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Microgenres

Orayn

Member
"Diablo type loot game but it's a shooter" has maybe half a dozen examples? Not so much a highly specific micro-genre as a hybrid of two fairly popular things, but it's a distinct entity.

Hellgate
Borderlands series
Destiny
The Division
Warframe depending on who you ask
 

Phediuk

Member
PS1-era first-person shooters set in some sort of hovering vehicle

Blam! Machine Head

Blam_Machinehead_DOS_04.png


Tunnel B1

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Defiance

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Shadow Master

shadow-master-playstation-ps1-004.jpg

Nice. I've noticed the similarity between these games before but I forgot about them when it came time to make the thread.
 

PooBone

Member
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.
 
One could argue that Shadow of the Colossus is a genre of one; it's only recently with Prey For The Gods that we're getting something that's even attempting gameplay in that vein, aka hero fighting massive beasts that you can climb on freely

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
ss_55448be442e88bd6e6ba6d0b00fbacb1cad8540a.600x338.jpg


Infinifactory
ss_e257d63329fbb08768f4a8fb76195ad87bd1dadc.600x338.jpg
 
"Diablo type loot game but it's a shooter" has maybe half a dozen examples? Not so much a highly specific micro-genre as a hybrid of two fairly popular things, but it's a distinct entity.

Hellgate
Borderlands series
Destiny
The Division
Warframe depending on who you ask
Alienation
 

Phediuk

Member
Japanese first-person shooters that are actually full-on FPSes and not rail shooters

Star Cruiser
4_star_cruiser.jpg


Gun Buster
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Crime Crackers
3b273373-fb49-4eb5-a5ea-ce06f7a339e6.jpg


Kileak: The DNA Imperative (and its sequel, Epidemic)
hqdefault.jpg


Coded Arms
155766-Coded_Arms_(USA)-1.jpg
 
Action shooter series turned into turn based strategy game

The Earth Defence Force Tactics


Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars
Kind of

CoD: Strike Team. You can still switch to FPS shooting, but you can also play the game in a top-down strategic style

screen520x924.jpeg


And Arma Tactics

ss_d011b7d1a12812d6c556fbbb8569a67e98ad8921.600x338.jpg
 

PtM

Banned
Mansion games:
Games that take place primarily in one house.
Maniac Mansion
Resident Evil 1
Thief
Gone Home

Please name some others, I tend to love them.
Luigi's Mansion. This is more a theme than a (gameplay) genre though.
 

Glowsquid

Member
Japanese first-person shooters that are actually full-on FPSes and not rail shooters

Also, Japanese dungeon crawling shooters set in some sort of robotic suit

Iron Angel of the Apocalypse (and sequel)

ironangel-1.png


Kileak: The DNA Imperatives (and sequels) (only noticed it was in the quoted post after the fact, doh. Though it's worth noting Brahma Force is a spiritual sequel to Kileak)

hqdefault.jpg


Robotica

Robotica%20-%20Cybernation%20Revolt%20(E).png


Rengoku Tower of Purgatory (and sequel)

s25748_psp_1.jpg
 
Also, Japanese dungeon crawling shooters set in some sort of robotic suit

Iron Angel of the Apocalypse (and sequel)

ironangel-1.png


Kileak: The DNA Imperatives (and sequels) (only noticed it was in the quoted post after the fact, doh. Though it's worth noting Brahma Force is a spiritual sequel to Kileak)

hqdefault.jpg


Robotica

Robotica%20-%20Cybernation%20Revolt%20(E).png


Rengoku Stairway to Heaven
Not a shooter, but MeiQ is a Vita DRPG with girls in mechs.
 
How about adding turn-based elements to a genre that usually isn't

Which is basically Ronin (turn-based action/stealth platformer), Mighty Tactical Shooter (turn-based shmup, still in development), and SuperHOT (pseudo-turn-based FPS)

Ronin
ss_1bfb0c00df620d9e892aab6633cdc596beb7f4d3.600x338.jpg


Mighty Tactical Shooter

XgAbOoAl.png


SuperHOT

ss_4a0fc6962982beffe22ece449a58bc2f84aa08c3.600x338.jpg
 

duckroll

Member
Here's a microgenre which I think a single developer has a monopoly on (LOL) but has graced FIVE different publishers across three different platforms!

Giant robot action game controlled by in-game remote/virtual control(s)

Remote Control Dandy (Human) - PS1

Gigantic Drive/Robot Alchemic Drive (Enix) - PS2

Remote Control Dandy SF (Konami) - PS2

Tetsujin 28 (Bandai) - PS2

Chosoju Mecha MG (Nintendo) - DS

These games are all developed by Sandlot, the creators of EDF. It seems like they hit on the idea of making a game where instead of direct action controls you use an in-game logic control scheme, and they just rolled with that pitch to one publisher after another. Lmao.
 

Phediuk

Member
90s PC action-adventure games where the appeal lies mostly in laughing at the contrast between the games' ridiculously low-poly character models and their extremely self-serious plot and setting

Alone in the Dark
alone-in-the-dark_24.png


Ecstatica
ef79f662a2ec5905e631294574998ad7-650-80_zpsf4oannzb.jpg


Fade to Black
1040263-fade.jpg


Bioforge
bioforge%2Bgame%2Bscreenshot%2B3.jpg
 

Blizzard

Banned
Genre-shifting clickers that aren't really clickers (or are they...?)


A Dark Room
ZvcYIGk.png

is it a clicker or is it a...?
I've never played A Dark Room, but isn't it a missed opportunity to make the background white instead of black? I tried on two different browsers and it's white for me.

Or is that the point at the start?
 

Fancykong

Member
The Trauma Center/Team series made its own "Arcade Surgery" genre. There was one Adult Swim game, but besides that the genre really wasn't touched much by anyone (or Atlus after the Wii).
 

Wozman23

Member
First Person Shooters Where You Shoot Something Other Than Bullets:

Portal:

The Unfinished Swan:

Single Player Games with Asymmetric Gameplay :

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons:

Soft Body:

ibb & obb:


Fully Competent Games That Also Contain Music Creation Tools:

Sound Shapes:

FRACT OSC:

LittleBigPlanet:

Platformers with No Legs or No Jumping:

Snake Pass:

Mushroom 11:

Thumpers (Weird, Anxiety Inducing Fever Dreams):

Thumper:
 

ActWan

Member
I haven't seen more games like Neighbors from Hell except some russian shovelware...it's a series of point and click games about basically pranking your neighbor in a reality TV show and you need to get enough pranks going on to keep the rating up.
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There's also The Incredible Machine and the Crazy Machines games where you build a Rube Goldberg machine using many physics based things.

Crazy-01-large.jpg
 

Phediuk

Member
I haven't seen more games like Neighbors from Hell except some russian shovelware...it's a series of point and click games about basically pranking your neighbor in a reality TV show and you need to get enough pranks going on to keep the rating up.
maxresdefault.jpg

Isn't this a take on Spy vs. Spy?

Haunting starring Polterguy would also be part of this microgenre.
 
Super Smash Bros. is like its own genre, which is mostly itself, Playstation All-Stars, and other D-tier knockoffs like Cartoon Network, TMNT, and the Wii Force Unleashed 2 game. Party fighter? Brawler? I dunno.
You forgot Power Stone.

Eastern European Misery Simulators (Games that tend to be bleak and/or unforgiving made by devs from Slavic countries)

Pathologic

wnBfhc6.jpg


STALKER

LtbQfn6.jpg


Metro

biPLBBs.jpg


Cryostasis

VPVGDfC.jpg
 
"Diablo type loot game but it's a shooter" has maybe half a dozen examples? Not so much a highly specific micro-genre as a hybrid of two fairly popular things, but it's a distinct entity.

Hellgate
Borderlands series
Destiny
The Division
Warframe depending on who you ask

There will never be enough of these for my tastes. There will never be enough Diablo-style loot games of any kind for my tastes.

Single Player Games with Asymmetric Gameplay :

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons:


Soft Body:


ibb & obb:

Cookie and Cream
 

Blizzard

Banned
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:
ss_7d7b84d5c1980ed6f232qe4.jpg


Overcooked:
2872665-overcooked5trg0.jpg
 

Evilisk

Member
Super Smash Bros. is like its own genre, which is mostly itself, Playstation All-Stars, and other D-tier knockoffs like Cartoon Network, TMNT, and the Wii Force Unleashed 2 game. Party fighter? Brawler? I dunno.

Platform Fighter

And it'd be more of a subgenre than a micro one. I could easily bring up a list and it'd be way more than any other micro-genre brought up in this thread. There are just that many games. It's just a matter of most of the games being unknown (and an even smaller amount of those actually being worth playing and/or readily available in English)

The only one close enough is the Jump super and ultimate stars games, but those were made by nintendo too, so they don't count.

No it fucking wasn't
 

notaskwid

Member
Mansion games:
Games that take place primarily exploring one house.

Maniac Mansion
maxresdefault.jpg


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.
Fatal Frame 1
Fatal Frame 3 to some extent
you're exploring a mix of locations from 2 and 1 and some new areas, and also have your own house.
Fatal Frame 4 also, though not really a 'house'.
 

jdstorm

Banned
How about adding turn-based elements to a genre that usually isn't

Which is basically Ronin (turn-based action/stealth platformer), Mighty Tactical Shooter (turn-based shmup, still in development), and SuperHOT (pseudo-turn-based FPS)

Ronin
ss_1bfb0c00df620d9e892aab6633cdc596beb7f4d3.600x338.jpg


Mighty Tactical Shooter

XgAbOoAl.png


SuperHOT

ss_4a0fc6962982beffe22ece449a58bc2f84aa08c3.600x338.jpg

Any Turn based 2D fighters?
 

iammeiam

Member
Adventure Games Revolving Around Getting Wacky Locals To Let You Show Them Minor Physical Affection

Dropsy, a point-and-click game about a clown who just wants to hug people:

Chulip, a PS2 game about a boy kissing his way through town so he can eventually kiss the girl of his dreams:
 

mclem

Member
I'd add The Armageddon Man to the 'cold war sims' category.

2u7L0v0.gif


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
There's another (Flash) game that's kind of like a 2D infinifactory although the goal is rearranging data, but I can't recall the name of it right now. *Might* be a Zach Barth title, not sure. I'll see if I can find out what it was.

Edit: Manufactoria.
 
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