Shooter

Shooter is a sub-genre of action games in which gameplay is primarily based around shooting mechanics. The shooting aspect is commonly attributed to projectile-based weapons, devices and actions performed by the player's avatar. Most shooters rely on the player's reaction time, aim, and reflexes of the player in a real-time scenario. It should be noted that not every game featuring combat based around in projectile-based weapons can be considered a shooter. The shooting aspect in shooters is the main and primary gameplay mechanic regarding game progression. While shooters are commonly associated with games featuring usage of guns, several others types of projectile shooting can be found as well, such as magic fireballs, sprinklers, eggs, etc. Some shooters don't even enclose the projectile-based gameplay, featuring a different type of "shooting", like Pokémon Snap [ポケモンスナップ] (1999) and Gal*Gun [ぎゃる☆がん] (2011) for example.

The shooter genre has several sub-categories, such as first-person shooter and third-person shooter, which can feature aspects from other genres like action-adventure, hack and slash and platformers; shoot 'em up, being revolved around shooting down enemies and obstacles as the game progress; and tactical shooters, shooter games focused in realistic and strategic combat.