Since video games were born in the mid-20th century, they have evolved enormously.
The type or genre of video games is predetermined by their gameplay characteristics, although we cannot lose sight of the fact that the fact of belonging to one category does not exclude the fact that they can be found in another at the same time.
The classification of types or genres of video games can admit different variables, and these can be broken down into numerous subcategories and ramifications.
Let’s see what these categories are and some emblematic examples of each of them.
Action
Through real-time character management, these types of video games have a variety of objectives such as reaching the goal, scoring points or defeating enemies, or some of these combined.
A subcategory within action video games are platform games (such as Donkey Kong from 1981 or Super Mario Bros from 1985, the best-selling video game saga in history), in which the mission is to get the characters to the goal after overcoming different obstacles, cliffs or enemies with the common feature of the function of jumping to achieve these objectives.
Another subcategory is that of shooting -either a person or a vehicle- with different types such as shoot ‘em up (in which enemies must be shot as they appear on the screen), run and shoot (in addition to this, the player must also jump, hide, etc.) or rail shooter, similar to shoot ’em up but with the difference that the player is seen from behind. Released in 1996, Tomb Rider is a shooter video game that achieved remarkable popularity.
On the other hand, fighting video games (excluding sports games such as boxing, as we will analyse later) are those in which, through combat, the characters fight with their bodies or with weapons in order to defeat their opponents. In the late 80s and early 90s they reached great popularity with titles such as Street Fighter (1987), Mortal Kombat (1992) or Tekken (1994).
Arcade
Although it could be a sub-genre of the action genre, there are classifications that consider the arcade a type of video game in its own right due to its origin and historical inertia.
This type of video game has the characteristic of being based on immediate entertainment and simple gameplay, being very widespread on mobile phones as they have simple controls, short duration and easily understandable objectives.
Another feature is that the level of difficulty increases as the game goes on, and there are different types such as block breakers, mazes or obstacle courses.
In keeping with the principles of the popular arcade games that filled the arcades in the 1980s, Pac-Man (1980) is an example of this genre of video games.
Adventure
A very broad genre based on both story development and exploration of an open world that allows players to progress through the story by making decisions to overcome challenges.
There are both conversational adventure games (related to the more text-based videogames of decades ago due to the scarce development of graphics, such as Mystery House from 1980) and graphic adventures, generally linked to the mobility of the character in real time throughout his explorations, such as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: Graphic Adventure from 1989.
Within these graphic adventures are those that allow first-person adventure or the well-known point-and-click adventures that require players to use the mouse cursor to develop the actions to be executed.
Racing
Although they could also be a subcategory within sports games, racing video games can constitute a genre in their own right.
Through the control of a character or even directly of a vehicle, players compete with different variables, such as staying safe and avoiding collisions by completing the circuit within a given time, getting to the finish line first (the most comparable version to a normal motor racing game) or avoiding obstacles and traps to be the first to reach the finish line (like the Super Mario Kart saga).
Sport
Generally speaking, this type of video game is characterised by the simulation of sports competitions. There can be as many subcategories as there are sports that have been brought to video games, some of the most emblematic being NBA Live for basketball (from 1994) and FIFA for football (1997).
The level of sophistication and technological advances means that nowadays it can be difficult to even distinguish a game of one of these video games from a real match.
As a curiosity, one of the first video games in history, Tennis for two (1958) was already a sports game.
Video games linked to martial arts and/or fighting, with sports such as judo, sumo, boxing or wrestling, could constitute a sub-genre within the sports genre.
Strategy
Managing resources and managing tactics and strategies are the main features of this type of games usually associated with role-playing, war or empire building.
Role-playing games
Also a digital extrapolation of board games of this type, role-playing video games are characterised by the presence of characters with a series of characteristics (such as magic or wisdom) measured statistically that help them to fight enemies, explore areas or obtain supplies. The different sagas born from the Dungeons and Dragons game are an example.
War and empire building
On the premise that strategic use is necessary to achieve victory, tactics and planning are essential to win. This type of video game is often marked by giving players freedom in the way they play, and there can be different types of games such as artillery, real-time strategy or empire building, such as Age of empires (1997).
Board games
Knowledge, mental agility, questions and answers… This category of video games is a technological extrapolation of the traditional analogue board games.
We can find board games or card games, with the electronic version of chess and solitaire being examples of each of them. Solitaire became very popular in its electronic version after Microsoft included it in its Windows operating system in 1990.
Musicals
Music video games are an electronic adaptation of karaoke, adding to the voice interaction the possibility of including instrument simulators.
This type of game is usually accompanied by different special peripherals, being the Guitar Hero saga (born in 2005) or Sing Star (from 2004) two well-known examples of this type of game: the first with a peripheral that simulates a guitar and the second a karaoke simulator.
Simulation
A wide range of real life situations extrapolated to video games, ranging from the physical development of the simulated activity itself (driving or piloting different vehicles) to simulators of different types of professional activities.
In the first group we can find flight simulators, train simulators or simulators of numerous types of vehicles, while professional activity simulators cover issues as broad as life simulators in general (such as The Sims, born in 2000, or even the video game version of the popular Tamagotchi electronic device) to issues as specific as sports management, being PC Football (1992) an example of enormous popularity in Spain in the 90s.
