Concepts

7192 Concepts: Grid; Compact

Gouraud Shading

Gouraud shading is a method of making polygonal objects appear much smoother by applying a gradient to each individual polygon, effectively blending them. Named after Henri Gouraud.

Appears in 54 games

First appeared in Ridge Racer
Pikmin

Pikmin are the titular creatures in Nintendo's strategy series who help the main characters perform a number of different tasks. As of the most recent installment, there are five different colors of Pikmin, each with their own unique abilities.

Appears in 9 games

First appeared in Pikmin
Spiritual Successor

When a developer creates a game that could be perceived as a new instalment in an existing franchise that they've worked on before, but doesn't share the same name due to licensing issues or other reasons, it's called a Spiritual Successor.

Appears in 57 games

First appeared in Fountain of Dreams
Discovery Apps

Discovery Apps are PlayStation Vita apps meant to showcase the systems abilities.

Appears in 3 games

First appeared in Frobisher Says!
PAX Australia 2013

The first-ever PAX outside the United States will take place in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on July 19-21, 2013 at the Melbourne Showgrounds.

Appears in 4 games

First appeared in MacGuffin's Curse
Stepping on Bugs

Often used to show their dominance over those tiny creatures called insects, and sometimes just for fun!

Appears in 23 games

First appeared in Diablo II
Knaaren

A harsh race in the Rayman series.

Appears in 2 games

First appeared in Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc
Talent Suckers

A group of vampires who suck peoples' talent.

Appears in 1 games

First appeared in Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi: The Genie & the Amp
Rip Van Fish

A sleeping fish that is speedy and dangerous when awakened.

Appears in 6 games

First appeared in Super Mario World
The Mantle

A Forerunner belief that has an ultimate goal to preserve life.

Appears in 1 games

First appeared in Halo 4
Onmyouji

Mystics of Japan's Heian era that practiced divination, exorcism, and similar arts. They held sway at the imperial court, with a select few such as Abe no Seimei becoming particularly celebrated in history.

Appears in 2 games

First appeared in Kuon
Furigana

In Japanese games, this is the practice of placing hiragana readings above any kanji to make reading text easier.

Appears in 23 games

First appeared in Wild Arms 3
Retro Graphics Toggle

Some remakes allow you to switch back to how the game originally looked.

Appears in 21 games

First appeared in Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken
Front Kick

Also known as the "Mighty Foot", this first-person kick provides a valuable service to the player. Allowing you to boot your enemies in the face, or open crates, whichever.

Appears in 24 games

First appeared in The Super Spy
Arresting

Violence doesn't solve everything - in these games you have the option to arrest perpetrators instead of killing them outright. Often a bonus is attached to taking suspects in alive.

Appears in 17 games

First appeared in NARC
Motion Control

Using gestures with the controller to control on-screen actions. Alternatively, these gestures can also be detected by motion-sensing cameras.

Appears in 346 games

First appeared in Heavyweight Champ
Female Antagonists

Games in which the primary antagonist (i.e. final boss) is a woman, not a man. The fact that this page even exists is a pretty good indicator of the inequality that exists in gaming.

Appears in 165 games

First appeared in Baby Pac-Man
Combo Breaker

The ability to break a combo at either the auto-double or linker stage. Most commonly found in the Killer Instinct series. Also a famous internet meme.

Appears in 26 games

First appeared in Killer Instinct
Rush Mode

A mode featured in the recent games in the Battlefield series, where attackers must detonate charges at multiple waves of bomb sites.

Appears in 4 games

First appeared in Day of Defeat
Steam Greenlight

Games that have been accepted by Valve through Steam's Greenlight service.

Appears in 73 games

First appeared in Dragon's Lair
Reversible Cover Art

Games that have art on the inside of the game case, to double the decoration.

Appears in 97 games

First appeared in Valkyrie Profile
Indianapolis Colts

The Indianapolis Colts are an NFL team based in Indianapolis, Indiana. They currently belong to the AFC South division. They were founded in 1953 as the Baltimore Colts, and moved to Indianapolis in 1984.

Appears in 5 games

First appeared in Capcom's MVP Football
Future Internet

A future Internet that can do anything from spanning across the universe to being accessed by one's mind. Future internet is anything that can exceed current internet capabilities.

Appears in 11 games

First appeared in Front Mission 3
Dynamic Difficulty

A game mechanic that adjusts the difficulty of the game automatically during gameplay as a result of the player's performance.

Appears in 17 games

First appeared in Gradius II
Army of Hades

A power in the God of War series.

Appears in 3 games

First appeared in God of War
Soul of Hades

An elemental power in God of War: Ascension.

Appears in 1 games

First appeared in God of War: Ascension
Tracker Music

Tracker music, or module/MOD music is a digital music format that was popularized in the late 80's and became the de facto standard for video game music on the Amiga, as well as in the Demoscene, and is still in wide use today.

Appears in 52 games

First appeared in Stellar 7
Uplay

Uplay is a service created by Ubisoft to provide an experience similar to the trophies/achievements offered by Sony and Microsoft respectively.

Appears in 39 games

First appeared in Assassin's Creed II
Late Title Card

When the title of the game does not appear immediately at the beginning of the game, but rather after a first mission or prologue.

Appears in 211 games

First appeared in Final Fantasy
Off-TV Play

Off-TV Play is a concept exclusive to games for the Nintendo Wii U, which lets you play console games on the Wii U gamePad screen independent of the TV.

Appears in 77 games

First appeared in Pac-Man
Initial Install

As games become bigger and more technically advanced, games increasingly require users to go through a small initial install before playing.

Appears in 23 games

First appeared in flOw
Weapon Combo

Weapons with multiple functions or combinations of different weapons that can be used at the same time.

Appears in 30 games

First appeared in Final Fantasy VIII
Anti-Hero

A protagonist that lacks typical heroic qualities.

Appears in 209 games

First appeared in Lupin III
Crossover

A crossover occurs when a character from one franchise makes a special appearance in a game from an unrelated franchise. Some games are specifically designed to be crossovers that bring together characters from two or more franchises.

Appears in 229 games

First appeared in Battle Soccer
Games on Which Movies are Based

The relationship between Hollywood and the Video Game Industry is an uncomfortable one at best. As these two different forms of entertainment media have produced cooperative projects that have varied wildly in their individual receptions. This page is dedicated to the films that are based on popular video games.

Appears in 104 games

First appeared in Pac-Man
Counter System

The ability to counter a move.

Appears in 78 games

First appeared in Super Double Dragon
Multi-Tier Combat

A fighting area that possess multiple locations, which can be gained by one player striking the other at specific locations with a powerful move. One character proceeds to the next arena unwillingly, and taking damage. The other player follows the first player and does not take damage. Fighting then resumes until the match ends, or perhaps until the next transition into yet another area.

Appears in 27 games

First appeared in Altered Beast
Stereoscopic 3D

3D Stereoscopy is the use of two images generated from slightly different angles in order to create a 3D effect. This usually requires the use of 3D glasses to separate the left/right image for each eye.

Appears in 175 games

First appeared in Space Tactics
2.5D

Games which feature 3D polygonal graphics, but typically restrict gameplay and camera control to a 2D plane. Alternatively, it can also refer to earlier games that attempted to simulate three-dimensional graphics without the use of 3D polygons.

Appears in 333 games

First appeared in Interceptor
Ray Casting

An advanced form of 2.5D sprite-scaling, ray casting is a fundamental method for rendering simple 3D entities on a 2D coordinate plane. Objects within the coordinate plane are given specific height and width dimensions and are even mapped with a 2D texture image.

Appears in 36 games

First appeared in Road Rash
Sprite Scaling

Whether it's Super Scaler, Mode 7, or Ray Casting, growing and shrinking sprites is a concept often used in sprite-based games. It was a popular technique used to create a 2.5D effect during the 16-bit era.

Appears in 132 games

First appeared in Interceptor
Games on which Anime are Based

These games were popular enough to warrant an anime, whether it was a full television series, an OVA (original video animation), or a feature-length movie.

Appears in 181 games

First appeared in The Tower of Druaga
Bomb Defusal Mode

A mode in which one team plants a bomb at a designated location and the other tries to defuse it. Traditionally this is a no-respawn mode.

Appears in 13 games

First appeared in Half-Life: Counter-Strike
Jackals

One of the alien speicies that comprises the Covenant of the Halo series; known mostly for use their use energy shields and long range weaponry in battle.

Appears in 9 games

First appeared in Halo: Combat Evolved

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