Wolfenstein 3D
Hacker ApprovedRanked 8 of 24 first-person shooters by recommenders
Recommended as a genre-defining, fondly remembered shooter with strong art, lore and clever adaptations to limited hardware. Critics note the limited-button version lacks strafing.
Recommended as a genre-defining, fondly remembered shooter with strong art, lore and clever adaptations to limited hardware. Critics note the limited-button version lacks strafing.
23 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 19
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 83%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 19 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fondly remembered favorite game
“Played some awesome games, like DOOM, Wolfenstein.”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “Intel 486 CPU announced April 10, 1989” “Wolfenstein will always have a place in my heart.”
Comment from 21 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Iron-Wolf – Wolfenstein 3D source port in Rust” “Wolfenstein 3D would have to be on that list.”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “How Pizza Tycoon simulated traffic on a 25 MHz CPU” - Comment from 20 Jun 2026 in “Bobby Prince, composer for Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Duke Nukem 3D, has died”
Important, genre-defining FPS
“It was an important step in the development of the FPS genre”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Wolfenstein 3D for Gameboy Color on custom cartridge (2016)” “Genre defining game, no question.”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “PlayStation cancels Kojima's PHYSINT, Xbox steps in” Strong lore, art and execution
“Beautiful. The motivation and execution.”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Wolfenstein 3D for Gameboy Color on custom cartridge (2016)” “Wolfenstein is great lore and art”
Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Microsoft Fire IdTech Team at Id Software” “The box art looks fantastic”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Wolfenstein 3D for Gameboy Color on custom cartridge (2016)” Clever adaptations to hardware
“This solution is elegant and not unlike what some of the fancier NES games did.”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Wolfenstein 3D for Gameboy Color on custom cartridge (2016)” “it's got built-in controller support and also has a map!”
Comment from 1 Apr 2026 in “Playing Wolfenstein 3D with one hand in 2026”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Feels less heartfelt than newer shooters
“Contemporary boomer game franchises like Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein, etc just don't have "heart".”
Comment from 27 Aug 2026 in “Hollywood's Video Game Era Is Here. Will It Be Any Good?” “Contemporary boomer game franchises like Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein, etc just don't have "heart"”
Comment from 27 Aug 2026 in “Hollywood's Video Game Era Is Here. Will It Be Any Good?”
Other first-person shooters people recommend
The four most recommended other first-person shooters, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quake | 118 | 29 | 80% | 12 | 28 yrs8 owners | Approved |
| Doom by id Software | 102 | 24 | 81% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Unreal Tournament 2004 | 51 | 12 | 81% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Quake III Arena | 49 | 3 | 94% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Wolfenstein 3DThis page | 19 | 4 | 83% | 9 | — | Approved |
What people said
19 of the 23 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Genre defining game, no question.”
“Contemporary boomer game franchises like Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein, etc just don't have "heart"”
“Contemporary boomer game franchises like Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein, etc just don't have "heart".”
“I was spending more hours with Civilization and Heroes of Might and Magic games than Wolfenstein and DOOM”
“Wolfenstein is great lore and art”
“those were my favorite games”
“games like Wolfenstein 3D and DOOM completely blew our minds”
“there were a few gems that I really enjoyed (Aliens vs Predator, Doom, Wolf 3d, Iron Soldier, and Tempest 2000)”
“it doesn't seem to support strafing, I imagine due to the minimal amount of available buttons”
“This solution is elegant and not unlike what some of the fancier NES games did.”
“Beautiful. The motivation and execution.”
“It was an important step in the development of the FPS genre”
“The box art looks fantastic”
“Played some awesome games, like DOOM, Wolfenstein.”
“Wolfenstein 3D would have to be on that list.”
“it's got built-in controller support and also has a map!”
“Wolfenstein will always have a place in my heart.”
“i want a shooter, not an RPG”
“dropping music entirely from the PC speaker implementation”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.