12.00. Shooting Genre

Gameplay

Shooters center around firing and dodging projectiles.

Subgenres

Fixed Shooter

• Fixed Shooters are those in which the player character moves along a single axis and fires shots to defeat waves of enemies.

Area Shooter

• Area Shooters provide free range of movement in a set area, where the player is tasked with eliminating waves of enemies.

Tube Shooter

• Tube Shooters wrap movement on a fixed axis around the screen to provide a pseudo-3D effect.

H-SHMUP

• H-SHMUPS, the horizontally-scrolling cousin to V-SHMUPs, feature a forced scrolling screen that typically moves left to right.

V-SHMUP

• V-SHMUPs, short for Vertically-Scrolling Shoot 'em Ups, remove the single-axis movement restriction of Fixed Shooters while the field of play automatically scrolls vertically.

Top-Down Shooter

• Top-Down Shooters allow for the player to shoot and move in, at minimum, four directions from an overhead perspective.

Platforming Shooter

• Platforming Shooters incorporate player-based physics with the same fundamental goals of shooting and dodging projectiles.

Gallery Shooter

• Gallery Shooters are pure pointing and shooting, where the player often uses a physical light gun to eliminate enemies.

Rail Shooter

• Rail Shooters feature a “behind-the-shoulder” perspective, combining the free movement of V-SHMUPs with the 3D that defines Gallery Shooters.