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.

Overview

A feature of video games in which the manner that the player travels is pre-determined on a line, as if on rails. Many arcade shooters have this feature.

Comeback

Dead Space Extraction is a "Guided Experience"

The On-Rails Shooter was assumed to have died with the arcade(with a few exceptions), but recently a the genre has seen somewhat of a renaissance with ports of First Person Shooters to consoles without either the tech or controls to support a full First Person Shooter. Recent examples include Metal Gear Solid Touch for the iPhone and Dead Space Extraction for the Wii.

"Guided Experiences"

The latest trend in marketing On-Rails Shooters is to refer to them as being a "guided experience". While recent On-Rails Shooters are decidedly less arcade-y than their fore fathers, they still have roughly the same style of gameplay. Recent "Guided Experiences" include Dead Space Extraction and House of the Dead: OVERKILL.

Name	Platforms	Developer
Godzilla The Series	GBC	Crawfish Interactive
Godzilla Generations: Maximum Impact	DC	General Entertainment
The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return	WII
Railfan: Taiwan High Speed Rail	PS3
Sin & Punishment 2	WII	Treasure
Doom Resurrection	IPHN	Escalation Studios
Lucky & Wild	ARC	Namco Bandai Games Inc.
Silent Hill: The Arcade	ARC	Konami Corporation
English of the Dead	DS
Alien³: The Gun	ARC	Sega

Concept Name:	On-Rails
Appears in:	66 games
First appearance:
Aliases	Guided Experience, Rail Shooter, Light Gun Shooter

	Janet Marshall
	Harman Smith
	R.O.B. 64
	Godzilla
	Sonic the Hedgehog
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