Have dual-stick shooters been done to death?

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IcyEyes

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#1  Edited By IcyEyes

I ask this question because I'm working on a dual-stick shooter myself called Gerztron. It's inspired by classics like Robotron and Smash TV, but I'm looking at ways to evolve the gameplay because I feel there's a lot of stagnation within the genre right now.

What's your feelings about them? Do you think they need something new or are you just sick of them, or dislike them in all together?

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Nottle

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#2  Edited By Nottle

They are the best way to control the birds eye view shooting. So no. I don't think they are bad. A game just needs to be fun and interesting in addition to this control scheme.

If your talking about games with little depth Smash TV clones than yeah, those get boring.

But games like Lara Croft and Guardian of Light are twin stick shooters with many other fun elements to it.

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Marcsman

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#3  Edited By Marcsman

Gotta say I'm getting bored with them.

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Sackmanjones

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#4  Edited By Sackmanjones

Eh they are fine. But when you have to push a button along with that to shoot is where shit gets bad

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JTB123

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#5  Edited By JTB123

There still isn't a geometry wars 3, so no.

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Sooty

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#6  Edited By Sooty

Side scrollers sure as hell are. I'm sick to death of them, they make up a stupidly large amount of downloadables.

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Justin258

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#7  Edited By Justin258

@Nottle said:

They are the best way to control the birds eye view shooting. So no. I don't think they are bad. A game just needs to be fun and interesting in addition to this control scheme.

If your talking about games with little depth Smash TV clones than yeah, those get boring.

But games like Lara Croft and Guardian of Light are twin stick shooters with many other fun elements to it.

First post wins the thread. It's not the control scheme that's bad, it's a lack of fresh ideas to use with it. That would be like saying that changing the control scheme of first person shooters would make the next military shooter new and fresh again.

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fobwashed

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#8  Edited By fobwashed

Only about as much as dual stick first person shooters or dual stick 3rd person action games or single stick fighting games etc. . .

I don't think the control scheme is what you should be looking at when making this sort of decision. Like Nottle said, if the game is bare bones move and shoot, that'd be boring at this point regardless of what type of controls were being used. I think there could possibly be plenty of awesome games using a dual stick format, it's just a matter of if they'll get made.

There's no option in your poll for indifference so I didn't vote but maybe not voting is my way of showing indifference anyway so it all works out.

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BeachThunder

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#9  Edited By BeachThunder

*they're

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MikkaQ

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#10  Edited By MikkaQ

I wouldn't mess with perfection, and for top-down games with a lot of shooting, this is probably as close as we're ever gonna get.

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TaliciaDragonsong

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Lara Croft and the Temple was pretty cool, I wouldn't mind more of those type of games.

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jonnyboy

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#12  Edited By jonnyboy

I would have said yes, but Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light changed my view and showed what a modern twin stick shooter can do if you craft decent puzzles, co-op teamwork and combat challenges.

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GunstarRed

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#13  Edited By GunstarRed

I think it's a great control scheme. I really enjoy them, but someone needs to inject a spark of life into them. I still think Stardust is the best one around, Geometry Wars never grabbed me.

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ImmortalSaiyan

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#14  Edited By ImmortalSaiyan

Nah. There are some good one and bad limitations. As others have said, that Lara Croft game is great.

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Nottle

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#15  Edited By Nottle

@believer258 said:

@Nottle said:

They are the best way to control the birds eye view shooting. So no. I don't think they are bad. A game just needs to be fun and interesting in addition to this control scheme.

If your talking about games with little depth Smash TV clones than yeah, those get boring.

But games like Lara Croft and Guardian of Light are twin stick shooters with many other fun elements to it.

First post wins the thread. It's not the control scheme that's bad, it's a lack of fresh ideas to use with it. That would be like saying that changing the control scheme of first person shooters would make the next military shooter new and fresh again.

Exactly. The control scheme doesn't matter because it is perfect. It's just a matter of the games that use it. How many twin stick shooter seem completely uninspired? Most twin stick shooters do little to make the game itself satisfying, your just mowing through boring, not extremely varied enemy types.

Though there are plenty of games that use it effectively but also have depth in other areas like Lara Croft, Renegade Ops, and Geometry Wars.

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JasonR86

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#16  Edited By JasonR86

Nope. They just need something new to happen to them to liven the genre up again.

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Pepsiman

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#17  Edited By Pepsiman

@JTB123 said:

There still isn't a geometry wars 3, so no.

I was about to say this exact thing. The dream must be kept alive in the smoldering ruins of Bizarre!

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MooseyMcMan

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#18  Edited By MooseyMcMan

Eh, I'm not sick of them yet. I think there's still room to innovate and make some pretty good ones.

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Synthballs

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#19  Edited By Synthballs

There wasn't an option for "I don't like or hate them."

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gamer_152

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#20  Edited By gamer_152  Moderator

No. Even if you're bored with what's currently coming out of the genre, there's so many places they could go with it and so many twists they could put on it, I think it's hard to say they've been done to death.

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napalm

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#21  Edited By napalm

I just like a good ol' dual joystick shooter. Dead Nation is still one of my favorite games ever.

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devilzrule27

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#22  Edited By devilzrule27

To me genres don't get "done to death". Specific styles of games do however but there is no reason why a company can't come out and make an interesting, engaging, and fun game using dual stick controls. There just has to be that willingness to stray from the established formula.

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dichemstys

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#23  Edited By dichemstys

@JTB123 said:

There still isn't a geometry wars 3, so no.

Oh God I never even thought about that. Let the addiction return...

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Karl_Boss

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#24  Edited By Karl_Boss

Yeah they're on the decline.

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Wong_Fei_Hung

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#25  Edited By Wong_Fei_Hung
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deactivated-6157afb2b3c07

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I'm not seeing them as much these days. Maybe I am blind or haven't noticed. I just remember the early Xbox 360 days when it seemed like every XBLA game was a dual-stick shooter.

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JustAGameStudio

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#27  Edited By JustAGameStudio

"Have dual-stick shooters been done to death?"

Eeeeeek! I hope not since I started a studio and our first game is a twin stick shooter! Ok well it's 1/2 Tower Defense and 1/2 Twin Stick Shooter. I hope this pushes it beyond it's typical genre and attracts fans from both fields.

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Terramagi

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#28  Edited By Terramagi

Death implies that it's final.

They seem to have be done to the point where they exist now only as a reanimated shambling corpse that, occasionally, emits a brief but nonetheless tortured wail.