Shooter

Galaxy Game is a very early shooter.

A shooter is a blanket genre of video game where the player controls a character that can shoot projectiles. Because this definition is so broad, the genre is typically divided into several sub-genres like:

Sub-genre	Description	Examples
Bullet hell	A shooter with a ridiculously large number of projectiles to deal with.	Batsugun, Touhou Youyoumu ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom
Cute 'em up	Shooters which uses cute imagery.	Fantasy Zone, Parodius
First-person shooter	The game is seen through the eyes of the character who shoots at opponents.	Doom, Half-Life
Fixed shooter	The character is confined to a limited area, usually on a single screen.	Space Invaders, Centipede
Hero shooter	Shooters which focus on character personalities.	Team Fortress 2, Overwatch
Platform shooter	The character runs along platforms while shooting.	Ghosts 'N Goblins, Contra
Rail shooter	The player shoots at targets while moving along a pre-set course.	Star Wars (1983), Space Harrier
Scrolling shooter	The character moves across a large area as the background scrolls behind them.	Defender, Xevious
Shooting gallery	The player shoots at targets which move across the scene, often by moving a targeting reticle.	Cabal, Operation Wolf
Tactical shooter	A hybrid of shooter and real-time tactics where strategy plays an important role.	SEAL Team, Rainbow Six
Tube shooter	Shooters which have the player spinning around a tube and shooting down it.	Tempest, Gyruss

Although light gun video games involve shooting, they don't fall into this definition of a shooter because the player's character doesn't fire a projectile. Instead, it uses something called a hitscan.

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