Shoot 'em up
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Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs)
The genre's roots can be traced back to earlier
Definition
A "shoot 'em up", also known as a "shmup"[3][4] or "STG" (the common Japanese abbreviation for "shooting games"),[1][2] 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.[5][6] 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.[5] Others widen 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.[6][7][8] Mark Wolf restricts the definition to games featuring multiple antagonists ("'em" being short for "them"), calling games featuring one-on-one shooting "combat games".[9] Formerly, critics described any game where the primary design element was shooting as a "shoot 'em up",[6] but later shoot 'em ups became a specific, inward-looking genre based on design conventions established in those shooting games of the 1980s.[7]
Common elements
Shoot 'em ups are a subgenre of
Large numbers of enemy characters programmed to behave in an easily predictable manner are typically featured.[11] 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.[4] Shoot 'em ups rarely have realistic physics. Characters can instantly change direction with no inertia, and projectiles move in a straight line at constant speeds.[10] The player's character can collect "power-ups" which may afford the character's greater protection, an "extra life", health, shield, or upgraded weaponry.[12] 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.[10]
Types
Shoot 'em ups are categorized by their design elements, particularly viewpoint and movement:[6]
Fixed shooters restrict 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.[13] 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), 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[14] 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 the first games to popularize twin-stick controls was Robotron: 2084 (1982).[15][16]
Space shooters are a thematic variant of involving
Tube shooters feature craft flying through an abstract tube,[18] such as Tempest (1981) and Gyruss (1983). There 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;
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 the subgenre,[22] along with Parodius, Cotton, and Harmful Park being additional key games.[23] Some cute 'em ups may employ overtly sexual characters and innuendo.[24]
Scrolling shooters
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).[6][7][25]
Isometrically scrolling shooters or isometric shooters, such as Sega's Zaxxon (1982), use an isometric point of view.[7]
A popular implementation style of scrolling shooters has the player's flying vehicle moving forward, at a fixed rate, through an environment. Examples are
Run and gun games have protagonists that move through the world on foot and shoot attackers. Examples include the vertically scrolling, overhead view games
Bullet hell
Bullet hell (弾幕, danmaku, literally "barrage" or "bullet curtain") 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.[29][30] This style of game, also known as "manic shooters"[7] or "maniac shooters",[31] originated in the mid-1990s as an offshoot of scrolling shooters.[31] The DonPachi and Touhou Project series are early titles establishing the principle of bullet hells.[32]
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.[33]
Trance shooters
A small subgenre of shooter games that emphasizes chaotic, reflex-based gameplay designed to put 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
History
Origins
The concept of
Emergence of shoot 'em up genre (late 1970s)
With these elements, Space Invaders set the general template for the shoot 'em up genre.[49] 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.[50] Most shooting games released since then[42] have followed its "multiple life, progressively difficult level" paradigm, according to Eugene Jarvis.[51]
Golden age and refinement (late 1970s to early 1980s)
Following 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.[17] In 1979, Namco's Galaxian—"the granddaddy of all top-down shooters", according to IGN—was released.[52] Its use of colour graphics and individualised antagonists were considered "strong evolutionary concepts" among space ship games.[53] In 1981 Gorf brought joystick control and (limited) vertical as well as horizontal movement to the vertically-oriented fixed-shooter genre, while Space Invaders and Galaxian have only horizontal movement controlled by a pair of buttons.[54][55] 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.[56]
The Space Invaders format evolved into the
In the early 1980s, Japanese arcade developers began moving away from space shooters towards character
Some games experimented with
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.[68]
1985 saw the release of Konami's
Run and gun and rail shooters (1980s to early 1990s)
Run and gun games became popular in 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
Sega's
Bullet hell and niche appeal (mid-1990s to present)
This article needs to be updated.(August 2017) |
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 the sprites themselves, allowing the player to fit between the narrow gaps in enemy fire. [7][31]
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.
Treasure's shoot 'em up,
See also
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Bibliography
- Ashcraft, Brian, (2008) Arcade Mania! The Turbo-Charged World of Japan's Game Centers, (Kodansha International)
External links
- Media related to Shoot 'em ups at Wikimedia Commons