Concepts

7192 Concepts: Grid; Compact

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 91 games

First appeared in The Castles of Dr. Creep
Level Selection

Instead of having the game decide for you which level you should go to next, you can choose the level you want to play.

Appears in 278 games

First appeared in Wrecking Crew
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 150 games

First appeared in Pac-Man Plus
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: Sons of Liberty
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
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
Cel-Shading

A style of animation that gives games a more hand drawn look.

Appears in 205 games

First appeared in Final Fantasy III
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 57 games

First appeared in Star Wars
Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment

The Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment genre, which was named awkwardly to fit the acronym 'FREE', has four core concepts that, Yu Suzuki believes, set games using these principles apart from other games under the Role Playing Game category. Shenmue was the first to be made under the ambitious FREE model.

Appears in 45 games

First appeared in Shenmue
Musical Peripherals

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 125 games

First appeared in Doremiko
On-Rails

An on-rails game behaves much like a train: while sometimes the player can choose which path he goes down, he cannot deviate from it. Sometimes on-rails games even go so far as to decide when the player moves.

Appears in 128 games

First appeared in Speed Race
Randomly Generated Dungeons

Dungeons that are generated randomly!

Appears in 112 games

First appeared in Hunt the Wumpus
Telekinesis

The ability to manipulate objects with one's mind. Telekinesis is often displayed as an incredibly powerful ability.

Appears in 81 games

First appeared in Psychic City
Dungeon Crawling

A game where you crawl through dungeons. Often involves traps, treasure chests, and monsters.

Appears in 306 games

First appeared in Beneath Apple Manor
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 52 games

First appeared in Bad Dudes
Morale

Morale is the mental and emotional condition (confidence, doubt) of an individual or group with regard to the function or tasks at hand.

Appears in 65 games

First appeared in Nobunaga's Ambition
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
Loot Gathering

Collecting objects in a game such as weapons, armor, items, and currency. Loot is often associated with MMOs and games with RPG elements.

Appears in 268 games

First appeared in Castle Wolfenstein
Elements

The Classical Elements are usually considered to be Earth, Water, Air and Fire. In modern science, the Periodic Table has increased the number of elements to 118.

Appears in 322 games

First appeared in SwordQuest: EarthWorld
Sticking

Sticking, also known as 'pegging' or 'tagging', refers to hitting someone with a form of sticky grenade in either multiplayer or single player.

Appears in 21 games

First appeared in Star Control
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 143 games

First appeared in Flashback: The Quest for Identity
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 29 games

First appeared in Doom
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
Customizable Characters

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 473 games

First appeared in Xanadu: Dragon Slayer II
Robot Masters

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 24 games

First appeared in Mega Man
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
Realm vs. Realm

You and your allies (faction/realm) fight against a common enemy.

Appears in 26 games

First appeared in Mortal Kombat
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 243 games

First appeared in Super Mario Bros.
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 53 games

First appeared in Panzer Commander
Gender Change

This concept represents games in which a character changes or can change physically from one gender to the other during the course of the story or as part of gameplay. This should not be confused with the act of cross-dressing.

Appears in 62 games

First appeared in Strawberry Shortcake Musical Match-Ups
Multiple Protagonists

Sometimes one playable character just isn't enough.

Appears in 726 games

First appeared in Mario Bros.
Alignment

Gameplay system where choices in actions and dialogue affect the alignment of the protagonist on a spectrum toward opposite poles. Changes in alignment often modify the course of the narrative, player abilities, and gameplay options.

Appears in 91 games

First appeared in Nobunaga's Ambition
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 124 games

First appeared in Alisia Dragoon
Smart Bomb

A super weapon, often found in scrolling/rail shooters which destroys all enemies on screen instantly.

Appears in 104 games

First appeared in Defender
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 318 games

First appeared in Ganso Saiyuuki: Super Monkey Daibouken
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 73 games

First appeared in Prince of Persia
Full Combo

Commonly referred to as FC, a Full Combo is achieved by hitting 100% of the notes without breaking the combo multiplier. It is possible to get 100% on a song without getting an FC, but it's NOT possible to get an FC without getting 100%.

Appears in 56 games

First appeared in Killer Instinct
Star Power

Star Power doubles your current score modifier. Activate it by tilting your guitar up or hitting the select button.

Appears in 17 games

First appeared in Guitar Hero
Breaking the Fourth Wall

In video games, breaking the fourth wall occurs when a game becomes aware of it is game-nature or when a character directly acknowledges you, the player.

Appears in 241 games

First appeared in Duck Hunt
Black Market

The Black Market is a concept wherein players may buy or sell items through alternative means. This is often a way to make more money but can often land the player into trouble.

Appears in 38 games

First appeared in Elite
Dual Wielding

The concept of using two weapons at once, often for more damage at the cost of accuracy, the use of a shield, grenades, or other similar accessories.

Appears in 341 games

First appeared in Final Fantasy II
Expanding Crosshair

A crosshair which becomes larger when the player shoots or moves which decreases accuracy, discourages shooting on the move and promotes firing in small bursts.

Appears in 81 games

First appeared in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six
Upgradeable Weapons

Weapons can often be upgraded with new attachments, augmentations, or magical enchantments. These upgrades result in the original item being more powerful than originally intended.

Appears in 632 games

First appeared in The Tower of Druaga
Camping

Camping is when an individual or group stays in the same general area typically with the mentality of putting the opposing players at an unfair disadvantage.

Appears in 216 games

First appeared in Tunneler

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