Games Like Duck Hunt
Quick Answer
The closest games to Duck Hunt are Time Crisis 3, House of the Dead: Remake, Wii Play, Link's Crossbow Training and Big Buck Hunter Arcade. Below are 9 picks with the reason for each — what carries over from Duck Hunt, and what does not.
What Made Duck Hunt Work
Duck Hunt is a light gun game, and the light gun is the reason it is remembered. On a modern television the original does not work at all, so the honest answer is other rail shooters, motion-controlled shooting galleries, and the small number of games built for a screen you can actually point at.
Duck Hunt is Nintendo's 1984 light-gun game, released for the Famicom and as an NES launch title in North America in 1985, often bundled with the NES Zapper. You shoot ducks or clay pigeons while a dog retrieves your catches — and laughs when you miss. The Zapper relies on the timing of a CRT television, so it does not work on most modern flat-screen TVs. People asking for similar games usually want point-and-shoot action that still works on today's hardware.
9 Games Like Duck Hunt
1.Time Crisis 3
The best of the arcade rail shooters, and the pedal is a real mechanic.
Why it fits: Namco's 2002 arcade rail shooter, ported to PS2 in 2003 with GunCon 2 support, uses a pedal (or button) to duck into cover.
What is different: Enemy soldiers who shoot back, and a duck-into-cover button rather than a single-screen gallery.
Where to play it: Arcade and PS2.
More about this game →2.House of the Dead: Remake
The classic light gun game rebuilt for modern hardware.
Why it fits: MegaPixel Studio's 2022 remake of Sega's 1996 arcade light-gun game, published by Forever Entertainment, was first released on Switch and supports motion aiming.
What is different: Zombies and a moving camera, with civilians to save rather than birds to hit.
Where to play it: Switch, PC, PlayStation and Xbox.
More about this game →3.Wii Play
The shooting gallery mode is the closest thing to Duck Hunt made this century.
Why it fits: Nintendo's 2006 collection of Wii Remote minigames, bundled with a controller, includes a Shooting Range mode where you shoot ducks, clay pigeons and balloons.
What is different: Shooting is one of nine short mini-games, so there is not much of it.
Where to play it: Wii.
More about this game →4.Link's Crossbow Training
Nintendo's own target shooting, and much deeper than it looks.
Why it fits: Nintendo's 2007 Wii shooting game was bundled with the Wii Zapper and uses Twilight Princess settings for target-shooting stages.
What is different: Zelda targets and enemies instead of ducks, and some stages let you walk around.
Where to play it: Wii.
More about this game →5.Big Buck Hunter Arcade
The direct descendant of the whole hunting-gallery idea.
Why it fits: A console version of the Big Buck Hunter light-gun series, a long-running staple of bars and arcades, built around shooting bucks while avoiding does.
What is different: Real animals and a rule against shooting the does; the style is realistic rather than cartoon.
More about this game →6.Blue Estate
A modern rail shooter designed for a controller rather than a gun.
Why it fits: HE SAW's 2014 rail shooter, based on the Blue Estate comics, is a comedic gangster story you aim with the PS4 controller's motion sensor or a mouse.
What is different: Crude comedy crime story, played with a controller or motion aim instead of a gun.
Where to play it: PS4, Xbox One and PC.
More about this game →7.Until Dawn: Rush of Blood
If you have VR, this is where the rail shooter went.
Why it fits: Supermassive Games' 2016 PlayStation VR rail shooter sends you on a horror rollercoaster, shooting with two tracked controllers.
What is different: A horror rollercoaster that needs a VR headset and two motion controllers.
Where to play it: PS4 with PlayStation VR.
More about this game →8.Pistol Whip
VR shooting as rhythm, and the best-feeling gun in any game.
Why it fits: Cloudhead Games' 2019 VR game combines shooting with rhythm-game design, as you aim and dodge in time with the music.
What is different: You move through levels to music, dodging bullets with your whole body; VR only.
Where to play it: Meta Quest, PC VR and PlayStation VR.
More about this game →9.Duck Season
A VR game built specifically as a Duck Hunt homage.
Why it fits: Stress Level Zero's 2017 VR game places you in a 1980s living room playing a duck-hunting game on an old TV — a direct homage that turns into a horror story.
What is different: A horror story hides behind the duck hunting, and it needs a VR headset.
More about this game →
Where to Start
If you own a VR headset, Pistol Whip or Duck Season is the best modern answer. On Switch, House of the Dead: Remake is the easiest classic rail shooter to get. Wii owners should start with Wii Play's Shooting Range, which is the closest to Duck Hunt itself.
How We Picked These Games
Every pick is a shooting-gallery or rail-shooter game playable on a console or VR headset sold in the last two decades. We favoured games where you physically aim — with a light gun, a motion controller or VR — because that is what made Duck Hunt memorable.
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How These Picks Match Duck Hunt
Duck Hunt is catalogued here as a party game on the Nintendo Entertainment System. All nine picks share at least one of its genre tags — eight shooters and eight arcade games among them.
Going by the "where to play it" notes, three can be played on PC, five can be played on a PlayStation, three can be played on a Nintendo system and two can be played on an Xbox. Blue Estate, Pistol Whip and Duck Season are from small or self-published studios. Wii Play and Link's Crossbow Training are, like Duck Hunt, games a child and an adult can play together.
| Game | Genre | Shares with Duck Hunt | Where to play |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time Crisis 3 | Shooter, Arcade | Shooter, Arcade | Arcade and PS2. |
| House of the Dead: Remake | Shooter, Arcade | Shooter, Arcade | Switch, PC, PlayStation and Xbox. |
| Wii Play | Arcade, Family, Casual | Arcade | Wii. |
| Link's Crossbow Training | Shooter, Arcade, Family | Shooter, Arcade | Wii. |
| Big Buck Hunter Arcade | Shooter, Arcade, Sports | Shooter, Arcade | — |
| Blue Estate | Shooter, Arcade, Indie | Shooter, Arcade | PS4, Xbox One and PC. |
| Until Dawn: Rush of Blood | Shooter, Arcade | Shooter, Arcade | PS4 with PlayStation VR. |
| Pistol Whip | Shooter, Arcade, Indie | Shooter, Arcade | Meta Quest, PC VR and PlayStation VR. |
| Duck Season | Shooter, Adventure, Indie | Shooter | — |
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