Back when we were a lot younger, every arcade at the mall would have at the very least one arcade cabinet of rail shooters. Be it the famous House of The Dead series, Time Crisis franchise, or some other spin-off games such as Alien 3: The Gun and Let’s Go Jungle: Lost on The Island of Spice, rail-shooters complement every arcade place you stumble upon.
We used to find a lot of these back in the day. As time went on, though, suddenly all the rail-shooters became non-existent. They basically fade from memories, and not much development is done on rail-shooting games in general. Sure, there are teams like MegaPixel Studio who dedicated their efforts to making a remake of the original House of The Dead by Sega, but that’s pretty much it.
Why is it that we don’t see much development of rail shooters, as opposed to other game genres?
Technical Aspects of Rail Shooters Make It Hard to Develop
Arcade rail shooters work differently than console rail shooters, but essentially, they need the controller/gun to calibrate with the screen. On the arcade machine, it’s fine. Because mostly the guns are automatically calibrated (or the staff working there would do the calibration if they knew how). At home with various television and screen sizes, this can pose a bit of a problem for the gun calibration.
The way a gun controller works is that the gun is equipped with a muzzle that somewhat acts as a sensor. The portion of the screen that a person aims with the gun emits light which, when the trigger is pulled from the gun, is cut off. That’s the reason why older rail shooters had flashing lights whenever you shot at the screen. The screen basically ‘resets’ or ‘turns off and on’ every time the trigger is pulled.
So, taking this concept into consoles, only the Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT) televisions can simulate the ‘flickering’ lights. The big, chunky box of display that we used to lug like a tree hugger to move them around in the house — these televisions are the only ones that would work with older rail-shooting games that rely on older light gun controllers (such as the famous GunCon 2 controllers for PlayStation 2), because these guns can detect changes in the emitted light from them.
Newer models of televisions no longer use CRT for display and instead adopt Liquid-Crystal Displays (LCD) or Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) displays that no longer flicker or emit light the same way CRT televisions do. So, using the light guns on these TVs means that the sensors wouldn’t register because there are no changes in the emitted light whenever the triggers are pulled.
No ordinary person would go on eBay or Mudah.my just to buy a CRT television to play old rail-shooting games, so that’s definitely out of the window. Over time, fewer people play these games because it’s just not the same to play with a controller rather than a light gun, and not all rail-shooting games are available to play on PCs either.
There are alternatives to adapt to the advancement in displays like Gun4IR and Sinden, but these models are not cheap and aren’t available everywhere. Not to mention the cumbersome setups needed to be done to make them work, too. So, in general, rail-shooting games would require too many technical things that understandably turn a lot of people away from playing, if they aren’t easily available to play from the get-go.
Not Much Monetisation can be Made from Rail-Shooters
Let’s face it: the game industry has turned from passionate projects to money-extorting businesses.
Games that are expected to have a lot of traction often have some sort of monetisation model introduced in them. Genshin Impact, Fortnite, Call of Duty, Metal Slugs: Awakening, and even Tekken 8 (sadly enough) have elements of monetisation, including gacha system, virtual stores, downloadable content, and battle passes. These are the things that the developers resort to in order to keep the game running for years and years from now. Some are fine (because they are optional and purely cosmetic), but some are just outright unethical (i.e. Bandai Namco’s copyright act against modders).
For one-off games like story-driven single players (e.g., Until Dawn, Spiderman, Hollow Knight, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, or Little Nightmares), this monetisation model can’t be applicable as much, because once we’re done with the story, the game is practically complete. The same can be said for rail-shooters like Time Crisis and House of The Dead; the developers can’t put in a gacha system and expect the players to be happy with it, because the core gameplay is outright stronger than the need for cosmetics or any other unnecessary contents.
Even if it is possible, most likely it would just disrupt the gameplay in general. With so many pop-up screens telling you that you can buy this and that, and click here and there in between gameplay would be outright annoying at best. So no, very few monetisation models can be implemented in rail-shooters, and this is one of the reasons why there aren’t many games of this kind left.
Arcades are Dying
Back when arcades were all the rage and the place that children looked forward to in a mall, these places were a breeding ground for rail-shooters. We would see a number of different rail-shooting games, especially House of The Dead and Time Crisis, which were often the staple arcade games for rail-shooters enthusiasts. Some other game developers tried adopting similar gameplay styles in their own franchises as well, like Aliens 3: The Gun, and Silent Hill: The Arcade.
As smartphones were introduced, and the adoption of virtual reality in various platforms (especially gaming), the concept of arcades slowly died out. After all, games on smartphones are free (mostly, if we take out the gacha system). The games on arcades, on the other hand, would need to be paid upfront to play, in tokens or credits.
Not to mention the credits needed for some games are just expensive. I wouldn’t blame the people for turning away from expensive arcades because they’re there mostly for fun, not to grind. Imagine paying four credits at an arcade only to get a “game over” screen five minutes in.
The introduction of Virtual Reality (VR) in gaming has also affected the arcade as well. I saw an arcade place adopting VR machines that are relatively expensive to play, too. About six credits per gameplay that lasts about 10 minutes or so, if I wasn’t mistaken. It’s obvious that not a lot of people wants to try it out. VR is best purchased and played with consoles or PCs instead, which is very much the option people would go for. It’s expensive, but it can be played for free indefinitely rather than spending almost ten tokens or credits per gameplay.
One good thing about VR is that it may eclipse older traditional rail-shooters, but it may introduce a whole new genre of rail-shooters (though it’s a bit far-stretched and we’re not going to see this coming to fruition anytime soon).
Because the arcades faded away with no players coming in, the expenses required for maintenance of the arcade cabinets would soon become a financial liability, therefore leading to arcades shutting down, one by one. This means rail shooters that rely dependently on arcades get shut down, too.
Are There Any Hopes for Rail-Shooters?
Not sure, honestly. Not many game developers are working on rail-shooters and instead focusing on other game genres that would profit from larger tractions and players. It’s sad, honestly, but there’s not much we can do.
We can hope for VR to save the day, though — it may be able to re-introduce us to rail shooters once again, this time in a different format. Time Crisis (TC) games tried inventing new gameplay mechanics to spice up their franchise — TC 2 introduced two-player gameplay, TC 3 introduced an arsenal of weapons, TC 4 introduced a multi-cover system during specific defensive sections, and TC 5 introduced the dual-cover system for the players to switch in between covers.
So, if VR can introduce innovative features to the genre, it could breathe new life into rail shooters and excite fans. Here’s hoping.
Anyway, if you’re interested in reading about Dragonball Z: Budokai Kentaichi and what makes it appealing to the fans, feel free to click here. Otherwise, I have a selection of articles for you to read more. See you at another time!
