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Healer
A character type found in RPGs, MMOs, and class based Multiplayer games that focuses on keeping friendly characters alive. Their general role is to heal/buff and resurrect fallen allies.
Appears in 190 games
First appeared in Kalin no Tsurugi
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Control Point
Control Points are typically spots on a map that must be taken and held for one team to beat the other in some first-person shooter multiplayer modes.
Appears in 52 games
First appeared in Unreal Tournament
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Alien
Extraterrestrials appear in many video games in a variety of styles. Sometimes they're evil, sometimes they're benevolent, and sometimes they're very similar to humans.
Appears in 955 games
First appeared in Space Invaders
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Minimap
The minimap is a small, simplified version of a larger map. This plays a vital role in many games, especially Real Time Strategy, where it is important to have an overview of the entire map.
Appears in 433 games
First appeared in Rally-X
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Mode 7
A simple texture mapping graphics mode on the SNES that allows a background layer to be rotated and scaled. Many game developers used this to create faux-3D worlds and environments.
Appears in 86 games
First appeared in Lock On
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Difficulty Level
Sometimes you want a challenge, sometimes you wanna coast.
Appears in 1278 games
First appeared in Speed Race
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Organization XIII
Organization XIII are a group of 13 powerful Nobodies from the franchise Kingdom Hearts, first appearing in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. They focus on collecting Xehanort's heart.
Appears in 11 games
First appeared in Kingdom Hearts
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Heads Up Display
A heads-up display is a graphical overlay of vital information used in most modern games.
Appears in 1280 games
First appeared in Nürburgring 1
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Speedrun
A speedrun describes the action of a player attempting to complete a game in the fastest time possible. The rules of speedruns can vary, but generally allow glitching and sequence breaking as long as the player does not cheat with external devices/tools or tampering with the game.
Appears in 87 games
First appeared in The Castles of Dr. Creep
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Level Selection
Games that allow the player to choose which level to play next, rather than a fixed linear order.
Appears in 420 games
First appeared in 005
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Invisible Wall
An imaginary boundary in the game world that limits player movement to a specific area. They are often criticized as a poor component of level design, when an actual wall or other visible boundary could have been used to delineate a game's playing field.
Appears in 152 games
First appeared in K.C. Munchkin!
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Human Shield
A Human Shield is a form of cover in which a player uses a body to absorb damage like that of a shield. It's usually found in first and third-person shooters.
Appears in 43 games
First appeared in Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance
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Planet Destruction
Planet destruction sometimes a gameplay mechanic, sometimes a plot point. Should cover pending as well as actual destruction.
Appears in 67 games
First appeared in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
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Squeezing
Advanced technique used to maximize the amount of points earned in Guitar Hero and Rock Band. A necessary skill to achieving high scores.
Appears in 13 games
First appeared in Guitar Hero
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Cel-Shading
A style of animation that gives games a more hand drawn look.
Appears in 229 games
First appeared in Final Fantasy III
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The Force
The Force is an energy field created by all living things, that surrounds and penetrates living beings and binds the galaxy together. It Is the source from which Jedi draw their power and abilities.
Appears in 54 games
First appeared in Star Wars
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Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment
Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment (named to fit the acronym 'FREE') is a quasi-genre invented by designer Yu Suzuki, describing a blend of adventure and open-world sandbox gameplay found in the Shenmue franchise.
Appears in 42 games
First appeared in Mizzurna Falls
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Musical Peripheral
Meant to make musical games more accessible as well as permit everyone to let loose their inner musician, these peripherals can look very much or not at all like the instruments they emulate.
Appears in 141 games
First appeared in Doremiko
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On-Rails
An on-rails game behaves much like a train: while sometimes the player can choose which path is taken, they cannot deviate from it. Sometimes on-rails games even go so far as to decide when the player moves.
Appears in 151 games
First appeared in Indy 500
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Randomly Generated Dungeon
Dungeons that are generated randomly.
Appears in 131 games
First appeared in Hunt the Wumpus
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Telekinesis
The ability to manipulate objects with one's mind. Telekinesis is often displayed as an incredibly powerful ability.
Appears in 89 games
First appeared in Psychic City
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Dungeon Crawling
Carefully exploring a large, labyrinthine area full of enemies (i.e., a dungeon) in the hopes of finding treasure, leveling up, or completing a specific task. Having their roots in tabletop games, video game dungeon crawls are found almost exclusively in RPGs.
Appears in 420 games
First appeared in Beneath Apple Manor
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Baditude
Baditude is being "edgy" in an obviously forced or fake manner. Games with baditude often feature excessive swearing, gratuitous violence, and content meant to shock or offend.
Appears in 61 games
First appeared in Bad Dudes
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Morale
The mental and emotional condition (confidence, doubt) of an individual or group with regard to the function or tasks at hand.
Appears in 82 games
First appeared in Nobunaga's Ambition
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SingStore
A service which allows players of all current versions of SingStar for the PlayStation 3 to download additional songs at £0.99, €1.49, AU$2.45 and US$1.49 apiece.
Appears in 6 games
First appeared in SingStar
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Loot Gathering
Collecting objects in a game such as weapons, armor, items, and currency. Loot is often associated with RPG games and MMOs with RPG elements.
Appears in 296 games
First appeared in Castle Wolfenstein
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Classical Elements
While modern chemistry defines 118 atomic elements, video games more often deal with classical elements as described in ancient philosophy, mainly fire, water, earth, and air. In many games, each element is stronger against certain elements, but weaker against others.
Appears in 324 games
First appeared in SwordQuest: EarthWorld
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Sticky Grenade
Sticky grenades are a type of explosive that is thrown and sticks a surface such as the body of an enemy, thus making the explosive damage inescapable.
Appears in 16 games
First appeared in Star Control
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Team Killing
The act of killing a fellow teammate in a game, to boost score or just for fun. This often results in being booted from games, and several games allow the server to do this automatically.
Appears in 129 games
First appeared in Quake II
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No Clip
No Clip is a command used to render the surface appearance of objects in the game environment while disabling their boundaries of collision detection.
Appears in 23 games
First appeared in Doom II: Hell on Earth
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Living Guild
A form of guild advancement where the guild "levels up" by performing specific tasks or meeting objectives.
Appears in 8 games
First appeared in Ultima Online
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Customizable Character
Some games let players customize their character (or characters). Degree of customization may vary, with some games simply allowing to choose between different types of clothes, while others provide more detailed tinkering of features such as the distance between a character's eyes or hair color.
Appears in 557 games
First appeared in The Screamer
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Robot Master
Powerful robots waiting for you at the end of every Mega Man level. They each have unique weapons that you can absorb if you defeat them; conversely, they all have unique weaknesses as well.
Appears in 28 games
First appeared in Mega Man
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Stride Cross Battle System
The Stride Cross Battle System was introduced in the game The World Ends with You. It involves playing with 2 Characters at once, looking at each on both screens, simultaneously. The player watches the "Light Puck" stride across both screens, and that is where it got it's name from.
Appears in 1 games
First appeared in The World Ends with You
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Realm vs. Realm
You and your allies (faction/realm) fight against a common enemy.
Appears in 25 games
First appeared in Mortal Kombat
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New Game Plus
A mode that allows a game to be replayed after a first completion, carrying over items, experience, weapons, and other elements from the first playthrough.
Appears in 277 games
First appeared in Spelunker
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Camouflage
Camouflage is a means of staying hidden by altering the texture and/or pattern of a person, animal or object to conceal them against their environment. Camouflage can be found naturally in plants and animals, and it is commonly used by militaries to assist in covert operations.
Appears in 59 games
First appeared in Metal Marines
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Sex Change
This applies to games where characters physically change from one sex to another. This ranges from a character being able to change sex as part of the gameplay (perhaps specifically of the opponents) to being limited to the story or character customisation between the sexes being permitted after starting a campaign.
Appears in 68 games
First appeared in Strawberry Shortcake Musical Match-Ups
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Multiple Protagonists
Sometimes one playable character just isn't enough.
Appears in 954 games
First appeared in Mario Bros.
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Auto-Aim
Auto-aiming (or Auto-targeting) allows for a character to attack or interact with an object or enemy that's very near to the player or within their field of vision.
Appears in 145 games
First appeared in Alisia Dragoon
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Smart Bomb
A super weapon, often found in scrolling/rail shooters which destroys all enemies on screen instantly.
Appears in 105 games
First appeared in Defender
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A.I. Companion
An AI companion is a computer-controlled ally who follows and aids you through your adventures or who requires your protection. The AI companion's survival is often essential to game and story progression.
Appears in 355 games
First appeared in Ganso Saiyuuki: Super Monkey Daibouken
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Tea-Bagging
Also known as corpse-humping, tea-bagging is a slang term in video games when after a player has slain another player or NPC, they move their character over the dead character's body and crouch up and down repeatedly, adding a humiliating, and often humorous, factor to the character's death.
Appears in 61 games
First appeared in Prince of Persia
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Full Combo
A concept primarily found in music/rhythm games. Commonly abbreviated to FC, a Full Combo is achieved by hitting 100% of the notes without breaking the combo multiplier.
Appears in 57 games
First appeared in Killer Instinct
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