Brick #7: Game Genres

On to genres it is!
Besides the already mentioned Serious Games which is an upcoming and hotter by day genre, there are other genres as well, which are much more common and used to.

A genre, for Music could be "Metal" , "Rock" , "Pop" , "Dance" , "Ballad" , "Classic" , "Country" etc.
A genre for Movies, could be "Action" , "Comedy" , "Romance" , "Sci-fi" , "Horror", "Cartoon" etc.
And just like Music and Movie industry, the game industry has its' own genres as well..! Let's peek on some of them!

PLATFORMERS

We are talking retro-style 2D side scroller here where you control your character and usually the term "Platformer" comes from the fact that you have to jump on (or off) of platforms, utilize floating platform movement in order to proceed, or even jump on other enemies' heads to destroy them and also, these games involve a lot of environmental hazards which you have to be careful of, besides monsters. Such hazards include dancing flames, spikes on the walls, or even botomless pits. Mostly known at gaming's earlier days, when combined with action, platformers can blast our day even today!

Examples: Super Mario Bros , Sonic the hedgehog, Metroid Fusion


ADVENTURE

For those seeking to squeeze their brains in order to solve a riddle or for those wanabee detectives, such games most of the time involve controlling an investigator of some sort, or even trasure hunters, individuals who would go to the end of every adventure and just risk it all for the sake of bounty. These games come with tough (or not) riddles and/or story plots that require you to do specific stuff (which is not defined) in order to proceed, and generally require you to think a lot, and consider everything you have in your possession and use it with a specific character or the environment if you feel like continuing with the story.
Such brain games are loved by many gamers and the adventure genre is still one of the best out there..!

Examples: Sam & Max , Monkey Island, The Longest Journey, Myst


BEATEMUP

All time classic beat up your friend in the same room with a second controller. Your objective mainly in these games is...what else? BEAT UP your friend or the computer using a series of combos that gather up massive amounts of damage and knock out your opponent. One of the best genres if you are the mindless, button-mashing freak that likes facerolling on the gamepad. So, either test your combo-gathering skills versus the AI by using your fists or some crazy double edged bastard swords or against your other button-mashing friend..!

Examples: Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Street Fighter, Soul Calibur


PUZZLE

This genre is favored by the casual player, usually following the old design pattern, which is a linear sequence of progress featuring endless levels , which are either following the same pattern but with higher difficulty, or is adding new features to the game every X levels or so. Games designed to be puzzled usually require features that are adding addicting value to the game, thus keeping players playing it.

Examples: Tetris, Bejeweled, Dr.Mario


STRATEGY

This genre is getting more and more famous by the years, with more and more titles emerging at the local games store. This genre features a 3rd person camera above the playing field where you usually control your troops and your objective is to destroy the other players (the other civilizations involved in the game). You pick a race/civilization, then gather up resources using your village people and with these resources, build a lot of buildings that either increase productivity or upgrade your defenses / attack / troops. You can also recruit troops and then when you've gathered enough, you can go attack other players if you feel lucky.
Such games can be further categorized into RTS games or even Turn-based games.

Examples: Warcraft , Age of Empires, Civilization, Command & Conquer


RPG

For the most hardcore gamers ever, besides strategies and shooters, RPGs are often of the most addicting genres and tend to transform people from human players to zombies. Such games involve monitoring lots of stuff at the same time, such as your health, your magic, your attacks, will they be timed or not? You have to keep monitoring your stats, how they change according to armor, the number of items you have in your backpack, the skills you are going to use to enemies based on the enemy type or your specific damage type, use flasks or potions to restore your health, mana and energy. RPGs can be categorized into CRPGs (Action RPGs) and JRPGs (Japaneese Style , Turn based RPGs).

Examples: Dungeons & Dragons, Final Fantasy(JRPG), Kingdom Hearts (CRPG), Diablo 


SHOOTER

Another genre for those hardcore gamers who like to play online and test their skills against other players (or bots..!) You usually play in 1st person view, holding a gun, and your goal is to aim that crosshair at the middle of the screen towards the heads of your enemies (when you can) and well, shoot the crap out of them, in order to gather kills and actually win some Team Deathmatch / Deathmatch / Capture The Flag games. These games are incredibly addicting, and also require quick reflexes, monitoring skills and well. SKILLS in general.

Examples: Unreal Tournament, Call of Duty, Resistance, Medal of Honour


PARTY GAMES

Last but not least, we have party games genre, which features many players playing at the same time, usually games that can be played at the same time by 4 players (usually it rounds at 4) featuring either a lot of minigames, or hot-seat games. Such games could be either Karaoke games, meaning games that can be played in parties in general, by many players at once, bringing a lot of fun to anyone attending!!

Examples: Mario Party, Little Big Planet, Worms, Super Smash Bros