Action video games are video games that are defined by fast-paced gameplay with a focus typically on movement, combat, hand-eye coordination, and reaction time. As a genre, it is a very broad term and is commonly used to define games that may not fit into more specific genres such as puzzle, platform, racing, FPS, or role-playing games, although shooters and platforming video games may also fall under this group. action genre. It’s not uncommon to see elements from other types of games incorporated into an action video game; as a result, many people use action/adventure to refer to action games that focus more on adventure elements, such as exploration and/or collecting. Many other major genres do incorporate the level of control that the action genre is known for; while first-person shooters are based on moving and shooting, they are categorized as they are because of the unique perspective of the game. Similarly, platform video games tend to be action games with a heavy focus on jumping puzzles.
Because it is a very broad term, it has been used more often lately for games that focus only on movement and combat.
Defining elements
The action genre includes any game where most of the challenges are physical tests of skill. Action games may sometimes include other challenges, such as racing or collecting items, but these are not central to the genre. Players may also encounter tactical and exploration tasks, but these games sometimes require high reaction speed and good hand-eye coordination. In addition, the player is often under time pressure. In general, faster action games are more difficult.
History
When the video game industry started in the early 1970s after the success of Pong, most of the first arcade games were sports games that tried to imitate real sports, especially Pong clones and sometimes racing games. Although some action games began to gain popularity around the mid-1970s, with releases such as Gun Fight in 1975 and Sea Wolf in 1976, the industry was still largely dominated by sports games, although a flood of pong clones led to the video game crash in 1977.
An important turning point for action games was the release of Space Invaders in 1978, which marked the end of the 1977 crash and the beginning of the golden age of arcade games. As a result of the major success of Space Invaders, action games began to dominate the industry, and they remain the most dominant genre in arcades and on game consoles to this day. Along with Space Invaders, Asteroids Deluxe from 1979 and Pac-Man from 1980 also became iconic examples of the action game genre. Robotron: 2084, released in arcades in 1982, has also become a classic of the shooter subgenre.