Light-gun shooter
Light-gun shooters revolve around the protagonist shooting virtual targets, either antagonists or inanimate objects, and generally feature action or horror themes and some may employ a humorous, parodic treatment of these conventions.
On home computer conversions of light-gun shooters, mouse has been often an optional or non-optional replacement for a light gun.
The genre is less popular in the new millennium, as well as being hampered by compatibility issues, but retains a niche appeal for fans of "old school" gameplay.
[4] Targets in light-gun shooters may be threatening antagonists such as criminals, terrorists or zombies,[5][6][7] or they may be inanimate objects such as apples or bottles.
[5] Light-gun shooters typically feature generic action or horror themes,[6][9] though some later games employ more humorous, self-referential styles.
[10] The protagonist may be required to defend themself by taking cover,[2] or by shooting incoming thrown weapons, such as axes or grenades.
[20] It was a fresh approach to gun games that Sega introduced with Duck Hunt, which began location testing in 1968 and released in January 1969.
[26] The Magnavox Odyssey home video game console in 1972 had a light gun accessory,[27] in the production of which Nintendo was involved.
[28] In the arcades, light-gun shooter video games appeared in 1974, with Sega's Balloon Gun in August and Atari's Qwak!
[30] Light-gun video games became popular in arcades with the Nintendo VS. System arcade releases of Duck Hunt (1984) and Hogan's Alley (1984),[30] with Duck Hunt also becoming popular on home consoles following its 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) release.
[31][32] In the late 1980s, Taito's arcade hit Operation Wolf (1987) popularized military-themed light-gun rail shooters.
In 1995, Konami released Crypt Killer (Henry Explorers in Japan), which supported up to three players and was a modest success.
[39] The acclaimed Time Crisis by Namco, released for Japanese arcades in 1995 and ported to Sony's PlayStation console in 1996/1997, introduced innovations such as simulated recoil and a foot pedal which when pressed caused the protagonist to take cover.
[2][31] Namco also released Gun Bullet for Japanese arcades in 1994 and was ported as Point Blank for the PlayStation in 1998, a 2D sprite-based game featuring a unique minigame structure and quirky, humorous tone.
[44][45][46] In 1998, Midway released their third successful light-gun game called CarnEvil, which featured over-the-top black comedy humor, the use of the shotgun-like light gun which pumps to reload, and the use of blood and gore like Mortal Kombat.
[33] Light-gun shooters became less popular in the 2000s, with new games in the genre seen as "old school",[1][6][48] such as Raw Thrills' Target: Terror (2004) and ICE/Play Mechanix's Johnny Nero Action Hero (2004).
[49] Incredible Technologies/Play Mechanix released Big Buck Hunter, which was highly successful and spawned a number of sequels and console ports.
Sega released Ghost Squad in 2004, notable for featuring unique machine guns with realistic recoil and an additional trigger for other in-game actions.
The Joy-Con of the Nintendo Switch have been used as a light gun substitute for various games, such as The House of the Dead: Remake (2022), though they are less precise than the Wii Remote due to their sole reliance on gyroscopic sensors for aiming.
