the sequel to Galaxian, released in 1979. The gameplay of ...more
  • Doom
    4
    1993
    150 votes
    • Developer: id Software, Williams Entertainment Inc.
    • Genres (Video game): First-person shooter
    Doom is a 1993 science fiction horror-themed first-person shooter video game by id Software. It is considered one of the most significant and influential titles in the video game industry, for having ...more
    • Developer: Sega Wow
    • Genres (Video game): Horror, Shoot 'em up, Survival horror, Rail shooter
    The House of the Dead 2 is a light gun arcade game with a horror theme and the second game in the The House of the Dead series of video games, developed by Sega for video arcades in 1998 and later ...more
  • Asteroids
    6
    121 votes
    • Developer: Atari
    • Genres (Video game): Shoot 'em up, Action game, Space combat
    Asteroids is an arcade space shooter released in November 1979 by Atari, Inc. and designed by Lyle Rains and Ed Logg. The player controls a spaceship in an asteroid field which is periodically ...more