Light gun shooter

Light gun shooters are games that use light gun controllers to allow players to precisely aim and shoot targets in-game. Compared to shooting games with standard control methods, light gun shooter gameplay tries simulates real world firearms, focusing on speed and accuracy of shots above all else and may include features such as simulated recoil and gun cocking to reload. While the name was coined from the light sensors used to detect player inputs, other technologies have been used with the same core gameplay design. Typical light gun shooters are normally the first person with a fixed screen, similar to rail shooters. If movement exists is usually indirect and limited, usually occurring after a screen is "cleared" of targets or other goals are met.

Typically, light gun shooters are seen as a type of arcade game. The genre developed out of arcade games from before the video game period, such as carnival shooting galleries and electro-mechanical shooters. Even while arcades themselves have greatly declined, newer light gun shooters on consoles still adhere to a similar arcade formula.

On consoles, light gun shooters have typically relied on special peripherals for a comparable experience to their arcade counterparts, however console ports usually allow for standards gamepads to be used in absence of a light-gun. These peripherals have themselves also become less common by the mid-2000's with the switch from CRT TV's to LCD HDTV's and the mainstream adoption of both motion controls and virtual reality sets.

Popular light gun shooters include Sega's The House of the Dead, and Virtua Cop, Namco's Time Crisis as well as Nintendo's Duck Hunt [ダックハント] on consoles.