Summary
- Gaming evolves with new genres like battle royale, roguelites, and looter shooters pushing boundaries in innovation and creativity.
- Old forgotten genres like deckbuilding roguelikes and gacha games are making a comeback with unique mechanics and addictive gameplay loops.
- Soulslike games, known for extreme difficulty and deep lore, have gained immense popularity, inspiring developers to create similar challenging experiences.
Creativity never ceases in a medium as widely enjoyed as gaming. Year after year, new games come out that push the boundary of what was previously thought possible, irrespective of whether that innovation is from a technical standpoint, a new gameplay mechanic, or something so revolutionary that it gives birth to a whole new genre.
13 Forgotten Video Game Genres We’d Love To See Return
Certain game genres have faded into obscurity over the years. These old genres are due for a comeback.
Games need something new to try out every now and then, and there will always be people who take risks in their games and introduce new stuff. So it's safe to say that the genres most popular today won’t stay popular forever, as something new is bound to knock them off their podium.
6 Battle Royale
Hundred Players, One Winner
- First battle royale game: Mod on Minecraft server plugin called "Survivor Games"
- Genre started in 2012
The very first instance of a battle royale genre was seen in a mod on a Minecraft server plugin which was called “Survival Games”.
But the first true battle royale game to release was H1Z1 Battle Royale in 2015. It was followed a couple of years later by PlayerUnknown’s Battleground, released not very long ago in 2017. Fortnite came out soon after that, making these two the dominating games in this genre.
A few years down the road, many other developers, after seeing the sheer success of these games, created a battle royale game from existing IPs, like Call of Duty Warzone, or an entirely new game, like Respawn Entertainment’s Apex Legends.
The genre skyrocketed in sales and engagement, and many new games were even released on mobile platforms allowing easy access to people who don’t own a dedicated gaming machine.
5 Roguelites
Upgrade, Death, Repeat
- First roguelite game: Spelunky
- Genre started in 2008
Not to be confused with “Roguelikes”, Roguelite is a relatively newer genre inspired by, as the name clearly suggests, Rogue from way back in 1980. This game made the dungeon-crawling RPG with procedurally generated levels and permadeath popular in the gaming industry and games with similar gameplay fall under the category of Roguelikes.
Roguelites, however, bypass the absurdly difficult permadeath aspect of the genres and allow some sort of a save point or a way to preserve some of the progress in a previous run by retaining experience, money, or anything else that can be used to make the next run easier. This gives the game a more natural and easier progression. Additionally, roguelites tend to incorporate an additional genre such as turn-based strategy, action, or platforming.
8 Best Story-Driven Roguelike & Roguelite Games
Roguelikes and Roguelites are often known for their great gameplay/combat, but these games have a great narrative too.
The very first true roguelite probably has to be Spelunky, released in late 2008. The genre gained popularity after some newer, even more impactful roguelites were released, like The Binding of Isaac in 2011 and later, in 2017 .
With the release of Hades in 2020, the genre received much more widespread recognition with players falling in love with the game’s combat and the addicting gameplay loop.
4 Looter Shooters
So Many Guns
- First looter shooter: Hellgate: London
- Genre started in 2007
As the name of the genre suggests, a looter shooter is a shooting game with a bolder emphasis on the looting aspect. Every enemy that gets killed drops a bunch of loot, and that’s the most addicting aspect of this genre.
In 2007, Hellgate: London was released which put a higher emphasis on the looting aspect and weapon randomization, but the true pioneer of the looter shooter genre has to be the first Borderland, released in 2009. At release, the game boasted more than 17 million guns that could be looted in the game, and its successors only improved on this staggering number.
Players later saw the release of more games in this genre, such as the free-to-play Wareframe, Bungie’s Destiny 2, and the recently released but not very well-received Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League.
3 Deckbuilding Roguelikes
Slow But Addicting
- First deckbuilding roguelike: Dominion
- Genre started in 2008
Among the Roguelike genre, something as unique and as popular as its merger with the deckbuilding genre deserves its own whole category. There was a point when deck builders were popular on their own, with amazing games like Metal Gear Acid from 2004 and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, also from 2004 taking the charge.
After the addition of roguelike elements to this genre, the deckbuilding genre really took off. People who weren’t fans of the slower, tactical gameplay of deckbuilders finally caught on to it thanks to an additional layer of addictiveness provided by the roguelike elements. Hence, deckbuilding roguelike is now truly its own genre.
Some of the prominent games in this relatively new genre that received critical acclaim include Inscyrption, Slay the Spire which also falls in the roguelite genre, Balatro, and Backpack Hero. But the very first game that can truly be considered a roguelike deckbuilder was Dominion released in 2008.
2 Gacha Games
Ka-Ching
- First gacha game: Dragon Collection
- Genre started in 2010
Inspired by the Japanese gachapon, which are vending machines that give players random rewards for spending real money, gacha games employ a similar mechanic. For real currency, gamers can purchase loot boxes or spins that can give them any random in-game item, outfit, skin, or currency.
Starting back in 2010 with Konami’s Dragon Collection, the addicting mechanics of gacha games that on closer inspection resemble gambling, didn’t gain a lot of worldwide attention until the release of Gensin Impact in 2020. Unlocking new characters and weapons in this open-world action JRPG was hidden behind a gacha mechanic that would reward players with randomized wins.
Still, there did exist gacha games before Genshin Impact like Raid: Shadow Legends, Honkai Impact 3rd, and even today players from all over the world enjoy them. One of the major reasons why these games gained popularity was due to them getting released on smartphones as well as PC and consoles.
1 Soulslike
Death Is Imminent
- First soulslike game: Demon's Souls
- Genre started in 2009
Arguably the most prominent new genre in the recent history of gaming, Soulslike is a name given to any game that uses gameplay mechanics similar to Demon’s Souls from 2009, which gave rise to this genre. The aspects specific to this genre are extremely high difficulty, action-RPG gameplay, deep lore, and environmental storytelling.
Initially, FromSoftware, the developer behind Demon’s Souls, were the pioneers of this industry, and for a good few years, the only developers creating games of this genre, with the very first Dark Souls in 2011 bringing the genre to the mainstream, thanks to its multiplatform release.
The popularity of this genre got many new developers onboard, and players eventually saw critically acclaimed soulslikes such as Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Hollow Knight, Nioh, and the recently released Lies of P.
8 Games That Started New Genres
Some video games were so influential that they birthed entire genres, as these examples make abundantly clear.