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Sure, these days have almost every game sporting the newfangled 3D, but way back when, everyone had to live with plain old 2D. 2D, or two dimensions, limit the game to scrolling backgrounds, but some games even now make use of this basic concept.
Anthropomorphism is the concept of an object, concept or character that has human qualities or traits, such as speech, a level of intelligence similar or higher than a human's and self consciousness. "Anthro" means "of human" and related to the concept of humanity.
Bonus levels, rounds, or stages give players a chance to gain extra points, powerups, or lives. Occasionally bonus stages will play completely different than the rest of the game, like as a slot machine or pinball minigame.
Bosses are enemies that fight you at the end of a level or at a significant point in the story.
When players must fight all of the bosses of the game at once. This can either be an optional mode, or a required sequence. Boss Rush can also mean a game where the player only fights bosses.
A "cute'em up" is a branch of the shoot'em up genre of video games that involve weird or cute enemies and protagonists. Game titles that would fall into this genre include Parodius, Twinbee, and Gunbird.
An objective where players have to ward off enemies for a set duration.
The concept of purchasing media and having it delivered over the internet. No physical representation of this content is given, and although the content resides on the user's hard drive they are typically granted a license to the product, rather than ownership of it.
Original concept for downloading the emulated back catalog from prior systems.
It's not just for airplanes anymore: Game mascots and MMO players alike have taken to the skies. Players can use flight to quickly navigate large levels, find hidden items, or take opponents down.
In many games there is a ranking system, the players with the highest point value are listed in a "high score" table.
Games released coinciding with new hardware.
A mascot is an iconic character heavily used in the advertising and marketing of a product, franchise, business, or company. Notable mascots include Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Ulala, Mickey Mouse, and the Big Daddies.
Ever since Pac-Man, games have had us navigating mazes.
Game cartridges that are shaped differently from other ones for the same console. While they are more commonly associated with unlicensed games, there have been occasions where these were seen with official releases: mainly ones that incorporate special hardware.
Options menus give you the option to change anything the game lets you change. Whether you want subtitles or not, sound effects or not, the game to be harder or not, anything you want that the game lets you change, you can change in the options menu.
Many games and stories involve a character usually the main protagonist having to kill their fathers. This device is used most frequently in RPGs
Power Ups can be used to give the controlling character, or any other character, temporary or permanent upgrades.
Being able to travel off one side of the screen and in from the other side.
No point in gathering coins, gold, gil, money, or whatever if you can't buy anything with it.
Side-scrolling games present the world as viewed perpendicular to the direction the characters are facing on screen. With a heavy focus on lateral movement, objectives are often met by moving from one end of a stage to the other.
A level in which everything is displayed on-screen at once, with no scrolling, flip screen, or 3D movement. Many '80s games consist entirely of single-screen levels.
A mode in the game, often an unlockable, allowing players to listen to individual music tracks, voice clips and/or sound effects.
A game that takes gameplay mechanics, characters, or story elements from an existing series in a separate and different direction, sometimes changing genres along the way.
The Virtual Console is a platform service that first appeared on Nintendo's Wii and later on the 3DS and Wii U. Games from past consoles are emulated to run on the new hardware with the added benefits of system-level save states and other features.
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