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Scrolling shooters, or scrolling shoot 'em ups, are a type of video game. They are a subgenre of fixed shooters.
Description
A scrolling shooter is, as the name suggests, a shoot 'em up that takes place against a scrolling background.
Scrolling shooters can be divided into two categories:
- Games in which the scrolling follows the player's movement ('directional' scrollers)
- Games in which the player follows the scrolling ('linear' scrollers).
These terms are not official, but will be used for easy reference.
'Directional' scrollers
|
 Screenshot from the arcade game Raiden |
The first directional scroller, and possibly the first ever scrolling shooter, was Defender, released in 1980.
Directional scrollers tend to have a more strategic element than linear scrollers.
Other directional scrollers include Uridium, and Thrust (game) derivatives.
'Linear' scrollers
Linear scrollers are the more common type. Linear scrollers are typically classified by their predominant direction of scroll: for example, R-Type is a horizontal scroller and Raiden is a vertical scroller. Salamander, a spin-off of Gradius, had levels that alternated between horizontal and vertical scrolling. Space Harrier and Star Fox are examples of forward scrollers - 3D or pseudo-3D games in which the player travels 'into' the screen.
Some linear scrollers allow a small degree of free directional scrolling perpendicular to the direction of motion, effectively making the playable area wider or taller than the screen.
In order to break up the inherent linearity of this kind of shooter, these games often have a number of differently themed-levels, and intermittent challenges, usually bosses.
The first linearly-scrolling shoot 'em up is arguably Scramble, a horizontal scroller released in 1981.
The first vertical scroller was Xevious, released in 1982. Xevious is a more typical scrolling shooter than Scramble, and introduced many concepts that are standard today, such as an episodic level structure, and bosses.
Scrolling shooter concepts
Most of these apply to the 'linear' kind of shooter, as that is a more well-defined genre.
Player character
Spaceships and aeroplanes are the most common player characters in shoot 'em ups. However, virtually anything can be a character. Various animals have featured as shoot 'em up characters, such as a honeybee (Apidya, by Kaiko), an owl (Agony, by Psygnosis) a tame dragon (Dragon Breed, by Irem), and even a flying rabbit (Rabio Lepus). Superheroes and fantasy characters are also not unheard of, and other military vehicles such as helicopters and tanks have also featured.
Two-dimensional motion
Typically the player's character moves in the two-dimensional plane of the screen, even in scrollers with 3D graphics. This is probably for ease of control, so that the player may focus more attention on the shooting.
Because of this dimensional restriction, the direction of scroll is usually closely related to the view that is presented to the player. Almost all horizontal scrollers, for example, view the player's character from the side, and present the level in cross-section.
Vertical scrollers are usually viewed from above, with the player flying high over a landscape, sometimes with an up / down dimension.
Even forward scrollers, which seem to have three dimensions, restrict the player to a plane, and are viewed from behind.
Simplified physics
Except in Thrust-style games, which are intentionally based on real physics, most scrollers ignore physical effects for simplicity (although they may invoke real physics for graphical effect, such as for missiles). In horizontal scrollers, for example, gravity is usually completely ignored.
Acceleration and drag are also often disregarded, allowing the player to move with a constant speed, even through denser media such as water. The horizontal scroller Project X has been noted for not ignoring the effects of acceleration, which gives it a distinctive style and feel.
Insurmountable odds
R-Type is often mocked for its notoriously shallow plot, which is given in two lines on the title screen ("Blast off and strike the evil Bydo Empire!"). Nonetheless, many shooters have similarly weak devices to justify the purpose of the game. In almost all linearly-scrolling shooters, the single player is pitted against hundreds to thousands of normal enemies, and then against a boss at the end of each level.
Commonly, groups of enemies attack in ordered formations or patterns, known as attack waves.
Power-ups
Power-ups are an integral feature of most shoot 'em ups. They are enhancements for the player's character that can be gained during the course of the game, often as a reward for destroying enemies. Power-ups can include speed or armour enhancements, new weapons, weapon upgrades, or autonomous devices that can protect the player and/or add to its firepower.
Power-up systems can vary from game to game, but the two most common are the simple 'instant effect' system and the more flexible 'selection bar' system.
In the 'instant effect' system, the player can collect different kinds of power-up which all have a specific and immediate effect, such as increasing the player's speed, improving their firepower, or changing their weapon.
In the 'selection bar' system, players have a bar divided into a number of different power-up settings, such as 'Speed up', 'Bomb', 'Missile', 'Laser', 'Shield', and so on. If one of these items is highlighted, the player can activate that power-up. When a power-up item is collected, the highlight (if it exists) moves to the next item on the bar. Activating a power-up causes the highlight to move all the way back to the start.
Traditionally, the more powerful weapons and enhancements are closer to the end of the bar, so that the player must collect a greater number of power-ups to activate them.
The selection bar system was invented by Konami for the horizontal scroller Gradius in 1985.
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