Rail shooter
A rail shooter is a sub-genre of the shooter video game where the player must shoot at enemies, but their movement is confined to a pre-planned path as though they were on rails. Constricted movement is a necessary part of the genre and the player's perspective tends to be first-person or over-the-shoulder third-person. This genre is an arcade mainstay that became popular in the early-1980s and has remained popular even to this day. Many rail shooters incorporate a light gun making them light gun video games rather than shooters.
Personal
Although some really good ones have been made, I don't much care for rail shooters. I find constricted movement as hindrance to game play and the preordained paths to make the game feel more like memorization of maps rather than interaction. However, I understand why they're so popular, because the game mechanic is remarkably simple. Even non-gamers can understand and play them with little effort.
Games
Some of the more popular rail shooters are listed here. For all rail shooters, see the category.
- Area 51
- CarnEvil
- Firefox (video game)
- The House of the Dead
- Jurassic Park (arcade game)
- Lethal Enforcers
- Panzer Dragoon
- Rez
- Space Harrier
- Star Fox
- Star Wars (1983)
- Star Wars: Rebel Assault
- Time Crisis
- Virtua Cop