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Microgenres

Wozman23

Member
Might the Metroid Prime and Captain Toad games, respectively, count for these categories? The character does have feet, but no legs.

It's been a long time since I played Metroid Prime, but it felt like a somewhat traditional shooter. Maybe the genre should be called First Person Shooters Where The Projectiles Aren't Designed To Kill Enemies.

I guess I should have included feet as well, otherwise Rayman also fits the bill. Toad can't join the club because he walks.
 

Dr.Social

Banned
Action shooter series turned into turn based strategy game

The Earth Defence Force Tactics


Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars

Metal Gear Acid 1 and 2

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Yeah! It's a surprisingly good game. Sick soundtrack too.

3D platformer racers

Running Wild

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mclem

Member
The Falling Object Collectathon

Boulderdash



Boulderbash



Supaplex


Infotron

Repton, maybe, although the physics are different in a few key ways - boulders fall instantly, so there's no 'outrunning'.

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Bonecruncher's an obscure one with an interesting mechanic - it's actually viewed from top-down, and the attractive force isn't gravity, but the smell of soap being made (don't ask)... and that changes as you proceed through the level making soap in different places.

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There's Emerald Mine, which I know very little about (but will become relevant when I talk about RND!)

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I think you might tentatively include Kye:

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...and XOR...

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...as being in broadly the same family, although each introduces a lot more elements that aren't part of the main Boulderdash model.


There's also a freeware game that is more of an engine for all of this family of titles; and indeed, Boulderdash, Supaplex and Emerald Mine are all included in it that I can recall - probably others as well (I think there's Sokoban in there, too, although that's not really the same family, the engine's trivially expandable to that!). That's the aforementioned RND, Rocks 'n' Diamonds:

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Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Does B-Hunter count? It has an optional first person camera.

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BHunter is so good. A friend gave me a pirated copy on a burnt CD somewhere near release and I've never seen anyone talk about it then or since; and I've never seen a copy for sale (even Amazon just shows what looks to be a used copy of a budget reprint of the game); and it's never been available digitally. Total bummer. That epic Stadium showdown mission :wow:
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Games where you fly a triangle like in asteroids but with gravity - or lunar lander evolutions

- thrust / thrust 2
- gravity force
- oids (always jealous of ST owners for this)

Any modern suggestions welcome 'cause I love 'em
 

Phediuk

Member
Games where you fly a triangle like in asteroids but with gravity - or lunar lander evolutions

- thrust / thrust 2
- gravity force
- oids (always jealous of ST owners for this)

Any modern suggestions welcome 'cause I love 'em

Subterrania and Solar Jetman.
 

Platy

Member
How about stop-motion based sprites in a 2d view ?

Clayfighter, Skullmonkeys, Primal Rage, Platypus (indie shmup)...

Games where you fly a triangle like in asteroids but with gravity - or lunar lander evolutions

- thrust / thrust 2
- gravity force
- oids (always jealous of ST owners for this)

Any modern suggestions welcome 'cause I love 'em

Battletoads & Double Dragon had a bonus stage like that xD
 
Mansion games:
Games that take place primarily exploring one house.

Maniac Mansion
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Resident Evil 1 (and 7 to some extent)
resident-evil-remake-hd-remaster-a-dining-room-screenshot-ps4-xbox-one-ps3-360-pc.jpg


Gone Home
Gone-Home.jpg


Please name some others, I tend to love them.

Mansion of Hidden Souls (SEGA CD)
Mansion of Hidden Souls (Saturn)

Both different games.

I also recommend the following to you since they are all set in one location normally (the first and the third in one house particularly):

Survival horror with cameras used as the combat device against the paranormal:

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Fatal Frame series (Tecmo)...and that's it.

Survival horror with found footage aesthetic and interactive movie gameplay:

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Michigan: Report from Hell (Grasshopper Manufacture)

Pixel hunt point & click adventure game meets RTS base building meets interactive movie (complete with RPG style party members that join you) with incredibly creepy/weird atmosphere and VA, set against a humans, beasts and dinosaurs living together setting (with a 10/10 music soundtrack).

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Lost Eden (Cryo)
 

Thraktor

Member
I guess Spacechem and its ilk are another, the puzzler that seems like it's about some other theme but is really secretly about programming. The idea is that it can't actually feature coding (so TIS is out), but the mechanics are actually abstracted programming functions

SpaceChem
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Infinifactory
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Factorio pretty much fits into this genre, although it's not really a puzzle game.

Platformers with No Legs or No Jumping:

Snake Pass:


Mushroom 11:

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is the pinnacle of the "platform games where you can't jump" genre.

I like this thread. I'll try: Top-down Cooperative Games That Go Horribly Wrong And Destroy Friendships

Magicka 1, and I assume Magicka 2:
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Overcooked:
2872665-overcooked5trg0.jpg

Monaco is worth adding to this list.
 

RionaaM

Unconfirmed Member
BHunter is so good. A friend gave me a pirated copy on a burnt CD somewhere near release and I've never seen anyone talk about it then or since; and I've never seen a copy for sale (even Amazon just shows what looks to be a used copy of a budget reprint of the game); and it's never been available digitally. Total bummer. That epic Stadium showdown mission :wow:
You're totally right, there's been basically zero discussion about it on the internet. Even searching for it on Google doesn't get you much info about the game. I still have the copy that came with a gaming magazine 17 years ago, though we couldn't get it to run on my friend's PC when we tried it 2 years or so ago. Man, that game was fun!
 
Action games where you place traps and manipulate AI into them
Heiankyo Alien
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Lode Runner
lodeRunner.gif


Lode Runner 2
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Tecmo's Deception
deception-iv-blood-ties-ss-24.jpg



Top down Action games where you shove blocks to destroy enemies

Sega's Pengo
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Pirate Ship Higemaru
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Nyan Nyan Panic
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Kickle Cubicle
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Three Wonders ~Don't Pull~
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Phediuk

Member
Action games where you place traps and manipulate AI into them
Heiankyo Alien
hqdefault.jpg


Lode Runner
lodeRunner.gif


Lode Runner 2
hqdefault.jpg


Tecmo's Deception
deception-iv-blood-ties-ss-24.jpg

Spy vs. Spy and its derivatives (such as Trap Gunner) would be the multiplayer version of this.

Also, Haunting starring Polterguy is a variation based on "spooking" your adversaries rather than trapping them.
 

Phediuk

Member
Side-scrollers where your character's sprite is monstrously huge and you have to jump over ankle-high obstacles

Snoopy
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China Warrior
383803-china-warrior-turbografx-16-screenshot-birds-they-too-are.png


Sword of Sodan

sword-of-sodan2.jpg
 

PtM

Banned
Third person action titles where your characters attacks are fully customizable rather than preset


Phantom Dust



Soul Sacrifice



Remember Me
God Hand. This doesn't feel much like a genre to me.
Has anybody mentioned earthbound clones yet?

Undertale, Lisa. Citizens of Earth.

Or avant-garderpgs.

Space Funeral, some others I forgot
Yes, but not all of those, I believe.
 

Mutant

Member
Has anybody mentioned earthbound clones yet?

Undertale, Lisa. Citizens of Earth.

Or avant-garderpgs.

Space Funeral, Hylics, Yuma Nikki. some others I forgot
 

Zeta Oni

Member
God Hand. This doesn't feel much like a genre to me.

Yes, but not all of those, I believe.

Godhand (now that you mention it), soul sacrifice, and Phantom Dust all play like they all could be part of a smaller genre of games which is what I was going for, remember me not as much.
 

petran79

Banned
Lost Patrol

survival action role-playing game with strategy elements

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Patrol_(video_game)

According to Roberto Dillon's 2011 book The Golden Age of Video Games, it was "a unique game among military and combat simulations" that "offered a different perspective on war from any other game released before or since ... showing there is no glory in war but only pain and destruction.

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Lost%20Patrol,%20The%20(1990)(Ocean)(Disk%201%20of%202)[cr%20HZ][t%20+16%20HZ]_004.png

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Lost_Patrol-3.png
 

Platy

Member
since pretty much every other post I made was on the phone, here is one more for some pics:

Platformers where the focus is controlling the level, not the character

Super Monkey Ball
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Koroninpa
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Mercury Meltdown
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And Yet it Moves
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Platy

Member
Fluidity/Hydroventure 1 and 2

DAMN I love those games (specialy the first one) ... sad that I forgot about it !

Here is a true MICROgenre :

Puzzle Action games where you have to move ever rotating things trough obstacles

Kuru Kuru Kururin
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Roundabout
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Phediuk

Member
Here's another one for the "fantasy reskin of previously-existing turn-based strategy game" microgenre, to accompany Master of Magic (Master of Orion), Gemfire (Romance of the Three Kingdoms), Fantasy General (Panzer General), and Master of Monsters (Daisenryaku):

Lords of Magic (Lords of the Realm):

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How about world sim/ town building with rpg and light character action games?

- Dark Cloud
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- Actraiser 1
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Wanted to post before I passed out. Links seem broken. On mobile, and will correct in morning
 
Cold war simulators where you stare at a map the whole time and watch helplessly as the world veers toward nuclear war

Shadow President


Balance of Power


Defcon

DEFCON isn't really a cold war simulator, it has any of 6 continents you can play as and has no political or historical content.

There is one good one I can think of though, which is based on a board game, Twilight Struggle

ss_dac0cff393dacef6784fl0o.jpg
 
Zeno Clash belongs in the FPS brawler category.

It could also belong in the Made With Source Engine but isn't made by Valve or simply a mod extreme microgenre, along with Vampire: Masquerade and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, and that SIN game.
 
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