Obstacle course

Obstacle course is an action subgenre that consists of avoiding objects while following a linear path. The genre was established in the early days of Arcade machines with Space Race/Asteroid (1973) with the goal of crossing the screen with a space rocket while avoiding perpendicular-moving asteroids. This would evolve into Freeway (1981) and Frogger (1981), the latter spawning a vast amount of frogger-like clones and a franchise that would bring the genre into 3D space with Frogger (1997) and Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge (2000). Games like Sky Jinks (1982) and Barnstorming (1982) would add a timer to the obstacle course, turning the game into obstacle racing. In more recent years, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout (2020) would become a hit with modernized gameplay based on Takeshi's Castle show and more emphasis on light platformer paths.