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110-464: Thunder Force Gold Pack is a compilation duology of four scrolling shooter games previously released in the Thunder Force franchise by Technosoft: Gold Pack 1 includes the original Sega Mega Drive versions of Thunder Force II and Thunder Force III , while Gold Pack 2 includes Thunder Force AC (an arcade port of Thunder Force III ) and Thunder Force IV (known as Lightening Force: Quest for

220-438: A golden age of arcade video games that lasted until around 1983. In contrast to earlier shooting games, Space Invaders has targets that fire back at the player, who in turn has multiple lives . Designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, who combined elements from his earlier Western Gun (such as destructible environmental objects) with elements of Atari 's Breakout (1976) and science fiction media, Space Invaders established

330-408: A side-scrolling format. Later notable side-scrolling run and gun shooters include Namco's Rolling Thunder (1986), which added cover mechanics to the formula, and Data East's RoboCop (1988). In 1987, Konami created Contra , a side-scrolling coin-op arcade game, and later a NES game, that was particularly acclaimed for its multi-directional aiming and two-player cooperative gameplay. By

440-431: A sub-genre of action games . There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of character movement, while others allow a broader definition including characters on foot and a variety of perspectives. The genre's roots can be traced back to earlier shooting games , including target shooting electro-mechanical games of

550-576: A third-person camera view that fully displays the player character in their surroundings. Notable examples of the genre include Fortnite , the Tomb Raider series, several entries in the Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid franchises, Syphon Filter , Max Payne , SOCOM , Star Wars: Battlefront , Gears of War , and Splatoon . Third person shooter mechanics are often incorporated into open-world adventure and sandbox games, including

660-471: A "shmup" or "STG" (the common Japanese abbreviation for "shooting games"), is a game in which the protagonist combats a large number of enemies by shooting at them while dodging their fire. The controlling player must rely primarily on reaction times to succeed. Beyond this, critics differ on exactly which design elements constitute a shoot 'em up. Some restrict the genre to games featuring some kind of craft, using fixed or scrolling movement. Others widen

770-401: A black background. It had a more interactive style of play than earlier target shooting games, with multiple enemies who responded to the player-controlled cannon's movement and fired back at the player. The game ended when the player was killed by the enemies. While earlier shooting games allowed the player to shoot at targets, Space Invaders was the first where multiple enemies fired back at

880-472: A formula of "shoot or be shot" against numerous enemies. Space shooters subsequently became the dominant genre in arcades from the late 1970s up until the early 1980s. Most of these shooting games were presented from a 2D top-down-style perspective, with either a fixed or scrolling field. Games like Space Wars (1977) by Cinematronics and Tempest (1981) by Atari used vector graphics displays rather than raster graphics , while Sega's Zaxxon (1981)

990-568: A gun-shaped controller, typically a light gun in arcade games ; similar control methods include a positional gun, motion controller , pointing device or analog stick . The first light guns appeared in the 1930s, following the development of light-sensing vacuum tubes . It was not long before the technology began appearing in mechanical shooting arcade games , dating back to the Seeburg Ray-O-Lite in 1936. These early mechanical gun games evolved into shooting electro-mechanical games around

1100-471: A light gun for a shooting gallery game in 1972. In 1974, Tank by Kee Games adapted the concept of Computer Space into a more grounded tank combat game with simplified physics and maze game elements, becoming a hit in arcades. Spasim and Maze War (1974) were effectively first-person shooter (FPS) games, but had wireframe graphics and lacked the free-roaming character movement of later FPS titles. In 1975, Taito 's Tomohiro Nishikado adapted

1210-555: A more successful attempt to incorporate a 3D perspective into shooter games; Tempest went on to influence several later rail shooters. Sega's Zaxxon (1981) introduced isometric video game graphics to the genre. The term "shmup" is believed to have been coined in 1985 by the British Commodore 64 magazine Zzap!64 . In the July 1985 issue, the term was used by the editor Chris Anderson and reviewer Julian Rignall . 1985 saw

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1320-417: A rail shooter released in 1985, broke new ground graphically and its wide variety of settings across multiple levels gave players more to aim for than high scores. In 1986, Arsys Software released WiBArm , a shooter that switched between a 2D side-scrolling view in outdoor areas to a fully 3D polygonal third-person perspective inside buildings, while bosses were fought in an arena-style 2D battle, with

1430-413: A result of this, many tactical shooters are commonly played from the first person perspective. Tactical shooters may combine elements from other shooter genres, such as Rainbow Six Siege , Valorant , and Squad , which combine the traditional tactical shooter style with the class-based gameplay of hero shooters. A further variant of the tactical shooter is the extraction shooter, generally defined by

1540-529: A shoot 'em up, as opposed to an action-adventure game . The success of Commando and Ikari Warriors led to run and gun games becoming the dominant style of shoot 'em up during the late 1980s to early 1990s, with the term "shoot 'em up" itself becoming synonymous with "run and gun" during this period. Konami 's Green Beret (1985), known as Rush'n Attack in North America, adapted the Commando formula to

1650-526: A straight line at constant speeds. The player's character can collect " power-ups " which may afford the character's greater protection, an " extra life ", health, shield, or upgraded weaponry. Different weapons are often suited to different enemies, but these games seldom keep track of ammunition. As such, players tend to fire indiscriminately, and their weapons only damage legitimate targets. Shoot 'em ups are categorized by their design elements, particularly viewpoint and movement: Fixed shooters restrict

1760-478: A subgenre of shooters wherein the player may move, up, down, left or right around the screen, typically firing straight forward. Shoot 'em ups share common gameplay, but are often categorized by viewpoint. This includes fixed shooters on fixed screens, such as Space Invaders and Galaxian ; scrolling shooters that mainly scroll in a single direction, such as Xevious and Darius ; top-down shooters (sometimes referred to as twin-stick shooters ) where

1870-564: A third-person view, and featured the use of force feedback , where the joystick vibrates. Over the course of the 1990s, a new subgenre of shooters evolved, known as " danmaku ( 弾幕 , "barrage") in Japan, and often referred to as "bullet hell" or "manic shooters" in English-speaking regions. These games are characterized by high numbers of enemy projectiles, often in complex "curtain fire" patterns, as well as collision boxes that are smaller than

1980-600: A three-dimensional space, a defining feature of FPS games. The use of texture-mapped 3D polygon graphics in shooter games dates back to Sega AM2 's light gun rail shooter Virtua Cop (1994), followed by Sega's mech simulation shooter Metal Head (1995) and Parallax Software 's FPS game Descent (1995). GoldenEye 007 (1997) for the Nintendo 64 later combined the FPS sub-genre with light gun rail shooter elements from Virtua Cop , popularizing FPS games on consoles. In

2090-401: A type of strategy game . Battle royale games are a subgenre of action games that combine last-man-standing gameplay with survival game elements, and frequently includes shooter elements. It is almost exclusively multiplayer in nature, and eschews the complex crafting and resource gathering mechanics of survival games for a faster-paced confrontation game more typical of shooters. The genre

2200-487: A vehicle or spacecraft under constant attack. Thus, the player's goal is to shoot as quickly as possible at anything that moves or threatens them to reach the end of the level, usually with a boss battle . In some games, the player's character can withstand some damage or a single hit will result in their destruction. The main skills required in shoot 'em ups are fast reactions and memorising enemy attack patterns. Some games feature overwhelming numbers of enemy projectiles and

2310-438: A violent or non-violent game, determined that the students who played the violent game were more susceptible to primed aggressive thoughts. Further studies have shown that there are some limitations with the research. Many research studies have not taken into account that violent video games tend to be more competitive, have a higher playing difficulty, and are more fast paced than non-violent games. Past research also shows that

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2420-555: A wrap-around game world, unlike most later games in the genre. The scrolling helped remove design limitations associated with the screen, and it also featured a minimap radar. Scramble , released by Konami in early 1981, had continuous scrolling in a single direction and was the first side-scrolling shooter with multiple distinct levels . In the early 1980s, Japanese arcade developers began moving away from space shooters towards character action games , whereas American arcade developers continued to focus on space shooters during

2530-482: Is a subgenre of shooters in which the screen becomes crowded with complex "curtain fire" enemy patterns. It is also characterized by collision boxes that are smaller than the sprites themselves, to accommodate maneuvering through these crowded firing patterns. This style of game, also known as "manic shooters" or "maniac shooters", originated in the mid-1990s as an offshoot of scrolling shooters. The DonPachi and Touhou Project series are early titles establishing

2640-449: Is considered to be the codifier of the hero shooter genre. Popular hero shooters include Overwatch , Paladins , Apex Legends , and Valorant . Hero shooters have been considered to have strong potential as esports games as a large degree of skill and coordination arises from the importance of teamwork. Tactical shooters are shooters that generally simulate realistic squad -based or man-to-man skirmishes. Notable examples of

2750-632: Is named after the Japanese film Battle Royale (2000) which itself was based on the 1999 novel of the same name , and was popularized in video games with PUBG Battlegrounds and Fortnite Battle Royale . The concept of shooting games existed before video games , dating back to shooting gallery carnival games in the late 19th century, as well as target sports such as shooting sports , bowling , cue sports , archery and darts . Mechanical gun games first appeared in England 's amusement arcades around

2860-477: Is notable for using a traditional fantasy setting in contrast to most shoot 'em up games filled with science fiction motifs. R-Type , an acclaimed side-scrolling shoot 'em up, was released in 1987 by Irem , employing slower paced scrolling than usual, with difficult, claustrophobic levels calling for methodical strategies. 1990's Raiden was the beginning of another acclaimed and enduring series to emerge from this period. Run and gun games became popular in

2970-859: Is still a single axis of motion, making these a subset of fixed shooters. Rail shooters limit the player to moving around the screen while following a specific route; these games often feature an "into the screen" viewpoint, with which the action is seen from behind the player character , and moves "into the screen", while the player retains control over dodging. Examples include Space Harrier (1985), Captain Skyhawk (1990), Starblade (1991), Star Fox (1993), Star Wars: Rebel Assault (1993), Panzer Dragoon (1995), and Sin and Punishment (2000). Rail shooters that use light guns are called light gun shooters , such as Operation Wolf (1987), Lethal Enforcers (1992), Virtua Cop (1994), Point Blank (1994), Time Crisis (1995), The House of

3080-517: The Elder Scrolls series and the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Arena shooters are multiplayer games that feature fast paced gameplay that emphasize quick speed and agile movement, and played out on levels or maps of limited size (the "arena"). Many of these are presented as first-person shooters, and thus "arena FPS" may also be used to describe a subset of these games. Examples of these include

3190-454: The Geometry Wars series, Space Invaders Extreme , Super Stardust HD , and Resogun . The concept of shooting games existed before video games , dating back to shooting gallery carnival games in the late 19th century and target sports such as archery , bowling and darts . Mechanical target shooting games first appeared in England 's amusement arcades around the turn of

3300-632: The Marathon series. Looter shooters are shooter games where the player's overarching goal is the accumulation of loot : weapons, equipment, armor, accessories and resources. To achieve this players complete tasks framed as quests, missions or campaigns and are rewarded with better weapons, gear and accessories as a result, with the qualities, attributes and perks of such gear generated randomly following certain rarity scales (also known as loot tables). The better gear allows players to take on more difficult missions with potentially more powerful rewards, forming

3410-516: The Quake and Unreal series, more specifically Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament which first pioneered the genre. Arena shooters can also be played from other perspectives, such as via a top-down view in games like Robotron 2084 and Geometry Wars . Arena shooters frequently emphasize multiplayer modes with few or no single-player modes outside of practice matches with computer-controlled opponents. The genre hit its peak in popularity in

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3520-569: The Front Line tank shooter format with unique rotary joystick controls, which they later combined with Commando -inspired run and gun gameplay to develop Ikari Warriors (1986), which further popularized run and gun shooters. Ikari Warriors also drew inspiration from the action film Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), which it was originally intended to be an adaptation of. Contemporary critics considered military themes and protagonists similar to Rambo or Schwarzenegger prerequisites for

3630-554: The NES , Operation Wolf , Lethal Enforcers , the Virtua Cop series, Time Crisis series, The House of the Dead series, and Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles & Darkside Chronicles . First-person shooters are characterized by an on-screen representation of the player character 's perspective within a three-dimensional space , with the player having control and agency over

3740-462: The Xbox 360 , PlayStation 3 and Wii online services, while in Japan arcade shoot 'em ups retain a deep-rooted niche popularity. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved was released on Xbox Live Arcade in 2005 and in particular stood out from the various re-releases and casual games available on the service. The PC has also seen its share of dōjin shoot 'em ups like Crimzon Clover , Jamestown: Legend of

3850-415: The immersive sim genre. Boomer shooter is a term used to describe newer FPS games (2010s and later) that are purposely designed to emulate the style and design principles of 1990s FPS games like Doom and Quake . The name "boomer shooter" is derived from the baby boomer generation, where "boomer" has since become slang for anything old or antiquated. According to New Blood Interactive CEO Dave Oshry,

3960-446: The player characters move and jump around shooting with various guns and other long-range weapons. These games emphasize greater maneuvering or even jumping , such as Green Beret , Thexder , Contra and Metal Slug . Shooting gallery games (also known as "target shooting" games) are a sub-genre of shooters where the player aims at moving targets on a stationary screen. They are distinguished from rail shooters, which move

4070-430: The vertical scrolling format later popularized by Capcom 's Commando (1985), which established the standard formula used by later run and gun games. Sega's Ninja Princess (1985), which released slightly before Commando , was a run and gun game that was distinctive for its feudal Japan setting and female ninja protagonist who throws shuriken and knives. SNK 's TNK III , released later in 1985, combined

4180-507: The "Killerspiele" (killing games) in Germany and the European Union. Shooter games were further criticized when Anders Behring Breivik , perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks , claimed that he developed target acquisition skills by playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 . This has led to a plethora of experimental research to determine the true effects. Experimental Research, focusing on

4290-542: The "top-view" stages and "side-view" stages. The game introduces a weapon system consisting of twin and back shots that are upgraded by collecting certain items, as well as new weapons and the CRAW satellite pods. Players can switch freely between each weapon, with the top-view and side-view formats having their own subset of weapons, but all arsenal will be lost after the Exceliza is destroyed. In Thunder Force III , players now assume

4400-498: The 1980s to early 1990s, diversifying into a variety of subgenres such as scrolling shooters, run and gun games and rail shooters. In the mid-1990s, shoot 'em ups became a niche genre based on design conventions established in the 1980s, and increasingly catered to specialist enthusiasts, particularly in Japan. " Bullet hell " games are a subgenre of shooters that features overwhelming numbers of enemy projectiles , often in visually impressive formations. A "shoot 'em up", also known as

4510-597: The 2000s. Due to its violent nature, some consider the shooter game genre to be a representation of real world violence. Debates regarding video games causing violence were exacerbated by the 1999 Columbine High School massacre , whose perpetrators, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold , were fans of the game Doom. Similarly, in Germany, school shootings such as those at Erfurt , Emsdetten and Winnenden , resulted in conservative politicians accusing violent shooter games, most notably Counter Strike , of inciting young gamers to run amok. Several attempts were made to ban

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4620-522: The 20th century, before appearing in America by the 1920s. Shooting gallery games eventually evolved into more sophisticated target shooting electro-mechanical games (EM games) such as Sega 's influential Periscope (1965). Shooting video games have roots in EM shooting games. Video game journalist Brian Ashcraft argues the early mainframe game Spacewar! (1962) was the first shoot 'em up video game. It

4730-561: The Darkstar in North America). Each compilation features an arranged soundtrack, an introductory FMV sequence and gallery containing info on the series. In Thunder Force II , players assume the role of Galaxy Federation pilots Raido A. Jupiter and Diana Lean commanding the Exceliza space fighter craft to defeat the Orn Empire's Plealos battleship. Stages in the game are split into two formats:

4840-460: The Dead (1996) and Elemental Gearbolt (1997). Light-gun games that are "on rails" are usually not considered to be in the shoot-em-up category, but rather their own first-person light-gun shooter category. Cute 'em ups feature brightly colored graphics depicting surreal settings and enemies. Cute 'em ups tend to have unusual, oftentimes completely bizarre opponents for the player to fight, with Twinbee and Fantasy Zone first pioneering

4950-466: The Lost Colony , Xenoslaive Overdrive , and the eXceed series . However, despite the genre's continued appeal to an enthusiastic niche of players, shoot 'em up developers are increasingly embattled financially by the power of home consoles and their attendant genres. Shooting games Shooter video games or shooters are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is on the defeat of

5060-491: The Rynex ship to face a powerful threat called Vios, formed from survivors of the Orn Empire, by destroying their base in the planet Aceria. Gameplay follows the same format as the third installment but with minimal changes, introducing larger and more open-ended stages. Midway through the game, players obtain a powerful attack called "Thunder Sword" but requires two CRAW satellites attached to Rynex. The Gold Pack 2 version improved on

5170-642: The background or from the sides. One of the earliest examples is the 1985 arcade game Shootout produced by Data East. As light gun games and rail shooters became more prevalent and started to make use of scrolling backgrounds, such as Operation Wolf , or fully 3D backgrounds, such as the Time Crisis or House of the Dead series, these sorts of games fell out of popular production, but many like Blood Bros. still have their fanbase today. Other notable games of this category include Cabal and Wild Guns . Light gun shooters are shooters designed for use with

5280-449: The character's enemies using ranged weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range weapons , and can be used in combination with other tools such as grenades for indirect offense, armor for additional defense, or accessories such as telescopic sights to modify the behavior of the weapons. A common resource found in many shooter games is ammunition , armor or health, or upgrades which augment

5390-678: The character's movement and action within that space. While many rail shooters and light-gun shooters also use a first-person perspective , they are generally not included in this category, as the player generally lacks agency to move their character within the game world. Notable examples of the genre include Doom , Quake , Counter-Strike , GoldenEye 007 , Battlefield , Medal of Honor , Unreal , Call of Duty , Killzone , TimeSplitters , Team Fortress 2 and Halo , while games such as Half-Life and System Shock would combine shooter gameplay with narrative-focused or role-playing game elements to instead branch off into

5500-629: The closure of Toaplan, the following year, a number of studios formed from former Toaplan staff that would continue to develop this style, including Cave (formed by Batsugun's main creator Tsuneki Ikeda) who released 1995's seminal DonPachi , and Takumi, who would develop the GigaWing series. Bullet hell games marked another point where the shooter genre began to cater to more dedicated players. Games such as Gradius had been more difficult than Space Invaders or Xevious , but bullet hell games were yet more inward-looking and aimed at dedicated fans of

5610-488: The concept of Sega's EM game Gun Fight into a video game, Western Gun (1975), with the cowboys represented as character sprites and both players able to maneuver across a landscape while shooting each other, making it a milestone for depicting human shooting targets. Western Gun became an arcade hit, which, along with Tank , popularized a subgenre of one-on-one dueling video games. Midway's North American localization of Western Gun , called Gun Fight , also introduced

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5720-541: The currently selected weapon is lost after the Styx's destruction. The arcade version, Thunder Force AC , features enhanced visuals and an extra music track but removes the ability to choose between stages and two stages were replaced. Difficulty is also increased compared to the Mega Drive original and the autofire mechanic is removed. In Thunder Force IV , players take the role of pilots Roy S. Mercury and Carol T. Mars commanding

5830-609: The early 1980s, such as Sega's isometric shooter Zaxxon and pseudo-3D rail shooter Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom (1982) demonstrating the potential of 3D shoot 'em up gameplay. Shooter games diversified by the mid-1980s, with first-person light gun shooting gallery games such as Nintendo 's Duck Hunt (1984), pseudo-3D third-person rail shooters such as Sega's Space Harrier (1985) and After Burner (1987), and military-themed scrolling run and gun video games such as Capcom 's Commando (1985), Konami 's Green Beret (1985) and SNK 's Ikari Warriors (1986). In

5940-629: The early 1980s, up until the end of the arcade golden age. According to Eugene Jarvis , American developers were greatly influenced by Japanese space shooters but took the genre in a different direction from the "more deterministic, scripted, pattern-type" gameplay of Japanese games, towards a more "programmer-centric design culture, emphasizing algorithmic generation of backgrounds and enemy dispatch" and "an emphasis on random-event generation, particle-effect explosions and physics" as seen in arcade games such as his own Defender and Robotron: 2084 (1982) as well as Atari's Asteroids (1979). Robotron: 2084

6050-400: The early 1990s and the popularity of 16-bit consoles , the scrolling shooter genre was overcrowded, with developers struggling to make their games stand out, with exceptions such as the inventive Gunstar Heroes (1993) by Treasure . Sega's pseudo-3D rail shooter Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom demonstrated the potential of 3D shoot 'em up gameplay in 1982. Sega's Space Harrier ,

6160-503: The emergence of one of Sega's forefront series with its game Fantasy Zone . The game received acclaim for its surreal graphics and setting and the protagonist, Opa-Opa, was for a time considered Sega's mascot . The game borrowed Defender's device of allowing the player to control the direction of flight and along with the earlier TwinBee (1985), is an early archetype of the "cute 'em up" subgenre. In 1986, Taito released KiKi KaiKai , an overhead multi-directional shooter. The game

6270-494: The first games to popularize twin-stick controls was Robotron: 2084 (1982). Space shooters are a thematic variant of involving spacecraft in outer space . Following the success of Space Invaders , space shooters were the dominant subgenre during the late 1970s to early 1980s. These games can overlap with other subgenres as well as space combat games . Tube shooters feature craft flying through an abstract tube, such as Tempest (1981) and Gyruss (1983). There

6380-467: The first video games, was also the first shooter video game; it featured two players controlling spacecraft trying to fire onto the other player. Spacewar! was the basis for the first arcade video games , Computer Space and Galaxy Game , in 1971. In the 1970s, EM gun games evolved into light gun shooter video games. The first home video game console , the Magnavox Odyssey , shipped with

6490-452: The game featuring a variety of weapons and equipment. In 1987, Square's 3-D WorldRunner was an early stereoscopic 3-D shooter played from a third-person perspective, followed later that year by its sequel JJ , and the following year by Space Harrier 3-D which used the SegaScope 3-D shutter glasses . That same year, Sega's Thunder Blade switched between both a top-down view and

6600-454: The game's compulsion loop . Loot shooters are inspired by similar loot-based action role-playing games like Diablo . Examples of loot shooters include the Borderlands franchise, Warframe , Destiny and its sequel , and Tom Clancy's The Division and its sequel . Artillery games have been described as a type of "shooting game", though they are more frequently classified as

6710-495: The gameplay of both Thunder Force II and Thunder Force III but criticized the lack of improvements with Gold Pack 1 in regards to audiovisual presentation. MAN!AC ' s Christian Blendl regarded both Thunder Force III and Thunder Force IV as highlights of Gold Pack 1 and Gold Pack 2 respectively, as well as the extra additions and improvements introduced in the second compilation. Shoot %27em up#Types Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are

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6820-426: The gameplay style of Escape from Tarkov . These games are often "player versus player versus environment" (PvPvE), where players are grouped into teams and placed on a map with the goal to reach an extraction point elsewhere on the map while avoiding the opposing team and non-player character enemies. During their attempt to reach the extraction point, the players may try to loot the opposing team or other features on

6930-539: The genre in a different direction from the "more deterministic, scripted, pattern-type" gameplay of Japanese games, towards a more "programmer-centric design culture, emphasizing algorithmic generation of backgrounds and enemy dispatch" and "an emphasis on random-event generation, particle-effect explosions and physics" as seen in arcade games such as his own Defender (1981) and Robotron: 2084 (1982) as well as Atari 's Asteroids (1979). Nevertheless, Japanese developers occasionally released defining space shooters in

7040-550: The genre include Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon series and Bohemia Software's Operation Flashpoint . A common feature of tactical shooters that is not present in many other shooters is the ability for the player character to lean out of cover, increasing the granularity of a player's movement and stance options to enhance the realism of the game. Tactical shooters also commonly feature more extensive equipment management, more complex healing systems, and greater depth of simulation compared to other shooters. As

7150-431: The genre looking for greater challenges. While shooter games featuring protagonists on foot largely moved to 3D-based genres, popular, long-running series such as Contra and Metal Slug continued to receive new sequels. Rail shooters have rarely been released in the new millennium, with only Rez and Panzer Dragoon Orta achieving cult recognition. In the early 2000s, the genre achieved recognition through

7260-566: The lack of change with playability in Thunder Force Gold Pack 1 but commended the technical improvements over the Sega Mega Drive originals, enemy patterns and power-up system, stating that Gold Pack 1 "is a nice game collection of two top-class 16-bit titles, which may no longer knock a modern console gamer off his feet, but all in all ensure rock-solid shoot'em-up entertainment." Fun Generation ' s two reviewers also commended

7370-475: The late 1980s, Taito's Operation Wolf (1987) popularized military-themed first-person light gun rail shooters. Doom (1993) by id Software is considered the first major popular first-person shooter (FPS), and it was a major leap forward for three-dimensional environments in shooter games as well as action games in general. While first-person perspectives had been used by rail shooter and shooting gallery games, they lacked player-guided navigation through

7480-445: The late 1990s, FPS games became increasingly popular while rail shooters declined in popularity, as FPS games were generally able to offer more variety, depth and sophistication than rail shooters. One of the last mainstream light gun rail shooter franchises was The House of the Dead horror game series in the late 1990s, which along with Resident Evil had a significant cultural impact on zombie media including zombie films by

7590-436: The late 90s and early 2000s. Hero shooters are a variation of multiplayer first- or third-person shooters, where players form into two or more teams and select from pre-designed "hero" characters, with each possessing distinctive abilities and/or weapons that are specific to them. Hero shooters strongly encourage teamwork between players on a team, guiding players to select effective combinations of hero characters and coordinate

7700-431: The levels are controlled from an overhead viewpoint, such as Bosconian and Time Pilot ; rail shooters where player movement is automatically guided down a fixed forward-scrolling "rail", such as Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom and Space Harrier ; and isometric shooters which use an isometric perspective, such as Zaxxon and Viewpoint . Run and gun video games are 2D scrolling action games in which

7810-414: The map for gear, which if they successfully reach the extraction point, they can keep and use to improve their character. Alternatively, they may have other assigned objectives to complete before extraction for better rewards. Gameplay is more slow and tactical for survival rather than straightforward run-and-gun. Other examples of extraction shooters include The Cycle: Frontier and the upcoming revival of

7920-517: The mid 1990s to gauge interest in the then-upcoming Thunder Force V . Each compilation were met with mixed reception from critics. However, public reception was positive; Readers of the Japanese Sega Saturn Magazine voted to give both Gold Pack 1 and Gold Pack 2 scores of a 7.7076 and 8.8768 out of 10, ranking at the number 475 and 112 spots respectively, indicating a popular following. Video Games ' s Wolfgang Schaedle noted

8030-420: The mid-1980s. These games feature characters on foot, rather than spacecraft, and often have military themes. The origins of this type of shooter go back to Sheriff by Nintendo , released in 1979. SNK 's Sasuke vs. Commander (1980), which had relatively detailed background graphics for its time, pit a samurai against a horde of ninjas , along with boss fights . Taito's Front Line (1982) introduced

8140-405: The mid-20th century, and in turn evolved into light gun shooter video games in the 1970s. Early mechanical light gun games used small targets (usually moving) onto which a light-sensing tube was mounted; the player used a gun (usually a rifle) that emitted a beam of light when the trigger was pulled. If the beam struck the target, a "hit" was scored. Modern screen-based video game light guns work on

8250-411: The mid-20th-century, but did not receive a video game release until Spacewar! (1962). The shoot 'em up genre was established by the hit arcade game Space Invaders , which popularised and set the general template for the genre in 1978, and has spawned many clones. The genre was then further developed by arcade hits such as Asteroids and Galaxian in 1979. Shoot 'em ups were popular throughout

8360-432: The mobile game Space Impact , which is considered one of the important games in the history of mobile games . Treasure's shoot 'em up, Radiant Silvergun (1998), introduced an element of narrative to the genre. It was critically acclaimed for its refined design, though it was not released outside Japan and remains a much sought-after collector's item. Its successor Ikaruga (2001) featured improved graphics and

8470-463: The opposite principle—the sensor is built into the gun itself, and the on-screen target(s) emit light rather than the gun. The first light gun of this type was used on the MIT Whirlwind computer, which used a similar light pen . Like rail shooters, movement is typically limited in light-gun games. Notable games of this category include the 1974 and 1984 versions of Wild Gunman , Duck Hunt for

8580-468: The original Mega Drive release by eliminating slowdown, adding an easier mode which gives the player bonus defensive abilities, as well as adding the Styx fighter from Thunder Force III as a secret playable ship. Thunder Force Gold Pack 1 and Thunder Force Gold Pack 2 were published in 1996 by Technosoft for the Sega Saturn on September 27 and December 6 respectively. Both compilations were released in

8690-452: The player against multiple enemies descending from the top of the screen at a constantly increasing speed. Nishikado conceived the game by combining elements of Breakout (1976) with those of earlier target shooting games, and simple alien creatures inspired by H. G. Wells ' The War of the Worlds . The hardware was unable to render the movement of aircraft, so the game was set in space, with

8800-401: The player and enemies to a single screen, and the player primarily moves along a single axis, such as back and forth along the bottom of the screen. Examples include Space Invaders (1978), Galaxian (1979), Phoenix (1980), and Galaga (1981). In Pooyan (1982), the fixed axis of movement is vertical, along the right side of the screen. In Centipede (1980) and Gorf (1981),

8910-444: The player character's weapons. Shooter games test the player's spatial awareness, reflexes, and speed in both isolated single player or networked multiplayer environments. Shooter games encompass many subgenres that have the commonality of focusing on the actions of the avatar engaging in combat with a weapon against both code-driven NPC enemies or other avatars controlled by other players. Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups) are

9020-574: The player has to memorise their patterns to survive. These games belong to one of the fastest-paced video game genres . Large numbers of enemy characters programmed to behave in an easily predictable manner are typically featured. These enemies may behave in a certain way dependent on their type, or attack in formations that the player can learn to predict. The basic gameplay tends to be straightforward with many varieties of weapons. Shoot 'em ups rarely have realistic physics. Characters can instantly change direction with no inertia , and projectiles move in

9130-491: The player in a trance-like state. In trance shooters, enemy patterns usually have randomized elements, forcing the player to rely on reflexes rather than pattern memorization. Games of this type usually feature colorful, abstract visuals, and electronic music (often techno music ). Jeff Minter is commonly credited with originating the style with Tempest 2000 (1994) and subsequent games including Space Giraffe , Gridrunner++ , and Polybius (2017). Other examples include

9240-480: The player primarily moves left and right along the bottom, but several inches of vertical motion are also allowed within an invisible box. Multidirectional shooters allow 360-degree movement where the protagonist may rotate and move in any direction such as Asteroids (1979) and Mad Planets (1983). Multidirectional shooters with one joystick for movement and one joystick for firing in any direction independent of movement are called twin-stick shooters . One of

9350-463: The player through levels on a fixed path, and first-person shooters, which allow player-guided navigation through a three-dimensional space. Shooting gallery games can be light gun games and rail-shooters, although many can also be played using a regular joypad and an on-screen cursor to signify where the bullets are being aimed. When these debuted, they were typically played from a first-person perspective , with enemy fire that occurred anywhere on

9460-415: The player's flying vehicle moving forward, at a fixed rate, through an environment. Examples are Scramble (1981), Xevious (1982), Gradius (1986), Darius (1987), R-Type (1987), Einhänder (1997). In contrast, Defender (1981) allows the player to move left or right at will. Run and gun games have protagonists that move through the world on foot and shoot attackers. Examples include

9570-549: The player. It also introduced the idea of giving the player multiple lives and popularized the concept of achieving a high score . With these elements, Space Invaders set the general template for the shoot 'em up genre. It became one of the most widely cloned shooting games, spawning more than 100 imitators with only the most minor differences (if any) from the original. Most shooting games released since then have followed its "multiple life, progressively difficult level " paradigm, according to Eugene Jarvis . Following

9680-548: The principle of bullet hells. A bullet heaven or reverse bullet hell is a subgenre characterized by the player character collecting or unlocking abilities and attacks whose visuals overlap and clutter the game screen as the game progresses. They also share a feature of many enemy characters, commonly called "hordes", walking toward the player from off-screen. This genre is generally attributed to Vampire Survivors , released in 2022. A small subgenre of shooter games that emphasizes chaotic, reflex-based gameplay designed to put

9790-545: The protagonists fight on foot, often with the ability to jump . Run and gun games may use side-scrolling , vertical scrolling or isometric viewpoints and may feature multidirectional movement. Top-down run and gun games use an overhead camera angle that shows players and the areas around them from above. Notable games in this category include Commando , Ikari Warriors , Shock Troopers and Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad . Side-scrolling run and gun games combine elements of both shoot 'em up and platform games , while

9900-416: The release of Konami's Gradius , which gave the player greater control over the choice of weaponry, thus introducing another element of strategy. The game also introduced the need for the player to memorise levels in order to achieve any measure of success. Gradius , with its iconic protagonist, defined the side-scrolling shoot 'em up and spawned a series spanning several sequels. The following year saw

10010-483: The role of G.F. pilots Jean R. Fern and Sherry M. Jupiter commanding the Styx fighter craft on a mission to destroy five cloaking devices on major planets of the Orn Empire's space cluster, infiltrate their headquarters and destroy the Cerberus battleship, as well as confront the bio-computer emperor "Cha Os". Gameplay is similar to the side-view stages of the second entry albeit with changes. Players only have five weapons and

10120-423: The scope to include games featuring such protagonists as robots or humans on foot, as well as including games featuring "on-rails" (or "into the screen") and "run and gun" movement. Mark Wolf restricts the definition to games featuring multiple antagonists ("'em" being short for "them"), calling games featuring one-on-one shooting "combat games". Formerly, critics described any game where the primary design element

10230-428: The screen damaging or killing the player. As they evolved away from the use of light guns, the player came to be represented by an on-screen avatar, usually someone on the bottom of the screen, who could move and avoid enemy attacks while returning fire. These sorts of shooters almost always utilize horizontal scrolling to the right to indicate level progression, with enemies appearing in waves from predestined locations in

10340-407: The short term effects, found that playing violent games can increase the player's aggression. In a 2011 Supreme Court case involving a California law, Justice Antonio Scalia stated that there was some correlation between violent video games and increased aggression, but very little real-world effects. An experiment by C.A. Anderson and K.E. Dill, in which they had undergraduates randomly play either

10450-472: The sprites themselves, allowing the player to fit between the narrow gaps in enemy fire. Bullet hell games were first popularized in Japanese arcades during a time when 3D games and fighting games were eclipsing other games. The flashy firing patterns were intended to grab players attention. Toaplan 's Batsugun (1993) is often considered a pivotal point in the development of this subgenre. After

10560-612: The subgenre, along with Parodius , Cotton , and Harmful Park being additional key games. Some cute 'em ups may employ overtly sexual characters and innuendo. Vertically scrolling shooters present the action from above and scroll up (or occasionally down) the screen. Horizontally scrolling shooters usually present a side-on view and scroll left to right (or less often, right to left). Isometrically scrolling shooters or isometric shooters , such as Sega 's Zaxxon (1982), use an isometric point of view . A popular implementation style of scrolling shooters has

10670-550: The success of Space Invaders , shoot 'em ups became the dominant genre for much of the golden age of arcade video games , from the late 1970s up until the early 1980s, particularly the "space shooter" subgenre. In 1979, Namco 's Galaxian —"the granddaddy of all top-down shooters", according to IGN—was released. Its use of colour graphics and individualised antagonists were considered "strong evolutionary concepts" among space ship games. In 1981 Gorf brought joystick control and (limited) vertical as well as horizontal movement to

10780-428: The term originated following the release of Dusk (2018), with fans of that game quickly coining the term. Newer triple-A games like Wolfenstein: The New Order (2014) and Doom (2016) helped to repopularize these styles of shooters in the mid-2010s, and indie developers further contributed to the field with games like Amid Evil , Ion Fury , and Ultrakill . Third-person shooters are characterized by

10890-722: The turn of the 20th century, before appearing in America by the 1920s. The British cinematic shooting gallery game Life Targets (1912) was a mechanical interactive film game where players shot at a cinema screen displaying film footage of targets. The first light guns appeared in the 1930s, with the Seeburg Ray-O-Lite. Games using this toy rifle were mechanical and the rifle fired beams of light at targets wired with sensors. Shooting gallery games eventually evolved into more sophisticated shooting electro-mechanical games (EM games) such as Sega 's influential Periscope (1965). Contemporary shooting video games have roots in older EM shooting games. Another influential Sega EM shooting game

11000-399: The use of a microprocessor . In 1976, Midway had another hit shooting video game, Sea Wolf (1976), which was adapted from another Sega EM game, Periscope . The genre gained major attraction in popular culture with the release of Taito 's Space Invaders arcade video game in 1978. It established the basis of the shoot 'em up subgenre, and became a cultural phenomenon that led into

11110-425: The use of hero abilities during a match. Outside of a match, players have the ability to customize the appearance of these characters, but these changes are usually cosmetic only and do not alter the game's balance or the behavior of the "hero". Hero shooters take many of their design elements from older class-based shooter, multiplayer online battle arena and fighting games . The class-based shooter Team Fortress 2

11220-472: The vertically scrolling, overhead view games Front Line (1982), Commando (1985), and Ikari Warriors (1986). Side-scrolling run and gun games often combine elements from platform games , such as the ability to jump: Contra (1987), Metal Slug (1996) and Cuphead (2017). Run and gun games may also use isometric viewpoints and may have multidirectional movement. Bullet hell ( 弾幕 , danmaku , literally "barrage" or "bullet curtain")

11330-545: The vertically-oriented fixed-shooter genre, while Space Invaders and Galaxian have only horizontal movement controlled by a pair of buttons. Atari 's Asteroids (1979) was a hit multi-directional shooter, taking from Spacewar! the ability for the player's ship to roam the entire screen and to rotate, move and shoot in any direction. The Space Invaders format evolved into the vertical scrolling shooter sub-genre. SNK 's debut shoot 'em up Ozma Wars (1979) featured vertical scrolling backgrounds and enemies, and it

11440-410: Was Gun Fight (1969), where two players control cowboy figurines on opposing sides of a playfield full of obstacles, with each player attempting to shoot the opponent's cowboy. It had a Western theme and was one of the first games to feature competitive head-to-head shooting between two players, inspiring several early Western-themed shooter video games. Spacewar! (1962), recognized as one of

11550-515: Was again acclaimed as one of the best games in the genre. Both Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga were later released on Xbox Live Arcade . The Touhou Project series spans 26 years and 30 games as of 2022 and was listed in the Guinness World Records in October 2010 for being the "most prolific fan-made shooter series". The genre has undergone something of a resurgence with the release of

11660-421: Was an influential game in the multi-directional shooter subgenre. Some games experimented with pseudo-3D perspectives at the time. Nintendo 's attempt at the genre, Radar Scope (1980), borrowed heavily from Space Invaders and Galaxian , but added a three-dimensional third-person perspective; the game was a commercial failure, however. Atari's Tempest (1981) was one of the earliest tube shooters and

11770-496: Was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1961, for the developers' amusement, and presents a space battle between two craft. It was remade four times as an arcade video game in the 1970s. Space Invaders (1978) is most frequently cited as the "first" or "original" in the genre. A seminal game created by Tomohiro Nishikado of Japan's Taito , it led to proliferation of shooter games. It pitted

11880-404: Was shooting as a "shoot 'em up", but later shoot 'em ups became a specific, inward-looking genre based on design conventions established in those shooting games of the 1980s. Shoot 'em ups are a subgenre of action game . These games are usually viewed from a top-down or side-view perspective , and players must use ranged weapons to take action at a distance. The player's avatar is typically

11990-546: Was the first action game to feature a supply of energy, similar to hit points . Namco's Xevious , released in 1982, was one of the first and most influential vertical scrolling shooters. Xevious is also the first to convincingly portray dithered/shaded organic landscapes as opposed to blocks-in-space or wireframe obstacles. Side-scrolling shoot 'em ups emerged in the early 1980s. Defender , introduced by Williams Electronics in late 1980 and entering production in early 1981, allowed side-scrolling in both directions in

12100-403: Was the first video game to use an isometric playfield . In the early 1980s, Japanese arcade developers began moving away from space shooters towards character action games . On the other hand, American arcade developers continued to focus on space shooters during the early 1980s. According to Eugene Jarvis , American arcade developers were greatly influenced by Japanese space shooters but took

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