Shooting games

Shooting games

Start with what is on the screen, because the label attracts assumptions this shelf does not earn. Everything here is drawn as cartoon line art. There is no photographic realism, no blood, and no attempt at atmosphere darker than a night sky. What there is, in about half the titles, is noise: gunfire and explosions with the volume up. Every game carries a speaker button on its opening screen, so that part is settled before you press start rather than three seconds after.

One label doing two entirely separate jobs

The fifteen titles split into board shooting and combat shooting, and the split is visible from the thumbnail alone. Coloured spheres arranged in rows means a board. A figure holding a weapon, or a vehicle with one attached, means combat. You never need to open a game to find out which side of the shelf it sits on.

Board shooting: aim, release, watch it fall

Bubble Shooter is the reference point. The screen stands upright over a gradient of sea blue, an orange cartoon fish holds the launcher at the bottom, and three numbers run along the top: shots remaining, score, and current level, with a timer down at the base. Fire a bubble into a group of three or more of its colour and the group drops.

The technique that separates a stuck player from a moving one is the wall. Firing straight up reaches exactly one angle. Firing at a slope so the bubble rebounds off the side wall reaches the pockets tucked under overhangs, which is where the shots you cannot otherwise take are hiding. Halloween Bubble Shooter and Happy Chef Bubble Shooter are the same discipline in different costume.

Combat shooting: things arrive and keep arriving

Zombie Shooter does not open on the gloom its name suggests. It opens on a level-select grid — fifteen levels laid out over a bright yellow desert with cacti, padlocks sitting on the ones you have not reached, three stars marked under each number. Tank Wars puts you on a plated military floor in green and black, and Air Warfare moves the whole argument into the sky. This is the group behind the loud set, gathered there precisely because the volume is the deciding factor for most people.

Your thumb and a mouse are not equivalent here

Board shooting was designed for touch. You tap the place you want the bubble to arrive and the game solves the angle, so the precision demanded from your hand is low and a phone is entirely sufficient.

Combat shooting is a different proposition. When several targets move at once, a mouse travelling a short distance stays accurate and continuous in a way that lifting a thumb and putting it down again does not. If a mouse is within reach, use it on this group; the difference shows up in the first level, not the tenth.

What people ask before opening one of these

How many shooting games are on the shelf?

Fifteen, which makes it the third-largest category in the library, and the two groups above take roughly half each.

Is any of it graphic?

No. The combat group has shooting, explosions and cartoon impact effects drawn in flat colour; the board group has none of that at all. We describe what is on screen and deliberately avoid making it sound more intense than it is, because someone who arrives expecting intensity and finds a bubble grid feels misled.

Which ones can I open with other people around?

The board group, with or without sound. Every title mutes from its first screen, so even the loud group can be made silent before it starts — you simply lose the feedback that tells you a shot landed.

Do I lose my progress in the level-based games?

Levels unlock and stay unlocked inside the browser you played in. There are no accounts on this site, so that progress belongs to that browser and will not follow you to another machine.