Rail shooter, also known as on-rails shooter, is a subgenre of shoot 'em up

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

. Beginning with

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily game of skill, games of skill and in ...

s such as the 1985 '' Space Harrier'', the

gameplay Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game. The term applies to both video games and Tabletop game, tabletop games. Gameplay is the connection between the player and the game, the player's overcoming of challenges, and t ...

locks the player character into a set path, only allowing for limited or no divergence from it, in a manner similar to a theme park dark ride, which is typically on train tracks. While moving on this path, players must aim and shoot enemies while dodging projectiles and avoiding damage. Many rail shooters feature a flying protagonist or ship. Some take place while walking, running or driving. While rail shooters saw a resurgence on the Wii due to its Wii Remote control scheme, new games in the genre are considered a rarity in the modern day, although many games of other genres contain rail shooter segments.

History

The rail shooter genre stemmed from arcade games, with seminal games being ''Space Harrier'' (1985) and '' After Burner'' (1987), both developed by

Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...

. The original '' Star Fox'' (1993) further popularized rail shooters, adding 3D graphics. By the mid-1990s, first-person rail shooters became popular in arcades, notably light gun shooters such as '' Time Crisis'' (1995) and '' The House of the Dead'' (1996). '' Panzer Dragoon'' (1995) and '' Panzer Dragoon II Zwei'' (1996) were two well-regarded rail shooters released around this time. '' Star Fox 64'' was released in 1997 and gained wide renown for its graphics, level design and non-linearity. It was the last primarily rail shooter ''Star Fox'' game, with Nintendo switching to a fully 3D range of movement going forwards. Bucking the trend of combat-oriented games, '' Pokémon Snap'' (1999) was one of the first nonviolent rail shooters, and popularized the photography game genre. Starting in the late 1990s, the genre started to become unpopular, with on-rails gameplay becoming a "dark mark" due to a stigma of being overly shallow. While games such as '' Rez'' (2001) and '' Panzer Dragoon Orta'' (2002) were still released during this time, the lull lasted until the advent of motion control on home consoles, leading to a "rebirth" of the genre with major third-party releases in order to capitalize on the light gun-style gameplay. These included '' The House of the Dead: Overkill'' (2009), a grindhouse-style prequel to the original, and '' Dead Space: Extraction'' (2009), a spin-off of the

survival horror Survival horror is a Video game genre, subgenre of horror games. Although combat can be part of the gameplay, the player is made to feel less in control than in typical action games through limited ammunition or weapons, health, speed, and visio ...

'' Dead Space'' franchise. The developers, facing controversy over its differences from the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

and PS3 versions, used the term "guided experience" to describe its gameplay. '' Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles'' (2009) featured shakycam movement. '' Sin & Punishment: Star Successor'' (2009) was praised for its impressive graphics. The

Kinect Kinect is a discontinued line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB color model, RGB cameras, and Thermographic camera, infrared projectors and detectors that map dep ...

saw its own games, such as '' Child of Eden'' (2011), although other developers avoided making their games rail shooters, fearing negative reception. Following this motion control "boom", the genre dried up yet again, with releases like '' Crimson Dragon'' (2013) being sporadic and low-quality. While many modern games limit the player to linear levels, they still allow for free movement within those levels. In the modern day, the genre has become largely relegated to indie games, such as ''Ex-Zodiac'', a retro-styled game heavily inspired by the now-defunct ''Star Fox'' series.

References

{{Video game genre Video game genres

History

See also

References