A subgenre of the Shoot 'Em Up genre, in which the game's playfield constantly scrolls horizontally (and almost universally left-to-right). Most commonly, the view is side-on, giving the player a cross-sectional view of the level.
Unlike their Vertical Scrolling Shooter cousins, horizontally-scrolling shooters commonly use terrain as an obstacle, requiring the player to carefully navigate and avoid solid objects in addition to fighting the enemies that they encounter. Since the terrain is typically static, memorizing the layout can make things easier in such games. Like its vertical counterpart, it makes abundant use of Motion Parallax, emulating the distance/perception of movement dichotomy (farther=slower) through layers.
Games are typically divided up into distinct stages with a large and powerful boss at the end of each.
Three of the most iconic horizontally-scrolling shooter franchises originated in the late 1980s, and are still going to this day:
The genre was reasonably popular in the 1980s and 1990s, but its influence has waned considerably since the advent of 3D games.
Compare Vertical Scrolling Shooter.
Common tropes in Horizontal Scrolling Shooters include:
- Attack Its Weak Point
- Boss Battle
- Damage-Sponge Boss
- Deadly Walls
- One-Hit-Point Wonder
- Post-Defeat Explosion Chain
Examples:
- 198X
- Abadox
- Aegis Wing
- Air Buster
- Air Zonk
- Agony (1992)
- Akai Katana
- Alien Hominid
- Aliens
- Altitude
- Andro Dunos
- Apidya
- Assault Suits Valken
- Ballpoint Universe Infinite
- Battlemania / Trouble Shooter
- B.ARK (2021)
- Bio-Hazard Battle
- BIOMETAL
- Bio Ship Paladin
- Blast Works/TUKIMI Fighters
- BlaZeon
- Blazing Star
- Blood Money
- Boogie Wings (The Great Ragtime Show in Japan)
- Border Down
- Carrier Airwing
- Chimera Beast (unreleased)
- Cho Aniki
- Cloud Master
- cloudphobia
- Cobalt
- Coryoon
- Cosmic Avenger
- Cotton
- Cuphead: A few stages are this.
- The Darius series.
- Death Smiles series
- Deep Blue Kaitei Shinwa
- Devil Engine
- "Dr. Phlogiston Saves the Earth" from FunOrb
- Dragon Breed
- Drainus
- Eco Fighters
- Einhänder
- Eliminate Down
- Enemy Mind
- Exzisus
- Fantasy Zone
- Forgotten Worlds
- Formation Z
- Gaiares
- Gaia Seed: Project Trap
- Gate of Thunder
- Gleylancer
- Gradius series
- Gratia Second Earth
- Gundemonium, Gundeadligne and Gundemonium Recollection from the Gundemonium Series
- Gynoug
- Hellfire (1989)
- Harmful Park
- Hazelnut Hex
- Heavy Weapon
- Hydorah
- Hyper Duel
- Hyper Dyne Side Arms
- Ikaruga (The PC port will have a mode for this.)
- In the Hunt
- Insector X
- Iwanaga
- Jets'n'Guns
- Keio Flying Squadron
- Koutetsu Yousai Strahl
- Last Resort
- Lords Of Thunder
- Magical Chase
- Megablast
- Metal Black
- Metamor Jupiter
- Mystic Riders
- Natsuki Chronicles
- Nebula Fighter
- Ordyne
- Otomedius
- P-47 Aces
- P-47: The Phantom Fighter
- Parasite Strike
- Parodius series
- Parsec
- Phalanx
- Philosoma
- Pilot Kids - with Living Toys!
- Prehistoric Isle
- Progear
- Project X
- Pulstar
- Rabio Lepus
- The Rayxanber trilogy
- Really Big Sky
- Rendering Ranger: R2
- Revenge Of The Mutant Camels (yes, really)
- Rigid Force Alpha
- Rolling Gunner
- RPG Shooter: Starwish
- R-Type series
- SATAZIUS
- Scramble
- Super Cobra (which uses the same engine)
- Sengoku Ace series
- Sengoku Blade (aka Tengai)
- Sengoku Cannon
- Shark Attack
- Schildmaid MX
- Sine Mora
- Sinistron
- Sky Racket
- Solaris 104
- Söldner-X
- Sol Divide - Despite it's High Fantasy setting, the gameplay still follows the horizontal shooting template where the player assumes the role of three mages flying all over the place blasting enemies.
- Sol Feace
- Space Manbow
- Special Cybernetic Attack Team
- Spriggan Powered
- Squad 51 vs. the Flying Saucers
- Stargunner
- Steel Empire
- Steel Saviour
- Steredenn
- Submarine Attack
- SUGURI
- Super Amazing Wagon Adventure
- Supercharged Robot Vulkaiser
- Syvalion - in which your titular ship is shaped like an oriental dragon
- Terra Force
- Three Wonders - the "Chariot" segment.
- Thunder Cross and sequel
- Thunder Force (early games include top down multi-direction level)
- Touhou Maihana Ao Makyou ~Uniting Barrage Action~ (a notable Touhou fangame with horizontal scrolling)
- Trouble Witches
- Ultionus: A Tale of Petty Revenge
- U.N. Squadron
- Valstar
- Vacant Ark
- Vanguard (which also had some vertical and diagonal scrolling)
- Wings Of Genesis
- Wolf Fang
- Xain'd Sleena - segments when Sleena is in her plane
- X2
- Xexex
- Xexyz (only one in three levels)
- Zedblade
- Zero Wing
- Zombie Nation - a special case where you're controlling a floating head in killing zombies
