Computer Game Genre's

Genre Type	Genre Description	Genre Example
RPG	RPG stands for Role Play Game. You play as a specific character and complete different tasks within the game.	An example of RPG is League of Legends. In the game you choose out of a vast variety of different characters and compete in a 5v5 game. Each team has an objective, capture the enemy spawning pool first. Before capturing the spawning pool, you must work as a team to destroy the 9 turrets that stand in your way. After that you can try to destroy the 3 inhibitors. After that there is a further 2 turrets stood in front of the spawning pool. During the process of the game you have a team of minions, which spawn from your spawning pool every 30 seconds. Roughly ten minions spawn at a time. The gaming map is set up in three lanes. There is two different ways that teams generally set themselves up as; 1 top, 1 jungle, 1 middle, 2 bottom. Or 2 top, 1 middle, 2 bottom. Another example of an RPG game is Strife. Strife is a very similar game to League of Legends, although it does have many differences/improvements. It has the same game set-up as LoL but it has a higher quality of graphics. The concept of the game is exactly the same. One key difference would be that instead of just choosing a champion you have a range of pets to choose from as well. Pets help you to do many things, each pet has it's own unique skill. One pet helps health regeneration when your health is low. Another is a defense orientated, if you are getting attacked it will attack your attacker. Another aspect of the game where it is different is the skill level, it's not as challenging to level up. This makes the game more enjoyable as your not stressing about low leveling.
Maze Game	Maze Games mean that you have to guide your character through the maze and get them to the other side, alive.	One of the most famous maze games is Pac Man. Pac Man is a little yellow man who you control. You guide around the maze trying to get all of the little white dots. That makes it sound easy, whilst you are trying to achieve your goal there is up to four ghosts trying to stop you. If they touch you, you die. You get 3 lives, you can eat the ghosts however. When you’re getting the white dots, there is slightly bigger dots spread out across the maze. When you eat these you turn all of the ghosts blue. They then run away from you. If you eat them when they are blue you get extra points. Each level gets slightly harder. A further example of a maze game is A Maze Race.  Made up with a generic maze, with the aim to get to the flag.  Easy I hear you say, however, the red ball is also aiming to get to the flag. You, the green ball, have to find your way to the flag first. This simple but addictive game computerizes a new maze on each level.  The red ball also gains speed with each level. You get points for getting to the flag, and points for how far away from the flag that the red ball is.
Simulation	Simulations can vary on subject, building/construction, cooking, etc…	Red Bull Air Race is a flight simulation game. You are a Red Bull pilot, training to be one of the best in an elite team of air racers. You guide your plane through the different time gates. Some you have to fly through being parallel to the ground, some are one pylon gates that you can go through level or on your side. You have your own plane, which you can change the colour of from a variety of different skins. There is a variety of different countries you can visit to compete in races. The base is situated in Brazil. The different countries all have a very different circuit. Some of the different countries are; Abu Dhabi, Croatia, Austria. There is different game modes too, practice, single lap race, full race, clean lap, etc... One of the most popular and well known simulation game is The Sims. The Sims is a virtual world where you can make families and houses and control their every move. You are responsible for everything your Sims do. You need to make sure that they eat, sleep, shower, clean, go to school/work, look after their children and more. There's four different versions of The Sims, the original (The Sims) The Sims 2, 3 and 4. Each game has multiple add ons, giving you more furniture, outfits, buildings and more.
Shoot ‘Em Up	Shoot ‘em up is where you, as the character, shoot at other characters whilst trying not to get hit at the same time.	Space Invaders is a popular retro game. It is classed as a ‘Fixed Shooter’ Shoot ‘em up. You are a little green gun, you shoot your bullets up to the white aliens above. Doing this gets you more points. To get even more points you have to try and shoot the red ships that fly across the screen at the top. To do this you must have created a clear divide for your shot to be able to reach the ship. You get three lives, each life is displayed at the top of the screen as well as your score. As each level goes on the game gets faster, meaning the red spaceships don’t take as long to fly across the screen. Asteroids is another retro game, but also a Shoot 'Em Up. Where Space Invaders is a fixed shooter, asteroids is a multi directional shooter. The aim of the game is to shoot the surrounding asteroids that fly onto the screen. If they touch you, you die. As well as asteroids enemy ships also need to be shot at. You are the triangular ship in the middle of the screen. There is no levels in asteroids, once you die you die. Start again and try again.
Racing	Racing around a race track, or street trying to finish first.	Mario Kart Double Dash is a game made by Nintendo, based around the character Super Mario and his friends. They race around various tracks and compete to win the grand prix. Each character is automatically matched with another that they are compatible with. For example, Mario and Luigi are matched together. However this doesn’t mean you can’t use characters such as Yoshi with Diddy Kong. There is three different game modes, Grand Prix, Time Trial and Special Games. As well as game modes there is three speed modes; 50cc, 10cc, 150cc. Each one progressively gains harder speed levels. 50cc being easy, 100cc medium and 150cc hard. During the race you can pick up mystery boxes within these are various objects that can help you. Such as bananas, red shells, green shells, fake boxes, mystery eggs, lightning bolts, etc… Forza Motorsport is a further example of a racing game. It is a more realistic race game. You have a variety of modern cars to choose from, brand and colour. You then race against other people to try and win. The more you win the better cars you get. The better cars you get, the better chance you have of winning. In the game you follow your calendar which has various racing events on, you take part in races, you get money. Races can be from all over the world, various terrains and courses make the game more interesting.
Board Games	Board games have been made into computer animated versions allowing you to play traditional games online.	Mah-jongg is a Chinese board game that uses 144 little tiles. Each tile has a symbol on them, which has to be matched with another tile that has the same symbol. The tiles are placed on the board in a variety of ways, it can be in any shape or form depending on difficulty level. There is multiple levels of tiles, to get to the tiles on the bottom layer you must match tiles from the top layers first. The aim of the game is to clear the board and match all of the tiles. There is 144 tiles meaning there should be 72 pairs once completed. There is multiple tiles, some may have 4 or 8 of the same tile. This game comes on most standard computers and laptops already installed. Checkers is a famous board game, it also comes pre-installed on most computers.  The board is set up with twenty four markers, twelve black and twelve red. The aim is to take all of your opponents markers before they take yours.  You're only aloud to move diagonally, forward. Unless one of your markers makes it to the other end of the board, then it can move anywhere, still being diagonal.  To take an opponent marker you must jump over it.
Platform	Jumping from platform to platform to reach your goal, which is usually at the top, or at the end of a platform.	Super Mario Bros is based on Super Mario, a character created by Nintendo. Unlike Mario Kart this is a completely different game concept. As the character Mario you have to get from one side of the level to the other. Avoiding obstacles such as mushrooms and shell men which if touched affect you. You can get power ups, such as mushroom, which makes you bigger. Flower, which turns your outfit red and white and allows you to throw fire. Super mushroom makes you into a giant, allowing you to stop all over everything. Mini Mushroom send you tiny, which helps you get into hard to reach places. To get to the other side you must jump, slide, dodge and find your way around the various things that are in your path. Sonic the Hedgehog is another famous character within the gaming industry. The main sonic game is also a platform. Much like Mario you have to get to the other end of the platform to win the level. Throughout the level you have to collect gold rings, however if you touch an enemy you will loose some of your collection. There is various ways of moving around, you can jump, run or spin around. Spinning is a fast paced sonic that does millions of forward rolls in a row to move faster across the course. This also kills enemies, as well as jumping on them. If you are jumping on them to kill them you must jump at the right time, to avoid them getting your gold rings.
Fighting	Participating in fighting events, maybe on a wrestling game or a street fighting game.	Tekken is a Japanese fighting game. As in most games you have a variety of characters to choose from. You can play multiplayer with someone next to you or against the computer. It’s not a modern enough game to play people over the internet. The fights take place in a variety of environments, most being in the streets, outside or in a shop. There is three rounds, the first one to win two rounds wins the match. There are many sequels and spin-offs to the game. The original game was released in 1994, there has been newer updated versions every few years up until 2011. As well as spin-offs and sequels there has also been television adaptations, which were released in Japan in 1999. Super Smash Bros is a fighting game made up of characters from various pre-made franchises. Some of these are, Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, Sonic, Kirby, Donkey Kong and more. The game originally had twelve playable characters. When the second game was released it rose to twenty-six, it further rose to thirty-nine in the third installment. It now stands at forty-nine, with four games within the series.  The game sees the characters going head to head, however most fighting games aim to drain opponent life, in Super Smash Bros you have to knock them off of their respective platform.
Sports	Playing a sports game such as football, rugby, golf, etc…	FIFA is one of the most popular sports games on the planet. It is based on the world of football, or soccer if you’re American. It is produced by the company EA, Electronic Arts. On the game you can play on career mode, which you’re either a player or a manager. As a player you choose your club and play for the team and hope to get spotted by bigger clubs, as well as trying to impress the international manager. As a manager, you choose the club you want to manage then try and recruit the best players to benefit your team. You can then play the games or simulate them. Your main aim as manager is to impress your country and become international manager. Alternatively to the career mode you can just play a single game. As well as creating an ultimate team, which is a team made up of the best players in the world. Wii Sports is a game that is solely for the Nintendo Wii. It has various different sports games on. They are; Tennis, Bowling, Boxing, Golf and Baseball. Tennis can be played with up to four players. Two to a team, you go head to head swinging the controller at the right time to hit the ball, first to three games wins. Bowling is your generic game, again for up to four players. Boxing is probably the most complex game, hitting the punch bag, or opponent at the right time and defending yourself. Golf is a very relaxing game, you must stand as if you are about to swing a golf club and aim the swing to try and put the ball within the par. Baseball is split into two teams, fielders and batters. Each player takes it in turns to bat. The teams swap however when there is three strikes in the team.
Puzzle	Finding all of the relevant information to solve the various different puzzles.	Candy Crush Saga is the most played game on Facebook with an average of 46 million users a month. Candy crush is a game where you swap different candies to make a match of at least three. If you match four, you get a striped candy which wipes out a whole column or row. If you match five, you get a special candy which when matched with any colour candy then clears all of the same colour off of the board. If you match them in an L shape you get a wrapped candy, this explodes and gets rid of a 3x3 section of the board. You get 5 lives, if you fail a level you lose a life. When all your lives are gone you have to wait thirty minutes before you get anymore, this meaning two and a half hours before your lives are fully restored. There is over 500 levels, each progressively harder. The World's Hardest Game is also a puzzle game.  The aim of the game is to get from one green area to the other, or get back to the same green area. Before you can complete the level you must collect the yellow dots. Sounds easy, but if you touch the blue dots you die. Lives are unlimited so that you can play for hours. As well as being the worlds hardest game it may be the worlds most addictive game. Each level gets progressively harder. In the first version there is thirty levels.