Shoot 'em up

A shoot 'em up (or shmup for short) is a computer and video game genre in which the player controls a vehicle or character and fights large numbers of enemies with shooting attacks, usually of a highly stylized nature. In Japan, where the genre remains most alive, they are known simply as "shooting games" (シューティングゲーム). It has same meaning as "shooter games" in English-speaking countries, and it is not limited to shoot 'em ups. However, many Japanese gamers think shoot 'em ups when they hear "shooting games". During the peak of their popularity, they were commonly called simple shooters, but as games broke into three dimensions, this term came to be more inclusive.

Shoot 'em ups originated in the arcades with Space Invaders usually being credited with the genre's birth. They peaked in popularity during the late 80s and early 90s, primarily as arcade and console titles. As the use of 3D graphics became more common in video games, the simplicity and arcade sensibilities of the genre slowly relegated their popularity to that of a niche. Today the genre still retains a small but loyal following, particularly among Japanese arcade goers, and there are still a number of companies devoted to their development.

While these games often appear very similar, and indeed the genre is steeped in rigid convention, there are many diverse schools of design, ranging from "manic" shoot 'em ups that test player's reflexes, to "methodical" shooters that challenge players on memorization and strategic approach. There are also many diverse themes in the genre, including science-fiction themed games like Gradius and R-Type, whimsical "cute" shooters like Fantasy Zone and Parodius, historically set games like 1942, and fantasy-based titles like Espgaluda and Guwange.

History

Early years

The first shooter was called Spacewar!, one of the very earliest computer games. There were a number of early discrete logic games that featured various space and flight-themed shooting. Combat for the Atari 2600 could be considered one of the first home video gamer shooters, as it featured two-player, one-on-one air battles with freely maneuverable aircraft.

Despite those early advances, it wasn't until 1978's seminal Space Invaders that the genre took off. Space Invaders is notable for pitting the player against many on-screen enemies that came from the top of the screen. This convention still exists today, with nearly every vertically oriented scrolling shooter having the player facing the top of the screen, with enemies coming from above. It also introduced the basic "dodge and shoot" mechanic that remains the foundation of the genre today.

Space Invaders was also a massive commercial success, even causing a coin shortage in Japan. It was quickly imitated by nearly every major arcade manufacturer at the time. Some of these imitations, like Space Stranger and Super Invader Attack, were clones which added little, if anything, to the Space Invaders formula. Others, like Namco's Galaxian took the genre further with more complex enemy patterns, and richer graphics.

1980's Defender introduced a scrolling playfield to the shoot 'em up formula. It offered horizontally extended levels. Unlike most later games in the genre, this scrolling could go in either direction, and followed the player. This would be imitated by some later shoot 'em ups, notably Choplifter and Fantasy Zone. The following year, Konami introduced Scramble, a side scrolling shooter with forced scrolling. It was the first scrolling 'shooter to offer multiple, distinct levels, and laid the groundwork for Gradius. Konami has since retconned Scramble into the Gradius series to acknowledge this influence.

Vertical scrolling shooters developed around the same time. While early titles like Galaxian offered scrolling star fields, they were merely superficial. Sega's Borderline(1981) was a vertical shooter with primitive scrolling. In March of the next year, Data East released Mission-X and Zoar, the latter of which was licensed from Tago Electronics. Both games were very similar, with Zoar being the more developed of the two, with separate attacks for airborne and surface-based enemies. This same year Orca released Funky Bee, which offered a more straightforward approach. These games would be overshadowed at the end of the year, when Namco released Xevious, a title often credited with being the first vertically scrolling shooter.

1985 was a big year for shoot 'em ups, thanks to two major games. Tiger Heli was the first shooter from the developer Toaplan, who would become an important name in the genre over the decade to follow. Tiger Heli is perhaps most notable for introducing the "megabomb," a powerful limited use weapon, and one of the genre's most popular conventions. This same year saw the release of Konami's Gradius, another major innovator. Gradius introduced selectable weapons, as well as "options," small offensive pods that follow and aid the player. These conventions, would be frequently imitated in later shooters.

The following year, Compile would release their first shoot 'em up, Zanac, on the MSX computer and Famicom Disk System console. In the years to follow Compile would become one of the biggest developers of shoot 'em ups on consoles and computers. Sega also released Fantasy Zone, this same year, on their new 16-bit arcade hardware. The title would become very popular in Japan, and it introduced Sega's mascot Opa-opa. Taito also released Darius, the first in their flagship shooter series.

R-Type was introduced in 1987. The brain child of Irem, it became one of the major archetypes for side-scrolling shooters to follow, with vividly realized levels, and refined, methodical gameplay. Toaplan followed up Tiger Heli with Twin Cobra. This title introduced a system with a wandering power-up that changed colors to represent different weapons. This convention would become a staple of their games, as well as those of others.

Golden Age

By this time the major conventions of the genre had been firmly established, and shoot 'em ups became the most popular action genre for arcade games. This period lasted into the early and mid 90s and saw the release of many popular shooters, including Raiden, a Toaplan-inspired game from Seibu Kaihatsu, Gun Frontier, Taito's attempt at a killer app, and many sequels to Gradius, R-Type, and other popular series of the day.

Console and computer shooters became more common and were increasingly able to offer comparable experiences to their arcade counterparts. The PC Engine saw a whole slew of shooter titles released for it (in fact, PC Engine has by far the highest shooter/game ratio of any console in the postcrash gaming world) and the Thunder Force series brought arcade-style shooting to Japanese home computers and later the Sega Genesis. Games like Axelay and Bio-hazard Battle produced visuals and sounds worthy of their arcade contemporaries.

During this period, shoot 'em ups did not evolve a great deal. The genre remained vital while reusing variations on the same gameplay ideas that had proven themselves. In the early 90s new genres began to emerge, and the market diversified. Fighting games reached new-found popularity in the arcades with the release of Street Fighter II. Meanwhile, many console gamers were turning toward games that could provide longer playtime and in-depth narratives, and shoot 'em ups began to decline in popularity. In 1993, Compile shifted its focus away from shooters. In 1994, Toaplan closed its doors, and the genre lost one of its most devout supporters. For many this would serve as a signal that the Golden Age of shooters had ended.

Evolution and Renaissance

The death of Toaplan would ultimately open more doors than it would close. Four companies would form from the ashes of Toaplan, and all remained even more devoted to the shooter genre than Toaplan. The first such company was Raizing. Raizing went as far as to continue to use Toaplan arcade hardware for their titles into the late 90s. Their first game was Mahou Daisakusen, the first title in their flagship trilogy.

The following year another company formed from ex-Toaplan staff. Cave premiered with Donpachi, a game which expanded on the design of Toaplan's final game Batsugun. Batsugun is considered by many to be the starting point for a new breed of shoot 'em up. These games would come to be called "danmaku" (lit. "bullet curtain") in Japan, and "manic" shooters in the West. These games are distinguished by high bullet counts, and a small collision zone (or "hit box") for the player.

Cave and Raizing would have a bit of a sibling rivalry. In 1996, Raizing released Battle Garegga, an homage to Taito's classic Gun Frontier. It pushed the manic style a level further, which, in turn, inspired Cave to put aside their reservations and produce the most manic shoot 'em up yet, Dodonpachi. Cave continued to carry the Toaplan torch, embedding the message "Toaplan Forever" in the high score tables. Their next game, Dangun Feveron, would be a pastiche to Toaplan as well, made to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Truxton.

While their popularity was in decline, this was a creatively fertile time for the genre. In 1998 Treasure released their first arcade shoot 'em up, Radiant Silvergun.

Possible Rebirth of Shmups

With the release of the Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360's Live Arcade, and the Playstation 3's PSN network, the shmup genre may have another rebirth. Many TurboGrafix 16 titles are being re-released on the Nintendo Wii with good sales. The Xbox 360 brought the mega-popular Geometry Wars to the platform, as well as the brand new game released in January 2008 from developer Hudson, entitled Omega Five. This game achieved high sales in Japan, (but not quite as popular in North America). And on the PS3 service Everyday Shooter is a brand new title that is also receiving good sales as well.

Types

Although the shoot 'em up genre is more rigidly defined than most, there are a number of distinct sub-genres.

Fixed shooter

Fixed shooters represent the bulk of the earliest shoot 'em up games. They have simplistic premises and rudimentary controls, especially in terms of aiming. They are characterized by a static environment and a static number of enemies per level, although this stipulation does not preclude each level having a different number or enemies or a different setting, as is the case with Midway's Gorf.

A fixed shooter, also known as its generic single screen shooter or gallery shooter typically only allows players their one or two-dimensional position on the screen. They play on levels that occupy only a single screen, and thus do not scroll. The direction of fire is also fixed, usually aiming at the top of the screen in vertically oriented games, or toward the right in horizontally oriented games. Space Invaders helped to establish this style of gaming, and was further popularized by games like Galaxian and Galaga. It is common for these games to only provide one axis of movement, fixing the player at the bottom of the screen. Since the entire level is on screen, progression does not involve reaching a goal, but rather clearing all the enemies on the screen. These games have declined sharply in popularity since the advent of scrolling, but later examples exist.

Examples of fixed shooters include Space Invaders, Galaxian, Phoenix, Galaga and Centipede

Tube shooters

Tube shooters, or tunnel shooters, are a small sub-genre, derivative of fixed shooters. These games give players a single axis of movement around the edge of an on-screen "tunnel." Gameplay is very similar to fixed shooters, except the level is, essentially, wrapped in on itself. This style originated with Atari's Tempest and was further popularized by Gyruss.

Tube shooters were largely succeeded by rail shooters which allowed for three dimensional gameplay. There were, however, a number of later games in the genre. Tempest 2000 helped to generate new interest in the genre. It also used a psychedelic presentation with colorful abstract visuals and throbbing techno music. Later games paired this approach to presentation with forward-scrolling movement, similar to rail shooter, resulting in games like N2O, Internal Section, and Torus Trooper.

Example tube shooters include Tempest, Gyruss, Space Giraffe, and Tube Panic.

Multidirectional shooter

Multidirectional shooters, also called arena shooters, allow freedom of movement and orientation in a two-dimensional environment. Most multidirectional shooters can be further put into two classes, based on their control system. Some restrict the player to moving up, down, left, and/or right, or, in some cases, diagonally only. Others use a more realistic, physics-based system of rotating and thrusting, perhaps via mouse control.

The environments that these games take place in are fixed-size arenas that may or may not infinitely expand all directions.

Thrust-based games use simplified physics for the motion of protagonists and enemies, most commonly in a zero gravity environment ("pure" physics where forces such as drag are negated). The first game of this type was Spacewar!, which has the distinction of being one of the earliest video games ever made. This was followed up with a coin-op version called Computer Space in 1971. One of the most popular games of all time, Asteroids, was created by Atari in 1979 and has a similar setup, although it is single player. Much of the challenge in these games comes from careful use of thrusting, as there are no brakes in the zero-gravity environments presented. To slow down or stop, the player has to thrust in opposite directions.

Example games include Sinistar, Blasteroids, Thrust (video game) and Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warpship.

Also, all three installments of the Star Control series have a multidirectional shooter mini-game, called Melee mode. Melee can be played as a separate game, against AI or another player. During the single-player campaigns of each game, melee mode was triggered frequently whenever combat ensued in the plot. Star Control featured a stretchable battlefield, which zooms in and out depending on the distance between the fighting ships. Star Control 3 features an option for isometric play during melee mode.

Some multidirectional shooters use two joysticks as the input; one for movement, and the other for firing. This style was popularized by Eugene Jarvis in the several titles he created for Midway/Williams and is an effective means of allowing independent moving and firing. This unique input configuration often left console ports with only a crude approximation of the arcade controls, resulting in the use of four buttons as directional firing, or the use of both the first and second player controllers to achieve the desired effect. Some modern video game consoles may be able to avoid this problem, as some have two analog joysticks on the controllers.

Some titles in this genre are often considered danmaku, due to the large quantity of enemies on screen at any given time. The player has to avoid being surrounded by "carving" a hole out of the swath of enemies, while traversing the gameplay area. These games require extensive hand-eye coordination, as the player has to look and shoot in different places while analyzing the attacks of over a hundred enemies simultaneously. Today, the Xbox 360, through its Xbox Live Arcade has brought resurgent popularity to the multidirectional shooter subgenre. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved has become the top selling game on the service, with over 185,000 purchases and downloads as of July 21 2006.^[1] Several Eugene Jarvis-created shooters are also available on the service, including enhanced versions of Smash TV and Robotron: 2084.

Examples of multidirectional shooters include Robotron: 2084, Time Pilot, Bosconian, Smash TV, Bangai-O, Geometry Wars, Sinistar, Desert Strike, Crimsonland and Zone 66.

Scrolling shooters

Vertical scrolling shooters, or vert shooters for short, are largely similar to horizontal scrollers, but the direction of scroll tends to force a different viewpoint on the game: vertical scrollers are nearly always viewed from above. This means that it is less common to have solid obstacles in these games, as the player is usually above them. Perhaps because of this difference, vertical scrollers tend to be more intense, focusing on shooting and dodging copious amounts of projectiles.

While most histories of shooters focus on arcade games, most overlook River Raid (Atari 2600) as a possible progenitor to the vertical scrolling shooter genre. One of the first vertical scrolling arcade shooters was Xevious, released in 1982. This game introduced many concepts that are standard in scrolling shooters today, such as an episodic level structure, and bosses. It can be argued that very early games like Galaxian can be considered vertical scrollers, as they are set against a constantly scrolling starfield. However, they are generally classed as fixed shooters along with Space Invaders, as the stars are purely for visual effect and add nothing to the gameplay.

When the "top-down" or "overhead" names are used, the line becomes blurrier. By this definition, Space Invaders would likely be the first game of the type – and indeed, many consider it the first true top-down shooter. As with their horizontal counterparts, some vertical shooters may allow a degree of free horizontal movement.

Example vertical shooters include 1942, Xevious, Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun, Raiden, Star Soldier series, Raptor: Call of the Shadows, Aero Fighters, Chromium B.S.U. and Tyrian.

Vertical scrolling shooters come into two more varieties; Tate shoot 'em ups are those that are played on a vertically oriented monitor, and Yoko shoot 'em ups are those played on a standard horizontal monitor set-up. Tate shoot 'em ups usually begin as standard Jamma cabinets with Tate monitors. However, the screen orientation can be a potential issue when the game is ported to home consoles with regular TVs.

There are four known ways to adapt a tate shoot 'em up to home consoles:

Black borders on the sides – the most common form of adaptation but sacrifices screen size
Turning the TV on the side – a practice that may damage some TVs
Zooming or stretching the game area
Horizontal gameplay orientation – an optional mode in some games, such as Ikaruga

Horizontal scrolling shooters, sometimes abbreviated jokingly as "horzies", are played on an eponymously oriented screen, but there are a few exceptions - such as Darius, which uses more than one monitor to create an extensive playfield, and Stinger, which uses horizontal scrolling in a vertically oriented screen. As well as battling enemies, much of the challenge in horizontal scrollers tends to come from navigating the environment, as invariably contact with the level results in either the immediate death of or damage to the player's character (with the notable exception of R-Type Final). Some games, such as ones in the Gradius series always feature a maze-like level that is almost solely focused on avoiding collisions. Enemies are more likely to come from behind the player's ship in these types of games than their vertically scrolling counterparts are.

Typically, the scrolling in these games is continuous, such that the player is led through a level by the game. There is also sometimes a degree of vertical freedom, in which the player can move up or down on a playing area which is taller than the screen itself. (Thunder Force IV and Dragon Breed are two games which take this to extremes).

Almost all horizontal scrolling shooters view the player's avatar from the side, and present the level in cross-section, such that the player appears to be flying 'through' something, such as a landscape or a mothership. The first horizontal scroller was arguably Defender, released in 1980, although it shares few features with other horizontal scrollers. Horizontally scrolling shooters, along with their vertical counterparts, remain very popular today.

Example horizontal shooters include Darius, Gradius, Jets'n'Guns, R-Type, Scramble and Thunderforce.

Multi-scrolling shooters are a combination of several different types of scrolling shooters. Typically, it involves the combination of vertical and horizontal levels, but examples exist that use other types. For example, Gradius III has two levels where the player must guide the ship through a tube-like tunnel, avoiding collisions.

Example multi-scrolling shoot 'em ups include Abadox, Salamander, Axelay, Vanguard, and Silver Surfer.

Also known as a 3/4 view shooter or three-quarter perspective shooter, an isometric shooter uses vertical shooter's playing field that is modified for perspective. In a traditional scrolling shooter situation, the upwards/forwards is diagonal and the player simulates moving by the gameworld scrolling around diagonally. Perspective limits the size of the playing field, so generally there is additional focus on avoiding obstacles than shooting enemy ships. Isometric shooters are not limited to scrolling shooters, but can be multi-directional/area shooters as well.

These shoot 'em ups have not been a popular choice to date, although there have been a handful of popular titles. This type of shooter, much like the tube shooter, is more of an anachronism in today's games. These titles were remarkable in their times for their pseudo-3d graphics; when the hardware became sophisticated enough to fully render such graphics, these games had lost their appeal, in favor of the more traditional vertically and horizontally scrolling types.

Example isometric shooters include Zaxxon, Viewpoint and Blazer.

Rail shooter

File:Apidyameadow.png

Apidya
Amiga/Atari ST - ©1992, Kaiko

Rail shooters are a related genre which some include as a form of shoot 'em up, and others do not. They share many of the same elements of shoot 'em ups. The main distinction between these games and classic shoot 'em ups is the use of a 3D or pseudo-3D view, usually either behind the player's character or vehicle or first person. Gameplay progresses along a pre-determined path, or "rail," lending a forced progression similar to scrolling shoot 'em ups. Often the player has some limited freedom to move laterally along this path without deviating from it, as in Space Harrier, Panzer Dragoon, Star Fox or Afterburner but other times the player simply manipulates a crosshair on screen as in Star Wars.

Example 3D shooters include After Burner, Red Baron, Space Harrier, ThunderBlade, Star Fox, Panzer Dragoon, Sin and Punishment, Rez and Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles.

Competitive shooters

Competitive shooters features two players playing simultaneously. Instead of working together, the two players are trying to outlast and thwart the other player. The field is usually split-screen with a vertical shooter type.

Example competitive shooters include Harmotion, Twinkle Star Sprites, Quarth and Phantasmagoria of Flower View.

Run-and-gun

Run-and-gun shooters combine elements of scrolling shooters and platformers into one sub-genre. Game series such as Contra and Metal Slug demonstrate run-and-gun gameplay.

Manic vs. methodical

While many casual fans view all scrolling shooter games as being very similar, there are two primary polar opposite schools of design, which fans have termed "manic" and "methodical." Not all games clearly belong to one school or the other, but they represent the two extremes.

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Perfect Cherry Blossom – 2003 Team Shanghai Alice

Manic shooter (Japanese : danmaku 弾幕, lit. "bullet curtain"; also commonly "bullet hell" or "curtain" shooters) is a school of design that has become increasingly popular in more recent years, as hardware is no longer a major constraint. While it is impossible to draw a line as to where the genre began, Batsugun is considered highly influential and helped to popularize the design.

These games have very high bullet counts, often filling the entire screen. In addition these bullets often travel in highly stylized patterns, following more complex paths than the straight patterns in traditional shooters. To help the player cope with this, they often feature a very small "hit box", the zone used for collision detection of the player's ship. Very often this is reduced to a single point, meaning only bullets that pass through the direct center of the ship will result in a hit.

Other elements are often streamlined in manic shooters. Bullet dodging becomes the primary focus, and environmental hazards are very uncommon. In Takumi's games, for example, the player can even pass over enemies, and only bullets can harm him.

It's also important to note that the way that these games are played is important in categorizing them. Manic shooters are focused heavily on hand-eye coordination. They generally involve a very active approach, forcing the player to carefully weave through difficult spaces. This is key to defining the genre. For example, Ikaruga, which features the stylish bullet patterns and small hit boxes commonly associated with manic shooters, is not considered a manic shooter because its gameplay does not involve weaving between these bullets, but slow, precise, methodical movements more akin to classic horizontal shooters like R-Type and Gradius.

Example bullet hell games include Touhou Project, Mushihime-sama, Psyvariar 2, Batsugun, Giga Wing, and DoDonPachi

The opposing school of design is the methodical shooter. This style of design is based more on precise, slower, methodical movements. While they are still very difficult they are based less on navigating through clusters of bullets. They usually have larger hit boxes and firing patterns that consist more of solitary bullets rather than waves or clusters. They more often have environments that can be collided with, slower scrolling, and rely heavily on memorization.

Methodical shooters are most commonly associated with horizontal scrolling, but there are a number of popular methodical shooters that scroll vertically, such as Image Fight, Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga.

Example methodical shooters include Ikaruga, Gradius, R-Type and Einhänder.

Glossary of shoot 'em up terms

Because shoot 'em up games currently have a small, and very dedicated following, there is a great deal of jargon particular to the genre. Some of the more common terms follow:

1CC: One-credit completion. This refers to completing a game, or a "loop", with a single credit (i.e. without using a "continue" feature after losing).
Bomb: A limited use mass-destruction attack, traditionally consisting as dropping a bomb yielding a large explosion (hence the name), but the term has acquired a more abstract meaning and applies to games that don't have an aeronautical theme. It's usual to get a fixed number of bombs per life, plus others as powerups. Often the bomb will not only damage enemies but also clear most or all enemy bullets, emphasizing the role of the bomb as a defensive last resort.
Bullet hell: A dysphemism for the "manic" school of shoot 'em up design, characterized by an abundance of enemy fire, usually in highly stylized and colorful firing patterns.
Charge shot: A powerful attack executed by holding the fire button while the attack charges, and then releasing the button to fire. Popularized in R-Type.

"**cute them up**": Design elements used in the plobb! game

Cute 'em up: A portmanteau of "cute" and "shoot 'em up," used to refer to games in the genre with whimsical or childish themes and visual appearance; some such games are actually meant for a younger audience and some aren't (e.g. Sexy Parodius), and there is no correlation between the visual style and the complexity and difficulty of the game (e.g. plobb!).
Danmaku: Also manic, a school of design characterized by high bullet counts and small hit boxes with a gameplay focused on constant dodging.
Hit box: The region of the player's ship or character used in collision detection. Only hazards that pass inside this hit box will damage the player.
Hori and Vert: Short for horizontal and vertical respectively, with reference to the direction of scrolling, not the orientation of the screen.
Loop: Some shooters will repeat their levels after a certain point, usually after the final boss is defeated and the game is completed. A full set of levels is called a "loop." Some games will repeat infinitely, and others will contain just two loops. In many such games (and newer games in particular), subsequent loops are much more difficult than the ones before it and introduce denser bullet patterns and faster and stronger enemies. Some arcade machines allow the arcade operator to control how many loops maximum a player is allowed to play in a single game.
Option: a small offensive ship or pod that orbits or follows the primary ship, and supplements its firepower; the term is used in the user interface of Gradius.
Shmup: A shorted version of "shoot 'em up." The term was coined by the British C64 magazine Zzap 64 in 1985^{[citation needed]}. The term is most commonly used in Europe, but it has gained popularity in recent years because of its specificity.
Tate and Yoko: Derived from the Japanese words for "vertical" and "horizontal" respectively, with reference to the orientation of the screen (more specifically, of the longer side and the scanlines of a CRT). It is unrelated to the direction of scrolling. The fact that home television sets, used for consoles, are horizontal and turning them on the side is inconvenient or even dangerous, is a significant design constraint that doesn't apply to arcade games.
Wobble: In games that scroll primarily on one axis, but allow for limited scrolling to follow the player on another axis, the secondary scrolling is called "wobble." Popular examples include Raiden, and Twin Cobra

Notable developers of shoot 'em up games

The shoot 'em up genre is closely associated with a limited number of companies that developed a disproportionally large portion of popular games and series of games, often exhibiting a distinctive style; for some specialized companies shoot'em up games represent the main product line.

There is a strong industrial tradition of talent moving between Japanese shoot'em up developers as they close their doors, particularly from Toaplan and Compile through Raizing to currently active companies. Some notable names include:

References

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