"Video games are my favorite video games."
Genre, as applied to Video Games, customarily describes the style of gameplay rather than that of the story or setting as in other media. Many games mix and match among them.
It is also possible to move from one gameplay style to another within the same game, e.g. Mini Games, vehicle sequences within action games, etc. These gameplay changes can sometimes be unnecessary or unwanted, especially if the game transitions between them jarringly with poor integration between them.
Notable games in each genre can be found on the individual pages. Note that many games can and should be in multiple genres, as the lines can often get blurred, or games can incorporate elements of more than one genre. If you have a new game to add, put it in every genre you think it belongs! There are other, more thorough, game databases.
Also see Pinball, the arcade predecessor to video games.
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General game genres
These are the most common classifications applied to video games, usually pertaining to their style of gameplay.
- Action-Adventure: A game that combines parts from Action Games and Adventure Games together. This means a balanced focus on combat and exploration/puzzle-solving. (ex: The Legend of Zelda series, God of War series)
- Metroidvania: A game that combines parts from Action-Adventure Games and Platform Games together. Features emphasis on exploring an interconnected environment and obtaining skills necessary to reach new areas of said environment. (ex: Super Metroid, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night)
- Stealth-Based Game: A game in which the player character must hide and sneak through the level while avoiding notice from much more powerful enemies that the player character cannot take head-on. (ex: Metal Gear series, Splinter Cell series)
- Survival Sandbox: A game where the primary objective is to survive for as long as possible in a hostile, often open-ended environment. (ex: Minecraft, No Man's Sky)
- Survival Horror: A game that features overwhelmed protagonist(s), oppressive atmosphere based on Horror conventions and a need for careful management of resources (ammo, health, etc.). (ex: the first three Resident Evil)
- Action Game: A game that is primarily about physical challenges, such as combat and obstacle crossing. (ex: Asura's Wrath)
- Platform Game (Platformer): A game in which jumping is an important action for navigating the environment. Leaping and climbing between platforms of varying heights and over or onto enemy characters forms a large part of the gameplay. (ex: Super Mario Bros. series, Sonic the Hedgehog series)
- Cinematic Platform Game: A Platform Game that portrays itself more realistically. (ex: Prince of Persia series, Another World)
- Collect-a-Thon Platformer: A Platform Game set in relatively open levels where collecting a certain number of pickups is necessary to progress further into the game. (ex: Banjo-Kazooie, the first three Spyro the Dragon games)
- Elimination Platformer: A game that requires players to use the concept of jumping from one platform to another to clear the entire level of enemies. (ex: Bubble Bobble series)
- Platform Hell: A Platform Game with intentionally cranked up and unfair difficulty, usually for comedic value. (ex: I Wanna Be the Guy, Super Meat Boy)
- Puzzle Platformer: A game that combines parts from Platform Games and Puzzle Games together. (ex: Portal, Fez)
- Run-and-Gun: A platformer that borrows elements from the Shoot 'Em Up genre. (ex: Contra series, Metal Slug series)
- Beat 'em Up: A Sub-Genre of Action Game with the player character fighting primarily with punches and kicks against large hordes of relatively weaker enemies. (ex: Streets of Rage, Final Fight)
- Hack and Slash: A Beat 'em Up where the player character primarily wields close range melee weaponry, like a sword or axe. (ex: Dynasty Warriors series)
- Stylish Action: A game that allows the player to create spectacle through its mechanics, where their performance in fighting enemies gets graded under certain criteria and then rewarded accordingly. (ex: Devil May Cry series, Sunset Overdrive)
- Shooter: A game in which the gameplay revolves around shooting with guns and other ranged weapons.
- First-Person Shooter (FPS): A 3D shooter in which the perspective is through the eyes of the player character, and the action revolves around shooting. (ex: Doom series, Call of Duty series)
- Arena Shooter: Early FPS multiplayer-based subgenre where everyone starts on equal foot and the items are scattered across the map. (ex: Quake III: Arena, Unreal Tournament)
- Third-Person Shooter (TPS): A 3D shooter that has the camera looking behind the player character or over their shoulder, and involves the use of guns and similar weapons. (ex: Gears of War series, Splatoon series)
- Hero Shooter: A First or Third-Person Shooter in which each character has different abilities and weapons. (ex: Team Fortress 2, Overwatch)
- Light Gun Game: A game in which the player has a pointing device that resembles a gun and points it at the screen to shoot on-screen enemies. Often a Rail Shooter, but the player character can be completely stationary as well. (ex: Duck Hunt, The House of the Dead series)
- Looter Shooter: A First or Third-Person Shooter incorporating RPG Elements, namely, the acquisition of better gear by finding it in the world. (ex: Borderlands series, Escape from Tarkov)
- Rail Shooter: A game in which the computer controls most of your movement and you control the shots. (ex: the original Star Fox, Paperboy)
- Shoot 'Em Up (Shmups): A fixed-scrolling shooter that is not three-dimensional. (ex: Space Invaders, Galaga)
- Bullet Hell: A shoot'em up that has every single enemy fire hundreds or thousands of projectiles on-screen at once at the player character, testing their dodging skills. (ex: Ikaruga, Touhou Project series)
- Cute 'em Up: A shoot'em up that casts the enemies as cute things such as kittens, candy, fairies, and so on. (ex: Fantasy Zone)
- Horizontal Scrolling Shooter: A shoot'em up that has a horizontal Auto-Scrolling Level, that is, to the left or right. (ex: Gradius)
- Vertical Scrolling Shooter: A shoot'em up that has a vertical Auto Scrolling Level, that is, up or down. (ex: Raiden)
- Tactical Shooter: An FPS or TPS that simulates realistic combat, encouraging use of real-life combat tactics. (ex: Rainbow Six series)
- Fighting Game: An Action Game that is primarily about one-on-one fights between two (or rarely more) equally skilled opponents. (ex: Street Fighter series, Tekken series)
- Mascot Fighter: Ultimate Showdown Of Ultimate Destiny is heavily featured. (ex: Super Smash Bros. series, Multi Versus)
- Platform Fighter: A fighting game combined with platform game elements; has great emphasis on maneuverability on dynamic stages. (ex: Rivals of Aether, Slap City)
- Boss Game: A game composed mostly/entirely of Boss Battles. (ex: Shadow of the Colossus, Cuphead)
- Platform Game (Platformer): A game in which jumping is an important action for navigating the environment. Leaping and climbing between platforms of varying heights and over or onto enemy characters forms a large part of the gameplay. (ex: Super Mario Bros. series, Sonic the Hedgehog series)
- Adventure Game: A game that is about puzzle-solving, exploration, and narrative, and a relative (or total) absence of randomized combat. (ex: The Walking Dead series, Heavy Rain)
- Environmental Narrative Game: A story-driven adventure game which emphasizes narrative and exploring a physical location, with very little in the way of interactivity or gameplay challenge. Also known by other labels including "walking simulator", "story exploration game", "first-person adventure" and "interactive stories". (ex: Gone Home, The Witness)
- Explorer Horror: Horror games that revolve around exploring grim locations and collecting objects, with minimalist storytelling. (ex: Yume Nikki, Corpse Party series)
- Interactive Fiction: An Adventure Game in which the interaction is almost entirely text-based. (ex: Colossal Cave)
- Interactive Movie: A game that is based around video clips, and the player must press buttons at the right time, choose the right sequence of clips, or play other games using the video as a backdrop. (ex: Dragon's Lair, Night Trap)
- Point-and-Click Game: A game in which the player interacts with the environment by moving the mouse cursor over areas of the screen and clicking on them. (ex: Monkey Island, King's Quest series)
- Room Escape Game: A simplistic type of Point-and-Click Game consisting solely of puzzles to escape a room or series of rooms. (ex: Mystery of Time and Space)
- Visual Novel: An Adventure Game that focuses more on character interactivity than world interactivity, with dialogue choices being the primary gameplay component. They often allow the player to choose their own adventure and get different endings based on your choices.
- Linear Visual Novel: Visual Novels that feature little to no multiple endings. (ex: Ace Attorney series, Danganronpa series)
- Kinetic Novel: Visual Novels that feature no player interactivity whatsoever, making them akin to a digital picture book or audio play. (ex: Higurashi: When They Cry)
- Card Game: Simulations of card-based games. (ex: Microsoft Solitaire)
- Card Battle Game: Collectible Card Games in digital form. (ex: game adaptations of Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh!).
- Deckbuilding Game: Card games where the player builds a deck as they play the game and are usually single-player focused. (ex: Slay the Spire, Balatro)
- Casual Video Game: A game that is easy to learn and relatively simple by design. (ex: Wii Sports)
- Endless Running Game: A game about enduring an endless sequence of obstacles as long as possible. (ex: Temple Run, Subway Surfers)
- Exergaming: A game that encourages the player to exercise and to get into shape. (ex: Wii Fit)
- Hidden Object Game: A game in which there is a photo realistic cluttered scene and the player must find and click on a series of objects in it. (ex: Mystery Case Files, I'm On Observation Duty)
- Idle Game: A genre of game defined by its game play, the primary feature of which is that the easiest way to win is to leave the game running by itself for long periods of time. (ex: Cookie Clicker)
- Time Management Game: A game that requires the player to accomplish tasks as fast as possible. (ex: Diner Dash)
- Virtual Paper Doll: A game that is about customizing a character's appearance.
- Digging Game: A game in which the player digs through terrain while minding falling objects. (ex: Dig Dug)
- Digital Pinball Tables: Computerized pinball games, whether replicas of Physical Pinball Tables, or original boards with features that can only exist in software. (ex. Full Tilt! Pinball)
- Digital Tabletop Game Adaptation: Video game versions of physical Tabletop Games.
- Driving Game: A game in which the player drives a vehicle of some kind. (ex: Driver, Gran Turismo)
- Racing Game: A game in which the player drives a vehicle of some kind and races against either other players or time. (ex: F-Zero series, Need for Speed series)
- Mascot Racer: Colorful characters use colorful weapons in their races. (ex: Mario Kart series)
- Vehicular Combat: A game where the player controls a normally armed motor vehicle and must destroy all enemies. (ex: Twisted Metal)
- Racing Game: A game in which the player drives a vehicle of some kind and races against either other players or time. (ex: F-Zero series, Need for Speed series)
- Escort Game: A game about escorting someone or something. (ex: Lemmings series)
- Gacha Games: A genre of games based around rolling certain items (mainly playable characters) of a banner and paying until obtaining the desired item from enough pulls. (ex. Granblue Fantasy)
- .io Game: An online Player Versus Player game that is quick and easy to pick up and play. Mostly consists of Web Games with many having a mobile app version as well.
- Maze Game: A game that takes place in a maze, and the player must either get from one side of the maze to the other, or clear it of every item that won't kill the player. (ex: the original Pac-Man)
- Mad Marble Maze: A game in which the player rolls a round object of some kind from the beginning to the end of a level. (ex: Super Monkey Ball series)
- Medical Game: A game in which the player takes the role of a doctor or medic and has to treat patients. (ex: Trauma Center series Theme Hospital'' series)
- Minigame Game: A game that has a series of puzzles, challenges and games with very different requirements for defeating them. (ex: WarioWare series)
- Party Game: A Minigame Game in which two to four players compete against each other in a board game-like environment. (ex: Mario Party series)
- Mon Game: A game that allows the player to befriend or capture various creatures to fight on their behalf. Also happens to be a genre of anime and manga. (ex: Pokémon mainline series, Shin Megami Tensei series)
- Puzzle Game: A game that requires mental skill as well as, or instead of, dexterity and quick reflexes. (ex: Professor Layton series)
- Bizarre Puzzle Game: A Puzzle Game that is so weird and mind-defying that trying to label it with a genre is a puzzle in and of itself. (ex: Katamari Damacy)
- Breaking Out: A game in which a paddle at the bottom of the screen bounces a ball to destroy blocks, and missing the ball results in the player losing a life. (ex: Breakout)
- Match-Three Game: A game in which the player must match three objects of similar color/shape/species to eliminate said objects from the playing field. (ex: Bejeweled, Candy Crush Saga)
- Programming Game: A game in which the player has little to no direct control over the game's events, and must set up the solution, then hit a "go" switch to activate the solution and see if it accomplishes the task correctly. (ex: The Incredible Machine)
- Teamwork Puzzle Game: A game in which the player controls a group of characters, and progress frequently depends on puzzles making use of this fact. (ex. Trine, Snipperclips)
- Tilesweeper: A game usually based on Minesweeper involving a tile-based board on which you uncover clues and use them to reach the goal while avoiding threats or satisfying some other condition.
- Falling Blocks: A game in which blocks fall from the top of the screen, requiring the player to move and flip them so that they'll be arranged in a way to make them disappear, and if the blocks reach the top of the screen then the game ends. (ex: Tetris, Puyo Puyo series)
- Rhythm Game: A game that will flash commands, and the player has to input the same, synchronized to a beat or melody. (ex: Guitar Hero series, Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA)
- Rising Up The Food Chain Game: A game in which the player must eat creatures smaller than himself and become bigger, which allows him to eat more creatures. (ex: Feeding Frenzy)
- Role-Playing Game (RPG) — see also Tabletop Games (Tabletop RPG): A game in which the player controls a character or party of characters in a statistically abstracted way.
- Action RPG: A game that combines parts from Role Playing Games and Action Adventure Games together. Either a sub-genre of the Role-playing Game or a genre modifier, depending on who you ask. (ex: Kingdom Hearts series, Diablo series)
- Hunting RPG: A game where a customizable Player Character (and an optional party) tackles various quests by taking on progressively-nastier monsters within a time limit, only using weapons, armor and items created via Item Crafting. (ex: Monster Hunter series)
- Mascot RPG: A Role Playing Game that uses pre-established characters (or mascots) either in a Massive Multiplayer Crossover or as a spin-off from a non-RPG video game franchise. (ex: Namco × Capcom)
- Multi-User Dungeon (MUD) and MOO: An Interactive Fiction that allows multiple (perhaps thousands) players to play at the same time.
- Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG): A game that has hundreds of players interacting with each other in the same world in real-time, while completing quests and leveling up. (ex: World of Warcraft, MapleStory)
- MUCK: A Multi-User Text-Oriented Game that emphasizes role-playing and player intervention.
- MUSH (Multi User Shared Hallucination): A MUD that is just a series of rooms, with players given the bare minimum of interaction systems and let loose to create and manage their own role playing.
- Roguelike: A game that features procedurally generated environments randomly stocked from a huge list of monsters and items, Permadeath, Anti-Grinding and is Nintendo Hard. Named after Rogue, the Genre Popularizer. Traditional roguelikes are officially classified
as being primarily dungeon crawler turn-based RPGs that emphasizes Emergent Gameplay and resource management. (ex: NetHack, Dungeons of Dredmor)
- Souls-like RPG: A game that emphasizes dodging attacks during combat, with tough mooks, even harder bosses and very few checkpoints. Named and inspired after FromSoftware's usual output starting from Demon's Souls and then beyond, particularly Dark Souls. (ex: Nioh, Bloodborne)
- Strategy RPG (SRPG): A game that is a Role Playing Game, but it plays like a Turn-Based Strategy or Real-Time Strategy. (ex: Fire Emblem).
- Western RPG: A usually North American or European game that features a customizable featureless protagonist. (ex: Mass Effect series, The Elder Scrolls series)
- Eastern RPG: A usually Japanese game that tends to have a linear plot and a party of predefined characters written into said plot. (ex: Final Fantasy series, Dragon Quest series)
- Romance Game: A game in which the primary goal is to establish a romantic relationship between the Player Character and one or more of the NPCs.
- Dating Sim: A game in which the player courts at least one potential lover, and the player must keep track of every character's feelings about them and giving out presents, which will feel like a Role Playing Game. Essentially, Romance Game meets Simulation Game. (ex: Tokimeki Memorial series)
- Simulation Game (Sim): A game that simulates parts of a reality, fictional or real. (ex: SimCity, Football Manager series)
- Breeding Sim: This type of game focuses on breeding creatures to get specific traits. (ex: Creatures, Flight Rising)
- Bureaucracy Simulator: This type of game casts the player as a government bureaucrat. (ex: Papers, Please)
- Construction and Management Games: This type of game focuses on elements like gathering and management of resources, construction, expansion, research and exploration. (ex: RollerCoaster Tycoon series)
- Factory-Building Game: Games where the player constructs a factory that automatically takes care of the gathering and refining of resources. (ex: Factorio)
- Disaster Relief Game: A game where players have to cooperate in order to prevent, survive or rescue people from a disaster event. (ex: Disaster Report series)
- Immersive Sim: A game that simulates a consistent lived-in world, facilitates Emergent Gameplay, and rewards creative problem solving. (ex: Deus Ex)
- Life Simulation Game: A game in which the player plays as, or at least has control over the lives, of living beings and goes through their life. (ex: The Sims series, Animal Crossing series)
- Farm Life Sim: A sub-genre of life simulations focused on the overall life of a farmer, including not only the farming but also their relationships with others (ex: Story of Seasons series, Rune Factory, Stardew Valley)
- Raising Sim: A game in which schedules for a game to process are applied, which in turn affects characters in the game, who then develop 'on their own' without constant user interference. (ex: The Idolmaster series)
- Virtual Pet: A game where the player interacts with a digital pet, with the goal of caring for it like a real one. (ex: Tamagotchi)
- Space-Management Game: A game in which the player is the head of some organization or business, and receives a set amount of resources (sometimes abstracted to money or generic points) with which to construct a facility. (ex: City-State)
- Stock Market Game: A game in which the player buys and sells stocks on the stock market to make a profit. (ex: Wall Street Kid)
- Sports Game: A game that simulates playing a traditional physical sport. (ex: NBA Jam series, Madden NFL series)
- Wrestling Game: A game that simulates Professional Wrestling, with grapples, holds and throws. (ex: WWE Video Games)
- Strategy Game: A game in which the player's strategical and/or tactical thinking is required in order to achieve victory.
- 4X (4X): A game that has four simple goals, which are eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate. Sub-genre of a Strategy Game. (ex: Civilization series)
- Artillery Game: A game that tasks the player with successfully aiming at an opponent with a ballistics trajectory under various conditions. (ex: Worms series)
- Grand Strategy: A strategy game where you control a country or empire, but with the complexity toned up. (ex: Crusader Kings)
- Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA): A game that has teams of players competing with each other, typically using the point-and-click interface of a Real Time Strategy; but, unlike RTS games, players control only one Hero Unit instead of a military-industrial complex. (ex: League of Legends)
- Political Strategy Game: A game that simulates a conflict over influence, policy, and ideology, rather than territory, trade, or production.
- Real-Time Strategy (RTS): A game that focuses on construction and control of a fighting force in battle that takes place in real-time. (ex: StarCraft, Pikmin series)
- Tower Defense: A game in which the player defends a building from enemies using other buildings, sometimes with a unit or two as back-up. (ex: Plants vs. Zombies series)
- Turn-Based Strategy (TBS): A game that is about abstract mechanics of efficiently waging war, exploiting resources and controlling huge groups of combatants all at once. (ex: Total War series)
- Turn-Based Tactics: A game in which the player must control individual soldiers or vehicles. (ex: Valkyria Chronicles series, X-COM series)
- Toys-To-Life Game: A game involving physical toys interacting with the game. (ex: Skylanders series, Disney Infinity)
- Typing Game: A game that requires the player to write various words quickly and skillfully. Often used as edutainment, but not always. (ex: Clockwords, Mario Teaches Typing)
Aesthetic game genres
Non-gameplay genres that can be found in other mediums, related to the game's story, setting, tone, etc.
- Art Game: A game that has artistry as its motto.
- Comedy Video Games: A game with heavy focus on humor, that seldom ever takes itself seriously.
- Parody Video Games: A game that spoofs other games.
- Deconstruction Game: A game that deconstructs a common gameplay element or plot device.
- Edutainment Game: A game that educates players as well as entertains them.
- Fantasy Video Games: A game that features magic and mythology in a supernatural setting.
- Iyashikei: A game that promotes calm and happiness, soothing its audience.
- Horror Video Games: A game that exploits the fears of players to cause anxiety, fear, and ultimately thrills.
- Mascot Horror: A particular type of indie horror game popular since the mid-2010s, starring a corrupted children's mascot.
- Mecha Game: A game that focuses on Humongous Mecha for combat.
- Military and Warfare Video Games: A game that revolves around soldiers or warriors fighting in a military conflict.
- Retraux Games: Games using intentionally outdated graphics for a nostalgic effect.
- Science Fiction Video Games: A game that explores a concept that does not exist at the present time, but it someday might.
- Superhero Video Games: A game which centers on the adventures of a superhero battling supervillains.
- Utsuge: Games designed to make you cry.
Gameplay modifiers
There are several modifiers that can be applied to the genre of a game, as a twist on the standard formula.
- Action RTS: An RTS style game with some action sprinkled in, in the form of controlling a unit directly; either in first- or third- person style. Whether the unit being controlled is a mook or a Hero Unit is irrelevant.
- Asymmetric Multiplayer: A multiplayer mode in which different players have totally different roles and capabilities.
- Battle Royale Game: A multiplayer mode in which players (often a very large number of them) eliminate each other until only one remains.
- Competitive Multiplayer: A multiplayer mode in which players compete against each other as players or teams.
- Co-Op Multiplayer: A multiplayer mode in the main game in which every player is on the same team and playing against the computer.
- Gameplay Roulette: A scenario in which games within a franchise switch from one Video Game Genre to another in an attempt to continue appealing to fans.
- Isometric Projection: A graphical projection that squishes the vertical axes, thus forcing perpendicular angles to look wider and more three-dimensional.
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover: A Crossover with at least three different continuities.
- Meta Multiplayer: A multiplayer mode in which players are playing their own game at a time, but other players are doing this as well.
- Minigame: A separate game present inside the main game. May or may not be relevant to progressing through the main game itself.
- Museum Game: A game that is primarily about paying tribute to or heavily referencing a franchise or company's past.
- Pop Up Video Games: A game in which clicking on background items results in cute animations.
- Physics Based: A game that is primarily about the developers showing off applications of physics.
- Real Time: When one minute of game play equals one minute in game time.
- RPG Elements: A game that isn't exactly a Role-Playing Game, but the player character is gaining experience points and levels like in an RPG.
- Side View: A perspective that views all objects from the side and nowhere else.
- Three-Quarters View: A perspective that is a tilted bird's eye view perspective in which both the top and front of an object is seen at the same time, and the vertical axis indicates both height and depth.
- Top-Down View: A perspective that views all objects straight and nowhere else.
- Turn-Based: When the player and the computer take turns in making moves.
- Turn-Based Combat: A game that isn't an all-out turn-based strategy/tactics but switches to turns whenever combat starts.
- Turn-Based Strategy, Real Time Combat: A TBS game where the combat sections take place in Real Time, meaning no Turn-Based Combat.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: When the genre in a game suddenly changes to a different genre with little warning.
- 3D: When a video game series goes from having two-dimensional sprites to having three-dimensional polygons.
- Wide-Open Sandbox: When the massive open world and optional material outweigh the actual, goal-oriented game play.
Other categories
There are also a number of particularly distinctive ways a game can be marketed or categorized.
- 30-Day Free Trial: Software which you're allowed to use for a fixed, limited amount of time without paying for it. Once that time expires, you must send money to continue using it.
- Advertisement Game: A video game created to advertise a product such as a food or store. They're often stealth ads.
- Allegedly Free Game: A game that you can play for free, but you will have to pay money to access other game areas or get particular abilities and items.
- Beta Test: A development version of the game, built to test how the various components of the program interact with one another and the computer. Some developers have an "Open Beta" process, giving access to a pre-release version of the game to the general public (or play testers selected from a public pool) for more extensive testing.
- Downloadable Content: Additional, optional content provided by the developer via digital distribution and purchased separately from the main game.
- Episodic Game: A game that is divided into separate episodes, and allows for cheaper prices, shorter wait times, and shorter development times.
- Expansion Pack: Additional content released after the original game that is purchased separately and (usually) requires the original game to run.
- Freemium: A game that you can play for free, but if you pay premium then you'll get full access to features that you couldn't get for free and remove advertisements.
- Freeware Games: A game that can be downloaded and distributed legally for free.
- Game Maker: Software focused on creating whole games from the ground up with preexisting assets. Sometimes, the software itself is a game. (ex: LittleBigPlanet, Super Mario Maker)
- Game Mod: Third-party modifications applied to an existing game. Can range from cosmetic improvements to additional fan-created content to full-on total conversions that only share an underlying game engine.
- Game Mod Index: This is where you'll find Game Mods listed in one place.
- H-Game: A game that features sex or heavy fan service.
- Indie Game: A game that is developed without the backing of a publishing company, thus making it independently developed.
- Licensed Game: A game based on an existing property, usually a movie, TV series or comic book.
- License-Added Game: A specific type of Licensed Game in which the license is added to a new version of an existing video game franchise.
- Microtransactions: A game that has individual, one-off payments for accessing additional content in a game.
- Mission-Pack Sequel: A sequel with so few changes from its predecessor that it feels more like an Expansion Pack than a "true" sequel.
- Obvious Beta: An unfinished game (often egregiously so) marketed as a finished one, for whatever reason.
- Online Games: Video games that require an Internet connection for some, most, or all of its features. While many games nowadays have some sort of online multiplayer mode, there are some games which only exist on the Internet itself.
- Web Games: An online game is that is played on a website via your web browser.
- Perpetual Beta: A game which undergoes a long process of bug fixes, tweaks, and re-balancing even after its official release. So named because the developers seem to be "outsourcing" their beta testing to the player base without telling them the game's not really finished.
- Shareware: A game that can be played to a certain extent without purchasing it. Buying the game will allow the player to play it to completion, instantly picking up exactly where they left off upon purchase without the need to install anything.
- Shovelware: Software that is normally sold in bundles of several products, but it can refer to lowest-common-denominator software in general.
- Unlicensed Game: A playable Shoddy Knockoff Product.
- Video Game Long-Runners: A franchise that has at least six games in its main series and spans ten years.
- Virtual Reality: A game that makes use of a headset display to make the player feel as though they are physically present in the game's setting.
- And lastly, Miscellaneous Games: A page that contains games that nobody could identify the genre of. It really should be cleaned out.
