Action & Arcade6 min read
Vertical Shooters on Android: Picking One Worth Learning
Vertical scrolling shooters live or die on pattern readability and control feel. What to check before committing to one on a phone.
42 articles · page 2 of 2
Action & Arcade guides, page 2
Articles 25–42 of 42, newest first. The introduction to this reading list, its topic hubs and the guides other articles cite most are on the first page.
Action & Arcade articles 25–42
- Action & Arcade5 min read
IO Games: What the Name Actually Means
The io label came from a domain suffix, not a genre. What the games usually have in common, and what the name tells you about how they play.
- Action & Arcade5 min read
What Does TD Mean in Games?
TD is short for tower defence, but the abbreviation collides with several others. What it means in a game title and how the genre is defined.
- Action & Arcade4 min read
Touch Controls and Auto-Fire in Mobile Action Games
Why touchscreens are bad at some inputs and good at others, what auto-fire actually solves, and how control design decides which skill a game tests.
- Action & Arcade4 min read
Battery and Performance in Mobile Games
Why games drain batteries, what thermal throttling actually does to frame rate, and the settings that make the largest difference on a phone.
- Action & Arcade8 min read
Offline Arcade Games on Android: What "Offline" Actually Means, and How to Test It
Why some arcade games stall the moment you lose signal, what the Play listing does and does not tell you, and how to test any game yourself.
- Action & Arcade4 min read
Reading Boss Patterns: A Practical Method
Why bosses are memory tests rather than reflex tests, how to learn a rotation efficiently, and why players die at the same phase repeatedly.
- Action & Arcade4 min read
Difficulty Curves in Arcade Games
How arcade games escalate, why the classic curve was shaped by coin-operated economics, and what a difficulty curve has to do to stay fair while getting harder.
- Action & Arcade8 min read
A History of the Shoot 'em Up: How One Idea Kept Reinventing Itself
From a 1962 lab experiment to danmaku, how the shoot 'em up changed across five decades and why its central question never moved.
- Action & Arcade4 min read
Horde Survival and Wave Shooters Compared
Two escalation structures that look similar and play differently: continuous pressure with mid-run builds versus discrete waves with pattern learning.
- Action & Arcade4 min read
Power-Ups and Build Design in Arcade Games
Why a good upgrade offer is a decision rather than a reward, how synergies create build identity, and what makes an upgrade choice genuinely interesting.
- Action & Arcade4 min read
Score Attack: Playing for a Total Rather Than Survival
How scoring systems change optimal play, why risk becomes a resource, and the specific habits that separate a survival player from a scoring player.
- Action & Arcade9 min read
Wave Survival Design: Why the Gap Between Waves Matters More Than the Wave
How wave survival games build tension: escalation curves, spawn placement, the pause between waves, and why more enemies is the weakest lever.
- Action & Arcade9 min read
What Makes a Roguelike? The Definition, the Argument, and a Test That Settles It
Rogue, the Berlin Interpretation and the roguelite split: what the word means, why the definition is contested, and a test that settles it.
- Action & Arcade4 min read
Why Free Android Games Show Ads
How free apps are funded, what the different ad formats cost you in attention and data, and what Google Play's policies require of developers.
- Action & Arcade8 min read
Bullet Hell vs Classic Shmup: Two Genres That Look Identical and Test Opposite Skills
Bullet hell and classic shoot 'em ups look alike and reward opposite instincts. Hitboxes, bullet speed, and why density is not difficulty.
- Action & Arcade8 min read
Reading Enemy Fire: How to Actually Get Good at a Space Shooter
How to read enemy fire instead of reacting to it, when to spend each ability, and what separates a fair bullet pattern from a cheap one.
- Action & Arcade7 min read
The Upgrade You Don't Take: How Roguelike Survival Runs Stay Interesting
Why the upgrade you skip matters as much as the one you take, how auto-fire makes movement the whole skill, and how to push a run deeper.