Sony's Playstation was a pioneer of three-dimensional console gaming. The PS1's huge sales gave Nintendo serious competition in the home console market, a market that Nintendo had dominated in the years prior. Nintendo's sales were pushed by its iconic collection of mascot characters like Mario, Link, and Donkey Kong, as well as its recognition amongst consumers as being the company with the best platformers and collections.

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Despite the PlayStation's excellent sales, it initially struggled to find an identity. It was originally marketed as a console for older gamers than its N64 counterpart. However, Sony soon decided that it wanted a slice of Nintendo's pie and tried to brand Crash Bandicoot and Spyro The Dragon as their gaming mascots - the Crash and Spyro trilogies were very successful, but they didn't quite reach the heights of the Mario and Zelda series. Ultimately, Sony decided to embrace its lack of identity and instead use it as evidence of its diversity, with vastly different games like Crash Bandicoot, Metal Gear Solid, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater all proving to be very successful. One of the original PlayStation's many successful genres was its first-person shooters, which were rapidly growing in prominence when the console debuted in the mid-nineties.

Updated on July 23, 2021, by Jack Pursey: Like all forms of media, it can be easy to get tunnel vision with the gaming industry and simply focus on upcoming releases rather than revisiting older titles. This is a great shame, as not only is keeping up with new releases tough on the wallet, but it also means fantastic games are lost in time, despite them still providing thoroughly enjoyable experiences decades after their initial release. So, to give old-school gaming some spotlight, we've expanded this list to add five excellent more first-person shooters on the PlayStation 1.

15 Lifeforce Tenka

• Initial Release Date: May 31, 1997

• Available Platforms: PlayStation, Windows

Lifeforce Tenka was developed by former British development and publishing team Psygnosis, who are best known for their work on the WipeOut, Lemmings, and Destruction Derby franchises.

The game features a futuristic setting and predominantly pits players against robotic enemies. One of the most unique features about the game is how the player doesn't collect new and improved weaponry like in most shooters but instead finds weapon modifications that change how their gun is fired.

14 Delta Force: Urban Warfare

• Initial Release Date: July 2, 2002

• Available Platforms: PlayStation

Delta Force: Urban Warfare went under the radar upon release, as it was a PlayStation 1 exclusive that released over two years after the PlayStation 2. Unsurprisingly, this had a negative impact on the game's commercial success, though it does make the game one of the best PS1 first-person shooters to play retrospectively.

Due to how late it was released, Delta Force: Urban Warfare was able to offer visuals and technical performances that far surpassed the majority of shooters on the PlayStation 1.

13 Descent

• Initial Release Date: March 17, 1995

• Available Platforms: MS-DOS, Macintosh, PlayStation, RISC OS

Descent is one of the many games on this list that took heavy inspiration from id Software's DOOM and was commonly referred to as one of the 90's "DOOM clones," despite the player being confined to a spaceship.

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Although the game took heavy inspiration from DOOM, it also provided its own influences on the genre, with its six degrees of freedom movement and fact that it was the first FPS game to ever feature true-3D graphics.

12 PowerSlave

• Initial Release Date: October 31, 1996

• Available Platforms: Sega Saturn, MS-DOS, PlayStation

PowerSlave (also known as Exhumed and Seireki 1999: Pharaoh no Fukkatsu) was developed by a now-defunct company known as Lobotomy Software, who also ported Quake and Duke Nukem 3D to the Sega Saturn.

PowerSlave takes players to Egypt and tasks them with taking down a plethora of enemies types, including mummies, scorpions, and evil spirits. The console version of the game implements elements from the Metroidvania genre, as players must find new weapons and artifacts that let them explore previously inaccessible areas.

11 Final Doom

• Initial Release Date: June 17, 1996

• Available Platforms: MS-DOS, PlayStation, Mac OS, PlayStation 3

Final Doom was released on the PlayStation 1 a few months after its initial release and offered a slightly different experience to the MS-DOS version. The PS1 version of the game was made significantly easier, with a wide selection of tough enemies and even a few difficult levels being removed. This may have been due to the increased difficulty of using a gamepad over a mouse, though the oft-forgotten PlayStation Mouse accessory was compatible with the game.

Interestingly, it wasn't only difficulty changes that led to certain enemies being removed, as technical limitations meant that the Arch-vile and Spider Mastermind also had to be booted out of the game.

10 007: The World Is Not Enough

• Initial Release Date: October 17, 2000

• Available Platforms: PlayStation, Nintendo 64

The World is Not Enough was the second James Bond game to be released on the PlayStation and the first to be released on the Nintendo 64 since the genre-changing GoldenEye 007. Developer's Black Ops Entertainment improved on their previous entry Tomorrow Never Dies with more gadgets, tighter gameplay, and smarter enemy A.I.

Despite these improvements, the development team again made the baffling decision to not include a multiplayer mode, frustrating players who were hoping for a split-screen mode similar to the N64's GoldenEye. This was especially disappointing as Eurocom's N64 version of The World Is Not Enough was released a month earlier and had an excellent multiplayer mode.

9 Disruptor

• Initial Release Date: November 30, 1996

• Available Platforms: PlayStation

Disruptor was the first game released by Insomniac Games, the company that would go on to develop the original Spyro The Dragon trilogy. Indicative of being the company's first game, it struggled to find its own identity, playing similarly to previously released games like DOOM and Duke Nukem 3D.

Disruptor did have some innovations though, predominantly its Psionics. These Psionics gave players various abilities such as Heal, Shock, and Shield.

8 Alien Trilogy

• Initial Release Date: February 29, 1996

• Available Platforms: PlayStation, Sega Saturn, DOS

Movie tie-in games are often looked down upon predominantly due to the rushed development that is needed to ensure that they are released in-line with the movie release date.

Alien Trilogy, however, was released over four years after the third Alien movie, giving developers Probe Entertainment plenty of time to make a game fitting of its corresponding films. This development time paid off, as Alien Trilogy provided an enjoyable action experience that sold very well.

7 Jumping Flash! 2

• Initial Release Date: April 26, 1996

• Available Platforms: PlayStation

Jumping Flash! 2 had the difficult task of trying to emulate the success of the award-winning Jumping Flash!. Developer's Exact didn't try to re-invent the wheel and kept the gameplay very similar to its predecessor.

The game did add performance medals, though, adding replay value to the game by rewarding players for completing levels in different ways.

6 Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown

• Initial Release Date: September 30, 1997

• Available Platforms: PlayStation

Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown is the name given to the PlayStation port of the game better known as Duke Nukem 3D. The game is heavily inspired by Doom and subsequently plays very similarly. With fast-paced, action gameplay that must be tackled head-on present throughout Duke Nukem's third entry.

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The game does have a few differentials, though, predominantly through the variety of environments that players fight in, something that the early Doom games lacked. Unfortunately, the PlayStation port of Duke Nukem 3D was far from perfect. It struggled with constant frame rate issues and lacked a split-screen multiplayer mode despite the feature being in the other versions of the game.

5 Quake 2

• Initial Release Date: December 9, 1997

• Available Platforms: Microsoft Windows, AmigaOS, Classic Mac OS, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Linux, Xbox 360, Zeebo

Quake 2 was originally going to be a new IP. However, developers id Software ultimately decided to name the game Quake 2 as they felt that the gameplay was too similar to the original Quake to justify creating a new series. Because of this, Quake 2 plays slightly differently to the original. The player's movement is noticeably slower, and the new ability to crouch offered more tactical cover-based gameplay.

Quake 2 also offers one of the best multiplayer game modes on the console, giving PlayStation gamers an enjoyable split-screen experience to rival the N64's GoldenEye.

4 Jumping Flash!

• Initial Release Date: April 28, 1995

• Available Platforms: PlayStation

Jumping Flash! introduced PlayStation gamers to the robotic rabbit, suitably named Robbit. The game differentiated itself from other shooters on the console by combining FPS gameplay with platforming.

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The game uniquely allowed players to jump multiple times, letting them reach extreme heights and navigate levels with ease. This ability to navigate stages quickly is a fundamental part of the gameplay, as players need to obtain 4 jet pods in a limited timescale of 10 minutes to complete each level. Jumping Flash! won GameFan's Megaward PlayStation Game Of The Year award in 1995.

3 Medal of Honor: Underground

• Initial Release Date: October 23, 2000

• Available Platforms: PlayStation, Game Boy Advance

Medal of Honor: Underground is the second installment in the long-running Medal of Honor series.

The World War Two shooter attempted to improve on its predecessor by adding tanks to fight against and allies to fight alongside. The objective-based gameplay that the Medal of Honor series is known for returned, and the pre-existing catalog of weaponry was improved upon.

2 DOOM

• Initial Release Date: December 10, 1993

• Available Platforms: MS-DOS, Sega 32X, Atari Jaguar, Mac OS, Amiga OS, PC-98, SNES, PlayStation, 3DO, Windows 95, Sega Saturn, Acorn Archimedes, Game Boy Advance, Xbox 360, iOS, PlayStation 3, Android, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

It's no exaggeration to say that if it wasn't for DOOM, the rest of the games on this list likely wouldn't exist. Id Software took the formula that they created in Wolfenstein 3D and fine-tuned it, creating a game that would revolutionize the industry and is still thoroughly enjoyable to play today.

The impressive enemy variety and range of weapons available tend to be the game's most glorified features, though the level design also deserves plaudits for how meticulously designed each level is and for how rewarding it feels to find some of the game's many secrets.

1 Medal of Honor

• Initial Release Date: October 31, 1999

• Available Platforms: PlayStation

Topping the list is the original Medal of Honor. The smash-hit beginning to the long-running EA series engrossed gamers with its excellent objective-based gameplay that took place in a realistic and immersive WW2 setting.

As it tradition with EA, there were numerous characters and features to unlock. These characters weren't just generic soldiers with different sets of gear, though. Players could unlock William Shakespeare, Winston Churchill, and even a velociraptor—yes, seriously. Medal of Honor also featured one of the best multiplayer modes on the console. The mode finally lets players answer the age-old question of who would win in a fight, Shakespeare or a velociraptor.

NEXT: Underrated RPGs For The PlayStation 4 (& That Are Overrated)