Once an arcade mainstay, the side-scrolling shooter seems to be dwindling from existence. Ryan looks back at a sadly neglected genre...
In a furious blast of energy, a pair of classic shooters arrived in 2004: the PlayStation 2 titles R-Type Final and Gradius V. Coupling traditional side-scrolling action with up-to-the-minute, often quite striking graphics and sound, the games took the genre from late 20th century arcades and into our 21st century living rooms.
Yet even as these games offered up a sharp refinement of a tried-and-trusted relic from gaming’s silver age, they also signalled what now appears to be the genre’s epitaph. Even as R-Type Final showed how polished a side-scrolling shooter could look on a current-gen console, and Gradius V hinted at some fresh ideas which could be explored further in the future, these games brought their respective franchises to an end.
So what went wrong? Why was this genre,...
In a furious blast of energy, a pair of classic shooters arrived in 2004: the PlayStation 2 titles R-Type Final and Gradius V. Coupling traditional side-scrolling action with up-to-the-minute, often quite striking graphics and sound, the games took the genre from late 20th century arcades and into our 21st century living rooms.
Yet even as these games offered up a sharp refinement of a tried-and-trusted relic from gaming’s silver age, they also signalled what now appears to be the genre’s epitaph. Even as R-Type Final showed how polished a side-scrolling shooter could look on a current-gen console, and Gradius V hinted at some fresh ideas which could be explored further in the future, these games brought their respective franchises to an end.
So what went wrong? Why was this genre,...
- 8/15/2014
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
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