Game genres that are oversaturated and genres that are undersaturated in the modern era

[ENDTOPII]

Over-represented:

• Pixel shit
• Roguelike
• Class based FPS (Hero shooters...)
• "Open world" (that isn't really that open...)

Unreal Engine RTX tech demos in general, Every single game now feels like an asset flip from standard templates. At this point, this is a genre itself...
Also, RPG elements in games that are action games, I hate that! Just let me use what ever item I pick up.

UNDER-represented:

• Co-Op FPS (LAN mode would be appreciated)
• "Immersive sim" (I just want an unhinged sperg version of Deus Ex)

It's ridiculous that I just can't play a simple LAN game with my brother when we are at home or I can host privately some FPS game to explore and shoot stuff. Far Cry 5 and E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy where the closest thing I could find, then it's always back to minecraft. It's even more ridiculous that everything needs an RTX card to even run. It's not that I can't afford it (I got cash), it's just I don't want to spend money on gaming itself. I built my PC for creative shit, not media consumption (also convincing others to pay +$500 so we can play is a vibe killer...)! It gets even worse if they only got access to a laptop.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

RTS is basically dead

 

[skykiii]

Thread tax:

Just a heads-up:

As the topic starter, I declare you can also "thread tax" by helping people find modern games in the underrepresented genres.

Why are most japanese games either a visual novel or some type of an rpg?

Autism

I was gonna be all like "the heck are you guys on about?" because it seems like there's lots of Japanese games that are neither. Then when I thought of examples I came up with things like Mario Kart 8 (possibly an international co-production), Smash Ultimate (the World of Light mode has RPG elements), Puyo Puyo Tetris (has light novel elements).... and I had a bit of a "oh my gosh they're onto something" realization.

Thread Tax

OVER-represented

I'm not sure if there's a proper name for this but.... every time I go thru a digital storefront I see a fuckton of games that indicate they're trying to be some sort of either parody or else an extremely gimmicky take.

Examples:

Pong Quest
Dungeon of Crawl
Dungeon Encounters
Nadir: A Grimdark Deck Builder (that's actually its title)
Sir Questionnaire
Dark Tower: RPG Dungeon Puzzle
Legal Dungeon
Knights of Pen and Paper

Probably a million more.

Games that use that Minecraft aesthetic. You know, everything is blocky, including characters. Gotta admit I always thought this style was ugly, it was one of the main things that kept me away from actual Minecraft for so long, so I hate seeing other games use it.

Games that are trying to imitate a specific older game and don't even try to hide it. I forget its name but I was looking thru the eShop and saw some game that was literally just A Link to the Past. Other times games are so blatant they even copy the logo of an older game (Heroes of Hammerwatch... the "Heroes" part is directly lifted from the logo for Heroes of Might and Magic).

Crafting mechanics. Why does literally every game need crafting mechanics? Most of the time they're just tedious and don't add anything.

UNDER-represented

Pipe Dream (aka Pipe Mania) clones. It absolutely shocks me that nobody has made a modern knockoff of what was once a pretty popular puzzle game.

AND DON'T AT ME by saying there's plenty of "connect the pipe" games or whatever--I mean I'm looking for a game that actually plays like Pipe Dream! And a lot of them don't. Most "pipe" games I find are essentially slider puzzles, or else where you have to rotate pre-placed pieces. Pipe Dream was about actually placing the pipes yourself.

SHMUPS that aren't Bullet Hell games. It seems like Danmaku has taken over the genre. To be fair though, Arcade Archives has made sure a lot of the pre-Danmaku shmups are still available so its not like I'm starving.

Outrun 2006 Coast 2 Coast. There's lots of racers that claim to be "Outrun clones" but my favorite game in the series was always Outrun 2006, because it was paradoxically both really fast but also had a no-pressure/relaxing vibe that just exists nowhere else. Every modern attempt at a "successor" usually immediately misses the mark by having opponents and it being a serious race, rather than you and your girl being out for a cruise.

 

[The Last Stand]

Games where you see things through the eyes of the protagonist with a gun in the right or left bottom corner of the screen:

Oversaturated: games with battle royale. I'm counting GTA Online since it's an open world map with pay to win military weapons, vehicles and equipment.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

Metroidvanias. Was once a time these were rare and cool, but now they're basically every game ever and I stopped caring.

Part of what makes a good Metroidvania is the map, you have to have a map that gradually unlocks as you get more stuff, and the same equipment helps you access items/get across existing areas faster.

Roguelikes. Gonna be honest I never liked these to begin with. Rogue and Nethack are fun as free games but I can't imagine paying money for random generation that often winds up feeling a bit shallow.

Rogue was a really cool idea in the days of the Apple II where it originated, being able to generate an entirely new dungeon every time but a lot of the time nowadays it just comes off as lazy and disorganized.

SNES-Style RPGs. My feelings about these are complicated.

The SNES-style RPGs and their derivatives feel like they want to be the SNES RPGs but they don't know how they work, like looking EarthBound and taking the wrong lessons from it.

I know this is probably repeating but:
OVER-represented games:
FPS games and walking sims
"Comfy" games

UNDER-reprsented games:
Text-based games (with AI you'd think the parser could let you completely off the rails or at least have long, rambling conversations with NPCs)
Graphic adventure games ("modern" sequels of old games have left a bad taste in peoples' mouths, and most of the "puzzles" basically boil down to trade X for Y)
Extremely autistic games that have some grounding in reality (if Factorio had come out in the 1990s, it would come with a spiral-bound 300-page manual), THOSE types of games.

 

[Soycast Guy]

I want more of whatever the hell Prototype and Infamous were

It’s what I would call the superhero destruction genre. Spider-Man web of shadows was a favorite of mine when it comes to these types of games. I LOVE this genre and I wish it was still around.

 

[Squawking Macaw]

I want more games like Spore. So far only indies have tried and they either try to ape Spore as closely as possible and end up a shitty clone (Elysian Eclipse, Adapt), or they suffer from scope creep and get stuck in development hell (Thrive).

 

[KittyGremlin]

Under-represented: First person shooters with a grounded setting and a single-player focus. Those used to be dime-a-dozen back in 2000s and 2010s but now what little we get is subpar, trend chasing, shallow, multiplayer focused nonsense.

 

[ShitLurker]

In overrepresented I'd say it's all mostly been covered. Will echo that even though I'm a From Software whore, the damage their mechanics have done to the action game have been obscene.

In under represented, I miss rythm games and not just a shitty music minigame like in Dustborn or Volcano high, but a proper game around rythm like Rythm Paradise or Patatpon. I guess there is crypt of the Necrodancer which I've never tried and if you squint like mad "Sekiro is a rhythm game" but for the most part it's a phantom genre. Not surprised either, it requires an obscenely good level of musical direction.

Also, straight to the point level based games. I imagine it's the need to at least provide x amount of entertainment without making a game ballbustingly hard. But just a straight forward platform that is just 10 well designed levels and you can go through in less than an hour once you know what you are doing is a unicorn.

Also, another shout for arcade like sports games. Some of my favorite moments in gaming were from NBA Jam Tournament edition and I had a lot of fun with mutant league hockey.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

I want more games like Spore. So far only indies have tried and they either try to ape Spore as closely as possible and end up a shitty clone (Elysian Eclipse, Adapt), or they suffer from scope creep and get stuck in development hell (Thrive).

Spore is going to be complicated since the game as released has a bunch of issues, mostly that it apes other games in the other process, and going back to the original idea of "creating life" runs into the problem Maxis found of actually being fun or not. I'm sure EA breathing down their neck for a mass market product didn't help but I also believe them when it came to actually balancing out the more complex parts and making them entertaining.

Speaking of Maxis, one thing I'm surprised that isn't done more is intercompatibility among games. The idea of the Sim games was that you were supposed to bring together various games to simulate a larger world, but beyond Maxis' own half-hearted attempts to make that a reality in the 1990s (SimCopter, etc.) it didn't happen. The only example I've seen is Automation being compatible with BeamNG.drive.

In about a week from now, Steam will unlock Frontier Developments' Planet Coaster but two of the things that put me off from the original game was the extensive DLC and the fact that it wasn't compatible with Planet Zoo despite the fact that some IRL parks do combine elements of the two (Busch Gardens comes to mind).

I know I mentioned "comfy" games before with games like the latest Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley or whatever, but there's also no games like what Griptonite's handheld Sims games had, namely the handheld version of The Urbz: Sims in the City (the console versions are different). It had the life-sim elements of being able to make friends and build out your apartment with stuff, but had an overarching plot, new parts of the city to unlock, and mini-games that powered your income. A modern title that would free the genre from the shackles of The Sims license and allowed modding would be great, but no such title exists.

 

[skykiii]

While we're talking about specific games we want successors to...

UNDER-represented:

Outpost. I made a post about it before so I'll keep it brief: it was a Windows 3.1/95 city-builder but with the premise that you were the last of humanity making a new home on another world (half of humanity splits off and makes a place somewhere else, ensuring competition). The game was notoriously buggy and unfinished but I always thought something like it but actually functional would be great, even the original game is kinda fun up until you run into game-ruining bugs.

In fact, this is probably THE Under-represented genre.... whenever I hear about a sci-fi citybuilder at all its just an expansion/skin pack for Simcity or whatever, not something that actually is built ground-up with a specific sci-fi dynamic. And the only other game I've ever heard of with Outpost's premise... is Outpost's own sequel.

 

[MoarTard]

In under represented, I miss rythm games and not just a shitty music minigame like in Dustborn or Volcano high, but a proper game around rythm like Rythm Paradise or Patatpon. I guess there is crypt of the Necrodancer which I've never tried and if you squint like mad "Sekiro is a rhythm game" but for the most part it's a phantom genre. Not surprised either, it requires an obscenely good level of musical direction.

I fucking sucked at patapon, but something just felt right when playing it and trying to follow the rhythm.

 

[ShitLurker]

I fucking sucked at patapon, but something just felt right when playing it and trying to follow the rhythm.

I suck ass at it too, but I definitely like the premise and when you get a good run going, it feels great.

 

[skykiii]

Just thought of one:

UNDER-represented:

Wave Race. There's plenty of racing games involving cars, but very few involving jet skis or watercraft. In fact outside of Wave Race 64 and Blue Storm (original GB Wave Race doesn't count), I only know four other racing games on water: Sega Waverunner, Powerboat Racing, and the two Splashdown games.... and I hate Splashdown (I can't speak for the others) because Splashdown overcomplicated a winning formula by forcing you to perform complex stunts for speed boosts.

Actually, in general...

OVER-Represented:

Any "normal" sort of racing game whether it be arcade-style or simulation, if it involves a car or a go-kart with powerups, its probably been done a bazillion times. Meanwhile a lot of racing game concepts like Wave Race or Uniracers or even just the racing mode of Sonic 2 feel like they've only been done once or twice and then never again.

 

[Islamic Jihad Rocket]

Car Combat genre seems like it was one that died like a decade ago, Twisted Metal was the sort of leading brand of that genre before it died off after the 2012 one, nowadays you don't see many games like that anymore; I do know there was interest generated from the Peacock series but if any game in this genre came back it would be another live service flop. Kind of the same with the already mentioned Arcade Racer genre, every racing game nowadays has to be boring and realistic which annoys the shit out of me. There will probably never be another game series like Burnout.

 

[Dysnomia]

I know I mentioned "comfy" games before with games like the latest Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley or whatever, but there's also no games like what Griptonite's handheld Sims games had, namely the handheld version of The Urbz: Sims in the City (the console versions are different). It had the life-sim elements of being able to make friends and build out your apartment with stuff, but had an overarching plot, new parts of the city to unlock, and mini-games that powered your income. A modern title that would free the genre from the shackles of The Sims license and allowed modding would be great, but no such title exists.

Anything like that would probably be mobile trash with paywalled features. My Sims was kind of like that. Aimed at kids but still fun. The little animals were so cute. But I think that series is dead.

 

[LinkinParkxNaruto[AMV]]

over represented , Survival games with crafting mechanics.

undersaturated, games like bushido blade and tenchu.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

Wave Race. There's plenty of racing games involving cars, but very few involving jet skis or watercraft. In fact outside of Wave Race 64 and Blue Storm (original GB Wave Race doesn't count), I only know four other racing games on water: Sega Waverunner, Powerboat Racing, and the two Splashdown games.... and I hate Splashdown (I can't speak for the others) because Splashdown overcomplicated a winning formula by forcing you to perform complex stunts for speed boosts.

I know that when it comes to Wave Race there wasn't much they could do with the formula, but it kind of sits benched with F-Zero as "murdered by Mario Kart" despite the N64 having all three.

Anything like that would probably be mobile trash with paywalled features.

Nah, every single mobile game I've seen that wasn't a port looks like something I would've seen on Kongregate from 10-15 years ago, and never something that I've thought would be better as a full-featured game.

 

[Soi Woh Jak]

Oversaturated: multiplayer shooters, remakes, roguelikes, metroidvanias
Undersaturated: non bullet hell run n guns (metal slug), small open world games (ocarina of time, silent hill 1/2, way of the samurai, mmlegends), gimmick/casual games (pvz, zuma, peggle, mushroom madness, one piece mansion), management games (farm frenzy, ranch rush, youda safari), arcadey puzzle combat games (goof troop), arcade 2d platformers (snes Aladdin, Rayman, ghouls and ghosts, Lomax), zeldalikes (okami), movie tie in games (Madagascar, bee movie, kung fu panda, ice age 2, X men origins Wolverine), simulation/village games (nations, cultures, settlers, pharaoh, Zeus), nes ripoffs (snowy the bear, caveman, sandman, scribble, mimelet)

 

[Thiletonomics]

I know I mentioned "comfy" games before with games like the latest Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley or whatever, but there's also no games like what Griptonite's handheld Sims games had, namely the handheld version of The Urbz: Sims in the City (the console versions are different). It had the life-sim elements of being able to make friends and build out your apartment with stuff, but had an overarching plot, new parts of the city to unlock, and mini-games that powered your income. A modern title that would free the genre from the shackles of The Sims license and allowed modding would be great, but no such title exists.

You also don't see console-specific versions of games, as games on multiple platforms tend to be just ports now. Back then you also had console-exclusive versions of Sims games such as Bustin' Out, and the console version of The Sims 2 had its own set of features and played in different ways compared to the PC version.

Anything like that would probably be mobile trash with paywalled features. My Sims was kind of like that. Aimed at kids but still fun. The little animals were so cute. But I think that series is dead.

EA did announce that some sort of new MySims game will be coming to the Switch.

Back to the topic at hand, both the Open-World racing game and track-based racing game genres leans more towards the over saturated side, even though racing games tend to be more niche in comparison to other genres. While Forza Horizon is the main juggernaut in the open-world side, NFS somehow is still going despite EA's numerous attempts to fuck up the franchise, The Crew is also still around, and even the Test Drive Unlimited saw a return with the terrible Solar Crown entry that was released this year. And the track-based side is even more filled with games, with Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport, Assetto Corsa, the license racing game titles in EA Sports F1, EA Sports WRC, and the upcoming NASCAR game from iRacing, and Sim Racing series such as iRacing being the most autistic when it comes to track-based games.