5. The Rail Shooter
Years ago, many first person shooting (FPS) games were predominantly the realm of enthusiasts, as the ability to play games online against other players was quite rare. This left a few to engage in the likes of Counterstrike whilst others were consigned to campaign and/or offline multiplayer focused titles such as Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and Medal Of Honor, or rail shooters such as Time Crisis, where players were given no control over their movement and had to merely shoot all of the enemies on their screen and avoid being shot themselves to be automatically moved along to the next area. Now, several years later, the ability to play games online is a given and seemingly everyone and their mother has dabbled in online Call of Duty or Battlefield at some point. Other types of shooting game have suffered as a result, but none more so than the rail shooter, which is now seen as a dated concept in comparison to titles that allow for more freedom, though the run-and-gun formula campaign modes of the aforementioned Call of Duty and Battlefield are not worlds apart in terms of gameplay style. The likes of Time Crisis are still ever-present in arcades, but such establishments have been in decline themselves for many, many years as home gaming has become cheaper, more accessible and able to offer players a lot more than fifteen year old copies of Sega Rally and House Of The Dead.