Top-Down Shooters

DESMA 167B

TaeSung (Abraham) Roh

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Tyrian PC (MS-DOS and Windows)

Genre: Top-down vertical shooter. Multiple game modes including a 2 player

arcade mode.

Plot: Trent is a skilled pilot who gets involved in a conspiracy revolving

around the terraformation of the planet Tyrian and an organization

called Microsol.

Gameplay and Mechanics: Tyrian comes with two major modes the user can choose to play from.

The first is the single player full story mode where player can buy new weapons and upgrade their

powers by spending money collected throughout the game. As players reach higher levels, they gain

access to more variety of strong and expensive weapons for purchase.

The alternate mode is the arcade mode. Instead of purchasing new weapons, players can simply pickup

power-ups as they traverse through each level. Though player will not be able to freely choose their

desired weapon at any time, player can pick up rare items early in the game with a bit of luck.

The arcade mode also features a special option to have a 2nd player. Each player gets to control two

different types of ships that can pick up different sets of power-ups. The control of each player is split

between keyboard (same as the controls for

single player modes) and mouse. A unique

feature of this game allows the two players

to combine into a single ship giving the first

player the control over the maneuver and

main weapon of the ship while the second

player controls a separate turret that can

rotate its shooting angle.

For most part of the game, player is equipped

with a main weapon that is weaker but with

Figure 1: Tyrian Arcade Mode gameplay

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infinite ammo and a stronger secondary weapon with limited ammo.

Enemy projectiles become denser as player progresses through the game (especially the bosses) but the

density of the bullet hell is relatively sparse in comparison to many other shooters. Enemies are usually

aware of the player’s location and shoot towards the player. Some hostile projectiles are homing

weapons with low accuracy.

Though Tyrian revolves around a serious plotline, the overall mood of the game is rather comedic. Silly

dialogues and special hidden features of the game (including carrot ship shooting bananas) add a light

tone to the game.

Touhou Project PC (PC-98 and Windows)

Genre: Single player top-down vertical shooter.

Plot: Reimu Hakurei is a shrine maiden who enters the world of

Gensokyo to find and punish the ones destroying her shrine.

The world of Gensokyo is a place where magical and spiritual

powers have prevailed over scientific advancement and

humans and yokai (monsters) co-exist.

Gameplay and Mechanics: As far as core mechanic goes, Tohou follows the traditional structure of the top-down vertical shooters.

Player controls a unit to shoot down enemy units that are also shooting at the player. Player is given

special abilities (varies by character chosen) such as shield, alternate attack, and a wide range attack

(that grants temporary invincibility) most often referred as a “bomb” in these genre of games (in Tohou,

its called a Spell Card). The game also features items to power-up the main weapon and items to

increase the life count of the player.

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One of the key aspects of Tohou games is the

colorful pattern of the hostile projectiles. Unlike

some shooter games, projectiles are not

specifically aimed at the player. Instead, the

enemy shoots out colorful projectiles in various

set of patterns of high density (screen space

covered by bullet to total screen space ratio).

Though the ridiculous amount of projectiles may

seem impossible for a beginner, after a few tries

players can start solving “solutions” to weave

through each pattern.

Another unique feature of Tohou series is the choice of visual satisfaction. While its predecessors usually

featured fighter jets or futuristic space ships, Tohou’s player unit are cute shrine maidens drawn to the

Japanese anime style. Even some of the non-player character of the game corresponds to the commonly

seen fetish characters in “otaku culture”. Along with the colorful patterns of the projectiles discussed

previously, the visual choice of the game provides a different type of viewing pleasure from its

predecessors.

Time Pilot Arcade (later ported to various home and portable consoles)

Genre: Single player top-down shooter.

Plot: Player travels through different time periods and must fight

through various wars (some historical and some fictional).

Gameplay and Mechanics: Though the game uses primitive technology and graphics, it

features a unique game mechanics decisions. Unlike most

top-down shooters that are limited to vertical or horizontal

Figure 2: Colorful visuals of Tohou

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gameplay, Time Pilot features a gameplay where player can

travel and shoot in any direction. Player can rotate the plane

in any direction and shoot towards the direction it is facing.

This adds a completely two dimensional gameplay rather like

other shooter games that are features two dimensional

maneuver and one dimensional shooting.

The enemy fires a combination of smart projectiles that is

aimed at the player and stupid projectiles that are meant to

divert player attention. Accuracy and density of projectiles

(along with enemy speed) increases as the players traverse

through the game but the density is generally sparse in

relative to most other shooter games.

Comparison Though all three games introduced were top-down shooters, each game was developed with different

technology, different targeted audience, and different overall concept in mind. As a result, each game

made various different design and mechanics choices making it hard to say one is better than another.

In this section, we will go over some key choices made by each game and its advantages and

disadvantages over the other.

AI: The first type of AI is the smart AI featured in Time Pilot and Tyrian. The smart AI knows the location of

the player unit and shoots at the player. The difficulty of the game is increased with the increase in

accuracy and speed of each projectile. Density of the projectile in the screen may increase to make it

harder for players to avoid them all but the density usually does not increase beyond a reasonable point

(unless intended to be near impossible to beat). The challenge of the game is to outmaneuver the AI and

destroy them before the player makes too many accidents.

The other type of AI is the scripted pattern AI that appears in

Tohou Project. Also known as the stupid AI, the scripted pattern

AI does not locate the player position within the world. Instead,

the AI simply fires a curtain of bullets that shoot in a set pattern.

Though the bullets are not specifically aimed at the player, the

sheer number of projectiles can easily overwhelm the player.

The difficulty of the game increases by making the projectile

Figure 3: Enemies at every direction

Figure 4: Yes, they get this crazy

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denser and by making patterns more obscure. Usually the AI alternates between different set of

patterns depending on timing or condition to add more variety to the gameplay. The challenge of the

game is rather similar to that of a puzzle game – player must challenge himself to find a way to “solve” a

pattern by finding a way to weave through each pattern accurately.

Controls: Most top-down shooters like Tyrian and Tohou feature a generic two dimensional maneuver and 1

dimensional shooting. Players are freely allowed to

maneuver anywhere within the two dimensional plane

provided by the game world. The projectiles, however,

are often limited in direction (upwards). Because

enemies usually show up from the top of the screen, this

does not prove to be much of a problem. Player may feel

a bit restrained in their game play but it adds a little bit

of simplicity to the gameplay that requires intense

concentration (avoiding enemy projectiles and such).

Some of the less conventional top-down shooters like Time Pilot, however, decide to give players more

freedom by allowing players to rotate and shoot into any direction of the two dimensional plane. This

gives a bigger sense of freedom for the players making the gameplay true to the image of “flying”. By

adding this freedom, however, an immense amount of complexity is also added to the gameplay making

it harder for creators to make a complex level design without increasing the difficulty too much.

Visuals: Though the visual aspect of top-down shooters are often credited the most irrelevant aspect to the

overall gameplay mechanics, this is not true.

The game Tohou chooses a more fantastic visual

to correspond to the colorful characters and

magical setting the game takes place in. To do

this, the overall game visual must provide an awe

inspiring beauty that matches its theme.

Naturally, colorful projectile patterns produced

by a “stupid AI" help enhance the gameplay

experience than a sparsely scattered single-color

projectiles.

Figure 5: Generic enemies on top, player on bottom

Figure 6: Tohou’s colorful character cast to match the colorful gameplay (or vice versa)