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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.
Games whose titles consist of a single word.
This concept is for games in which at least one of the main characters is male.
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.
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.
The main line of distinction between victory or failure in video games, death is the process of a biological being ceasing to be alive.
Any character you can control in a game is a Player Character (PC), as opposed to a non-player character (NPC), which is a character that can only be controlled by the game.
First-Person is a vantage point that attempts to simulate looking through a game character's eyes. It is most commonly found in first-person shooters, racing games, and visual novels, and to a lesser extent in other genres, such as RPGs, 3D platformers, and adventure games.
Characters controlled by the game for players to interact with, as opposed to player characters which are controlled by whomever is playing the game.
A two-dimensional image or animation overlaid into a scene. The foundation of early 2D games, making up everything from props to the player-controlled character.
Action RPG (Action Role-Playing Game), also known as ARPG, refers to RPGs (role-playing games) that use direct, real-time, reflex-oriented, action combat systems, instead of the more abstract turn-based or menu-based battle systems.
Chiptunes are musical compositions that are synthesized by a computer or console sound chip.
In many games there is a ranking system, the players with the highest point value are listed in a "high score" table.
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.
Pixel art refers to digital images composed of visible pixels, drawn with individual pixel-level intent and precision.
It's arguably the one move that symbolizes the medium to those outside it. The ability to jump, be it onto a building, a platform, or a skull, is one of the all time most important abilities ever put in a video game.
Games that have an open gameplay structure that allow players to interact with the world as they choose.
Game Over originally appeared in pinball machines, and later, arcade machines. When players lose at a game, it is game over.
Video game combat in which combat actions are performed in real-time, rather than through a turn-based structure.
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.
Health is a value that gauges how much damage players can take in a game before they die or pass out. Also known as life in some games. Health is usually represented by a bar or a percentage instead of an exact amount. Found in most non sport games
Japanese PC online digital distribution service for emulated retro games, launched on 24 November 2001, years before similar services from Steam, Virtual Console, or XBLA.
A gameplay mechanic allowing players to store their items and freely carry them around.
Non-linear level design where the player is able to freely traverse the game world and choose where and when to visit certain areas in the game.
A sub-genre of adventure games, visual novels are a form of interactive fiction that usually have very little in terms of gameplay but often focus more on extensive storytelling, character interactions, decision-making and branching narratives.
8-bit can be a reference to actual computing power, or it can be a retro look for videogames that want to recall a bygone era.
A boss fight is a culminating challenge that pits the player against one or more enemies representing a greater threat and/or difficulty than those previously faced. These scenarios typically feature unique antagonists.
These games take the select button literally. Pushing up and down (or any other button) to select an option will do nothing.
Gravity is a physical phenomenon, specifically the mutual attraction between all objects in the universe. In a gaming setting, gravity determines the relationship between the player and the "ground," preventing the player or game objects from flying off into space, and hopefully acting in a predictable/realistic manner.
Games that have had an Original Soundtrack album released.
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