In this article I’m going to give a brief primer about Shoot-em-Ups (aka Shooters, Shmups, etc) and my thoughts about them. You may have heard the portmanteau ‘shmup’ – short for shoot-em-ups. To avoid the ire of those that despise the term, I’ll stick to the term ‘shooter’ here. (Art above is from the Gradius series)
Shooters are some of the earliest video games. The general concept behind these games is that there’s a projectile (usually bullets) that the player attempts to hit a (usually moving) target with. Using that simple premise, there are many variations of the genre over the years.
(Spacewar for the PDP-1 – the great-grandparent of all shooter games)
Spacewar! from 1962 is considered the first shooter video game, but it was Asteroids and Space Invaders that garnered most of the early attention. Because of these, most shooters have traditionally dealt with aliens as the antagonists – with the player moving in a spaceship while firing.
(Asteroids and Space Invaders)
Why are shooters fun?
In my opinion the lasting appeal of these games is found in three aspects: the manual dexterity of pulling off shots, the memorization of stages, and the strategy involved with risk/reward. The earliest games really focused on dexterity – with games like Space Invaders and Asteroids requiring speedy taps of a button or joystick to dodge enemy projectiles and land your own (that’s not to say there’s no strategy as well). The subsequent quarter-munching shooters (that were ported to 8 and 16-bit consoles) required a lot of stage memorization to avoid obstacles and instant deaths (cheap deaths from just-off-screen enemies were the norm). And the more-recent appeal has been introducing strategy – when to switch to another weapon, use a screen-clearing bomb, or go after a power-up and risk being shot.
Enjoyable Aspects of Shooters:
- Fast-Paced / Relentless Action
- Rewards Strategy and Stage Memorization
- Rewards Fast Reflexes and Hand-Eye Coordination
- Colorful Graphics with Eye-Candy and Explosions
So what is a shooter exactly?
A lot of games involve hitting things with projectiles, so what counts as a shooter game? This would seem to be an easy question, but considering the nature of a game with multiple aspects, the question becomes really subjective. For example, in Super Mario Bros. the player can pick up a fire flower and start throwing fireballs at Goombas. So does that mean Mario is a shooter game?
I suppose technically it is, but it’s clear the shooting aspect of the game really isn’t the focus. Instead, the player usually stomps on enemies or busts blocks with Mario’s head and (depending on game) fists. That’s why it’s considered a platformer on most lists.
By the same token, take a game in the juxtaposed position like Contra – where bullets and bombs are the only way to kill enemies. Sure, there’s a fair amount of platforms to navigate the level through, but shooting really is the major aspect of the game (it’s really all you do the entire game – run and gun down enemies). Contra really is a focused shooter with the platforms being merely stage-dressing to accommodate it.
This categorization gets really interesting when you consider the hybrid games – like the Mega Man series. Is Mega Man (a series where the main character has a gun for an arm) a platformer or a shooter (likely both)? You can’t really kill enemies without a weapon (almost all of which are projectile), but there is definitely a focus on platforming (jumping and sliding) instead of just shooting. Most consider it a platformer in the end – though run and gun might fit as well.
Here are some types of shooters and the aspects they highlight.
Horizontal Shooter/Vertical Shooter
This is the classic arcade shooter – such as Space Invaders (vertical) and Defender (horizontal). The barrier to entry on these titles is fairly small – as anyone can pick up a controller and start playing. And the early titles were simplistic in nature (for Space Invaders the levels get harder, but the design and gameplay remains constant). However, to master the later, more developed games requires attention to timing and level not present in other genres.
(Horizontal Shooters – Gradius and Darius)
One reason for this is that as time went on and the environments became more elaborate, level memorization became a larger part of these games. And it’s not just the enemies and their projectiles that will kill you, but the terrain itself. Games like Thunder Force (Genesis) and Silver Surfer (NES) require the player to know when obstacles are coming up – all while being forced steadily through a level. This added difficulty seen as a detriment by casual gamers, but gives an elated sense of accomplishment to die-hard fans. The later arcade shooters tend to present colorful themed levels – each ending with a final boss.
(Vertical Shooters – Ikaruga and 1945 III)
Asteroids and its clones (and similar games like Sinistar and Bosconian) vary from the mainstream in that you can aim in any direction and must also avoid debris and enemy projectiles from all directions as well. In Asteroids, since the screen wraps around in either axis you can even take damage from your own fire.
(Sinistar and Bosconian)
Overhead games like Gauntlet and Ikari Warriors (where the player controls a humanoid equipped with a gun rather than a ship) provide the same freedom of range and really fit in this category more than others.
Rotational Shooters
These are the sorts of titles that don’t fit in with horizontal/vertical shooters. They’re very similar but usually involve shooting in the Z-axis instead of the X or Y. Good examples of these are Tempest and Gyruss.
(Tempest and Gyruss)
I might also include games like Incoming and Atlantis (where you aim turrets instead of moving) in this genre, but there’s a big difference between Atlantis and Gyruss in terms of the experience.
(Atlantis and Incoming)
Run and Gun Shooter
This is sort of an evolution of the traditional shooter with additional platforming elements (such as static or moving platforms and the addition of falling and fall-related-damage). Games like Gunstar Heroes and Contra involve the player hanging off of platforms while aiming their gun in multiple directions. There’s also the idea of jumping, crouching, or sliding to avoid enemy fire.
”
(Contra III and Gunstar Heroes)
Light Gun Shooter
Both in arcade cabinets and at home, the focus of the light gun shooter is aiming a gun-shaped peripheral aimed at a screen to make shots. The gun either acts as a light-receiver for position or there’s a mechanical component at the base for determining where one is aiming. Prime examples of this are Duck Hunt (NES) and Lethal Enforcers (Genesis). Later games include the Time Crisis and House of the Dead series.
(Duck Hunt and Time Crisis 2)
On-Rails Shooter
These are basically light-gun (or point-and-click with a mouse) games where one is moving through a level in a defined path. These were created at first to get around technical limitations (by pre-rendering the backgrounds or using a moving video as the backdrop) – popular with video-format systems like Sega CD and 3DO. Later they became a mechanism to tell a story while having action between scenes.
(Panzer Dragoon and Total Eclipse)
First-Person Shooter (FPS)
Like other shooters, these also involve projectiles hitting enemies. But, unlike its brethren, this genre involves the player moving freely through a 3D world. Most modern war games are FPSs. The archetype gained popularity through hits like Wolfenstein and Doom.
(Wolfenstein and Doom II)
Sometimes the FPS game will auto-aim (meaning your targeting reticle doesn’t have to be exactly on your target to hit). This was a lot more common with older games, where there was no aiming up and down.
There’s also the variant with the camera over the shoulder (sometimes called Third Person shooters), present in games like MDK and Space Harrier. I don’t really consider this its own genre – as it’s basically a FPS with the camera moved back over the shoulder.
(MDK2 and Space Harrier)
Bullet Hell Shooter
At first these games appear to be just ordinary horizontal/vertical shooters (and they sort of are). But the main difference is a focus on dodging enemy projectiles over hitting targets. And these games present nearly-insurmountable walls of bullets that the player must navigate through. Often these games present shifting but predictable patterns of bullets. And the game may even slow down as the player fires so that they can toggle their speed while continually firing at bosses.
(Trouble Witches NEO – very graphically-busy game but lots of fun)
The Debate of Auto-Fire
Really early shooter games were designed with the player tapping a fire button in mind. Games like Space Invaders and Galaga even had a time delay between shots (or until your shot goes off screen or hits an enemy). This was an element to the game – the risk/reward of missing a shot and having to wait for the next one vs. hitting an enemy.
(Galaga and Space Invaders)
Later arcade games (usually quarter-munchers with cheap deaths) were designed to have the player constantly hitting the fire button (easier to do with arcade buttons than with handheld controllers). And many of the early console ports were of these games. Additional console ports (and later shooters) had the player hold down the button for auto fire or were designed with an auto-fire controller being used.
(1943 and Silver Surfer)
The debate on rapid fire comes down to how some games are much easier when using auto-fire (such as 1942/1943). If you’re using auto-fire with these games, you are sort of cheating – as they’ve been designed to have the player swoop in for a shot and take it instead of spraying projectiles everywhere. There are also games without auto-fire built in that should have really had it to be reasonable to play (such as Silver Surfer for the NES).
Whether you’re cheating or not really comes down to the game design and how you’re experiencing the game. In the end, it’s you that makes the determination of whether auto-fire is right for the game (and you’re only cheating yourself out of the gaming experience). I would recommend playing shooters without it if possible until you make that decision.
(The manufacturer TG-16 controller came with auto-fire built in)
Recommendations for Beginners
Two of the systems with the greatest selection of arcade-style shooters are TurboGrafx-16 (PC Engine) and Sega Genesis, so I would recommend that players really interested in the genre acquire one or both of those to start collecting for. There are certainly great games on every console (such as NES), but these two offer both a low entry point and a deep library of games. The next thing I would recommend is getting a good controller – preferably an arcade-stick (perhaps a future article will compare controller choices).
(Start Collecting for one of these: Turbografx-16 and Sega Genesis)