What genre does "shmup" fit into?

[LordHypnos]

Mars Matrix is a rhythm game

Yeah, I know I'm a bit late to the party, here.

[Square_Air]

Prepare for many conflicting answers and over half of them to be jokes.

Personally, I always like to roleplay as the spaceships and little girls.

[Squire Grooktook]

I always like to roleplay as the spaceships and little girls.

I only like to do that on internet chat rooms and message boards.

[Square_Air]

I only like to do that on internet chat rooms and message boards.

"So fucking thirsty"

Honestly though, STGs are pretty much a genre all to themself. You could throw them in with action or strategy but neither of these seem to fit, with the latter confusing most of the non-savy crowd.

Completely off topic response to your link:

Spoiler

This reminds me of when my friends and I used to go to local punk shows all the time when 75% of my friends consisted of musicians. It was pretty common to run into these douchebros who thought it was alpha-as-fuck to slamdance and elbow people in the face and give them nosebleeds, so a few of us guys would put on dresses/lipstick/tights/masscara etc... and just generally go and have stupid fun. When these assholes would make a scene we would mosh really aggressively and knock them over or out of the group of people dancing, the look on their face was always priceless. There was always some people that would give us really dirty looks, but I can't remember an event where a group of strangers didn't come up to us at the end thinking we were hilarious and invite us to after parties and offer us free alchohol and weed. Ahh... sometimes I miss the good old days of blood, vomit, and screeching guitars, but all these shmups aren't gonna 1cc themselves you know.

[Xonatron]

Square_Air, I agree... and, interesting story!

[brentsg]

I consider arcade to be a genre, but I'm probably wrong.

[Square_Air]

I consider arcade to be a genre, but I'm probably wrong.

I sort of consider it its own genre, but because of how varied all the games are, I think it's more of a platform.

[BIL]

I do think prefixes like "arcade shooter" and "arcade puzzle" have some use. What distinguishes and unifies stuff like Raiden and Puyo Puyo is the arcade format of a single credit played at relentless do/die pace. Lack of quicksaving or pausing will appall some for the same reason it delights others.

Of course "arcade" will have connotations of "throwaway" to many, and we're back to the usual catch-22. I don't dwell on this stuff much.

[Doctor Butler]

Shooting Games are Shooting Games

FPS games are FPS game.

We have the grandfather-clause. PSN has a dedicated shoot-em-up section, distinct from their FPS section, and I'm thankful for that.
XBL, on the other hand, routinely conflates beat-em-ups with fighting games, so, I wouldn't let myself get too concerned with them, lol

[Satan]

Learning to copy Superplays.

[LordHypnos]

physical form of autism

autis 'em ups?

[R79]

The answer is obviously Arcade.

If people ask me, I just tell 'em I'm into Japanese arcade stuff, which covers both fighters and shooters. RPGs I kinda leave off, unless they're more of a serious, older gamer themselves, otherwise you'll just get a blank look in the UK.

[Xonatron]

If they had Arcade, I would have used it.

[gray117]

What's the OP premise: 'I don't like a categorisation system I found. Please choose a category from an even more restrictive list'? You'll only get better categorization with specificity. Furthermore, shmups are already a genre - you're just swapping descriptors.

1) Bullet Hell/Traditional Shooter - perhaps best described as sub genres. In such a system I would expect 'run and gun' to be listed separately from 'platformer' for example. Not likely to see such specificity unless a library was extremely large or definition was needed as part of a discussion.
2) Shmups/Shoot em ups - common genre distinction, no reason this could not be a category in an realistic, but expansive scenario. In such a system I would not expect to find 'run and gun' and find it simply combined under 'platformer'. Perhaps more niche orientated than one may expect from a general store front experience (all users), but marketable as a service based experience (knowledgeable user base, like a forum).
3) Arcade - Alternative classification meets expectations as to format of experience; relatively short, practice/replay, and score orientated action game. A good descriptor from a purchase an advisory/guidance orientated system.
4) Shooting - it's a game in which you shoot, despite being extremely restrictive this is an accurate descriptor of the main objective action. Having 'First Person Shooter' as another category would only be practically valid if there were so many first person shooters as to crowd the broader shooter category. Arguably more marketable than 'arcade' - which for many (unfortunately) carries connotation of being old/exploitative/difficult/brief, just as some may interpret 'indie' to be half-baked. (Not saying it's accurate but it's how some will see it.)
5) Action - broadest categorization whereby play maybe deemed to be kinetic enough to be action orientated.

...I'm an idiot for writing this...

[Xonatron]

gray117, to be clear it is a category list I am required to use if I am to release in Europe. And Shepardus did a great job defining the answer for me. On the side, I was half interested in what everyone had to say, so I appreciate your input!

[Square_Air]

While action and arcade are technically correct, they're still too too vague for my liking. I like really detailed classifications, but I can understand how being too precise can alienate a less savvy audience.

[Despatche]

All you can really do is put it under "Action" and pray.

[gray117]

gray117, to be clear it is a category list I am required to use if I am to release in Europe. And Shepardus did a great job defining the answer for me. On the side, I was half interested in what everyone had to say, so I appreciate your input!

My bad, clearly comments got my my goat ... Surprised you get the option to choose. You don't get the option to choose what rating/warnings you get as well do you? Because then pegi really would have nothing to do...

[Xonatron]

gray117,

I do choose the ratings and warnings (this sentence is not the full story though)!

I had to take an online course to learn all things PEGI and pass a test to be able to submit my title. I scored 92%, a pass. It was an eLearning course with non-skippable animations. After 10.15 minutes I was only 30..50% complete so I clicked rapidly to skip the rest of it, thinking I would pass anyway. The questions I think I got wrong were questions dealing with disc-based releases that had nothing to do with my release. This course/test is one part of the process.

The process continues with me submitting my game and choosing my ratings and warnings. Then they double check my work. And, as expected, not all game content fits the pre-decided categories. So the "violence" found in arcade style shmups hsa no place in the PEGI system. PEGI covers realistic violence (e.g. Call of Duty) and cartoon violence (e.g. Mario games) but not arcade style violence.

Not complaining, just interesting.

[Lord Satori]

I'm not so sure that a rating system that shares the name of a middle-aged housewife is trustworthy.