Genre Experiments: The Genres the Gaming World Needs!

- by Ninja Ross, 13 February 2013

No matter how exposed you are to video games, you know what genres are big in that industry. You might not have played a video game since Pong first came out, or you could be just avoiding them all the time, but news coverage and the fact that gaming has become a very popular thing will have made you at least a little informed on the subject. So you know that major genres in the industry include Military shooters, fantasy Role Playing, sci-fi shooters and stealth.

Very few developers have been successful doing anything else. They sometimes mix genres up but we don’t see that very often. So! New genres! Let’s have a think on that, shall we? Here’s a few!

1. FANTASY STEALTH

This genre exists and has been successful but there’s not a lot of it. The Thief franchise saw you steal from nobles in a fantasy steam punk world while Dishonoured did kind of the same thing but with assassinations and magic. You could also argue that The Elder Scrolls is a fantasy Stealth game but that’s just one small part of the series.

More of this genre could bring to genre fan bases together; RPG Fantasy fans and stealth fans. They’d get the creativity of a fantasy like world, as seen in the likes of Fable and World of Warcraft, with the tense pulse pounding gameplay of a stealth game like Hitman or Splinter cell.

2. MILITARY BEAT 'EM UPS

Picture this: You’re in a war torn town. You’ve just killed a bunch of minorities and you think you’re done. Nobody could survive the fire you rained down on this sleepy village/terrorist camp. [Or a laundromat. - Ed.]

But what’s that? In the distance? It’s Ryu.

"Sir! Abort the Arabic Laundromat Takeover! It's Ryu!"

He was working for these terrorists all along and now he wants a piece of you. You raise your gun and pull the trigger but nothing happens. You’re out of bullets. Better put up those fists.

That’s right; we could combine the racism of a military shooter with the fighting action of Street Fighter! Thank me later, developers.

3. SCI-FI HORROR

With the release of Dead Space 3, there’s a chance we could see more in this genre and I really hope we do.

Sci-fi Horror seems to be a fairly rare genre in all mediums. Films only have a few, books have even less and video games have, well, more than books but not many.

Space is the perfect place to set a “nowhere to run” type of horror story. Alien did it, Event Horizon did it and Dead Space did it very well. Imagine Silent Hill set in space! And I’m not joking. I’m not saying we put Pyramid Head in a silly space suit and have him moon walk. This genre could be the best thing to hit video games in recent years. I think so, anyway.

4. SPORTS SHOOTERS

Not talking Duck Hunt here, folks. I’m talking skiing with an AK47. Football with grenades. Golf with bazookas. Are you feeling this genre? I know you are. Imagine how much better Fifa or Madden games would be with weapons.

This sort of thing has been done but not like it could be. Come on, let’s have a video game version of Tiger Woods throwing axes while dodging bullets! Sports games are boring, anyway, so let’s put this stuff in.

BOOM! There goes Beckham’s leg! I don’t do sports, is Beckham still relevant? Does he play? Forget it, he does in video games.

With this genre, I think I just revolutionized the industry.

There you have it, readers! Some genres to help shake things up! Did you catch the two I wasn’t serious about? Do you have any genres of your own you’d like to see? Sound off in he comments section!

Tagged: video games.

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