That's a tough one. Light sensors are usually built as small as possible because you usually want to have a tight beam between emitter and sensor or you're measuring something like sunlight or a photo flash where you want to know what the intensity is "here" and not anywhere else.
I expect that laser-tag type games use a broad laser beam and just enough sensors that the beam will hit at least one if aimed correctly. That may suggest a solution to your problem: get a "hit" on 2-3 sensors and then you know it's centered on the geometrical center of those sensors even if there isn't a sensor on that spot.
Photo resistors are relatively slow and insensitive. You can't use them to detect a coded pulse so you can't differentiate a wanted laser flash from someone lighting a cigarette nearby. Phototransitors are probably closer to what you need. I'm sure someone has built a circuit to aggregate many phototransistors into one input pin.