Facts for Gun Video Game Lovers: 7 of the Coolest Gaming Weapons Ever

The lion’s share of game sales now belongs to first-person shooters. Despite this, it’s hard to put a (trigger) finger on what exactly makes for a good video game weapon.

Should it make the player feel overpowered or give them just enough power to get to the next level? Should it be fun or practical?

It’s a debate that game developers have had since the popularization of the industry.

And while there isn’t a clear-cut answer, one thing is certain: A good gun video game makes its weapons as important as the characters and environments themselves

Here are seven of our personal favorites.

1. The NES Light Gun — Duck Hunt

We have to give credit where credit is due: Without Nintendo’s light gun technology, the FPS genre may not be what it is today. Upon its release alongside

Duck Hunt in 1984, the NES Light Gun revolutionized what a gaming peripheral could be.

No longer were gamers confined to a four-button controller. Now their movements could influence the game itself!

Okay, so by today’s standards, it’s a pretty cheap piece of tech — we admit it. But it’s still impossible to think of a video game gun without the orange, yellow, and grey gun or the plastic clicking sound of its trigger.

For those looking for a dose of nostalgia, you’re in luck. Hyperkin is hard at work finding a way to make the NES Light Gun compatible with current TVs!

2. The Alien Blaster — The Fallout Series

War…war never changes. But weapons do — at least according to the Fallout franchise.

While the series’ diegesis has always relied heavily on 1950s post-war nostalgia, some of the weapons make little to no sense.

Take the alien blaster, for instance, which has found its way into every entry in the series.

Post-nuclear landscapes aren’t too hard to believe. But aliens?

The confusion culminated in one of the franchise’s best stories to date, Fallout 3’s Mothership Zeta DLC. Though Fallout 3 had no shortage of great missions, Mothership Zeta was the first to directly acknowledge that extraterrestrials are indeed a part of the series canon.

3. The Rail Gun — The Quake Series

Games in the early 1990s were mostly kid-friendly mascot platformers. While they were fun, to be sure, they left adults wanting something a bit more mature.

If any developer heard those cries, it was id Software, developers behind the DOOM, Quake, and Wolfenstein franchises.

Case and point: The rail gun. A weapon so powerful it decimates multiple enemies with a single shot. When paired with id’s signature ultra-violent “gibbing” system, it was a breath of fresh air for gamers tired of stomping on turtles’ heads.

4. The BFG — The DOOM Series

No, BFG isn’t short for the big friendly giant. It instead stands for big, uh, freakin’ gun.

And indeed, the weapon lives up to its name. So much so that this isn’t even the first time we’ve talked about it.

Still, the BFG is an iconic enough video game gun that it warrants another mention.

Powered by plasma technology, the BFG shoots 80 balls of plasma energy at once, circulating enough energy to pull enemies in and eviscerate anything standing in the players’ way.

5. M21 — Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

There aren’t many video game missions we’re comfortable calling a masterpiece. But “All Ghillied Up” in Call of Duty 4 makes the cut thanks to its perfect combination of action and suspense.

But the mission wouldn’t be nearly as effective without the M21, a semi-automatic sniper rifle players use to take down targets from almost a half mile away.

6. Schofield Revolver — The Red Dead Series

What can be said about the Red Dead series that hasn’t been said a thousand times before? As far as we’re concerned, it’s Rockstar Games’ magnum opus (Sorry, Grand Theft Auto).

Part of the reason the Red Dead franchise is so much fun is due to the painstaking attention to detail in the weaponry. Most games are happy to create cookie-cutter video game guns like a pistol, sniper, and revolver and call it a day.

But not in Red Dead Redemption 2. Instead, Rockstar modeled the game’s weaponry after real-life firearms, including the satisfying to shot Schofield Revolver.

The revolver takes its inspiration from the Smith and Wesson Model 3, a very real gun that’s one of the finest collector’s firearms sold at auctions.

7. The Sheepinator — Ratched & Clank

Hey, not all video game guns have to blast things to smithereens. Sometimes a great video game gun can be fun and downright hilarious!

Like, you know, turning your opponents into sheep.

Though the Ratchet & Clank series features some hilarious weaponry (Groovinator, anyone?), The Sheepinator remains our favorite.

Gun Video Game Weapons You’ll Never Forget

There you have it, seven of the best video game guns in gun video game history. From hilarious to downright abhorrent, these guns will get the job done every time.

Want to up your arsenal? Load up on info by checking out our list of the best FPS games of 2018!