Side-scrolling video game
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A side-scrolling game or side-scroller is a video game in which the gameplay action is viewed from a side-view camera angle, and the onscreen characters generally move from the left side of the screen to the right in order to reach their goals. These games make use of scrolling computer display technology.
[edit] Use of side-scrolling
The most popular use of the side-scrolling format is in the platform game genre. Platform games are action games that feature jumping, climbing, and running characters who must be guided through many diverse levels. Games such as Streets of Rage and Sonic the Hedgehog are among the most famous side-scrollers of this type.
The side-scrolling format is also popular among Beat 'em ups, like the popular Double Dragon series. However these games tend to allow you to move up and down as well as left and right. Side-scrolling is even used in certain role-playing games such as the 2D Castlevania: Symphony of the Night or the Korean MMORPG MapleStory.
Another popular use of the side-scrolling format is in the Shooter genre, typified by games like R-type and more recently Jets'n'Guns. In this game style the player usually starts with a basic ship that flies from left to right and acquires Power-ups that allow them to face an ever increasing horde of enemies. The popularity of this genre traces its roots back to such fast paced games as Defender.
[edit] History
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The art of the side-scrolling format was greatly enhanced by parallax scrolling. Parallax scrolling is used in side-scrolling games to give an illusion of depth. The background images are presented in multiple layers that scroll at different rates, thus objects closer to the horizon scroll slower than objects closer to the viewer. This technology was first featured in Moon Patrol.[citation needed]
In recent years side-scrolling games have been largely phased out in favor of 3D games, which allow characters to move in all directions, rather than just forward or backward. Side-scrolling is still a popular format on handheld systems such as the Game Boy Advance, since many games are ports, and because of the limited memory of such handheld systems. For the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable there are many games which you can move in all directions, such as Super Mario 64 DS, as well as side scrollers, such as Sonic Rush. This is not to say that the format is entirely dead, however, as games such as New Super Mario Bros. on the DS, Alien Hominid on the Gamecube/PS2/360 and the Playstation 2 Action RPG Odin Sphere are examples of modern sidescrollers. Also modern platforming games, like Super Paper Mario, Crush, and most recently, Sonic Rush Adventure, include both 2D and 3D element that the player can switch on the fly that the player can use for their advantage. Side scrolling remains popular in online games, as the simpler nature of the game makes them easier to create.
