Have you ever heard the saying “You can never have too much of a good thing?”  That’s horse crap!  Blast Factor, Super Stardust HD, Everyday Shooter, Cash Guns Chaos, Nucleus, and that’s just on the Playstation Network.  Now we have word that Game Republic is releasing Dark Mist, another (you guessed it) dual-stick shooter.  I have one thing to say: Not Another Dual-stick Shooter!
I feel like the game development community is suffering from a giant epidemic of “Hey that works, let’s make one of those games!”  I noticed this fairly recently with first person shooters.  It seemed like most of the high profile games fell into one of a very few categories with FPS games getting the lion’s share.  Now I feel like if you’re a downloadable game trying to make a name for yourself, you’d better steer with the left stick and shoot with the right, or you’re doomed.

What the hell, guys?  We have so little innovation left that we’re basically going back to Robotron 2084 for our inspiration?  I mean that’s all fine and dandy if one, or maybe two of you went that far back.  There’s no problem doing an homage to one of the great games of the arcade’s prime, but why in the hell do we need so many dual-stick shooters?  It’s almost a turn-off to me at this point.  As the rave reviews for Everyday Shooter poured in, I kept thinking to myself… “exactly how much fun could ANOTHER dual-stick shooter bring me?”  I haven’t bought it yet.  I will, don’t bash me for not buying it, but notice my lack of extreme excitement.  And it’s not like I don’t like any of those games either, I’ve had a blast playing Super Stardust HD, but it almost seems a little like a gimmic to put out a game like this now.

It’s almost like someone release an update to Shoot-em-Up Construction Kit that focused on dual-stick shooters and we’ve been seeing the results of the developers’ work.  I’d prefer to see a bit more variety in their work.  Where are the downloadable platform games?  Where are the downloadable puzzle games that don’t involve lining up colored gems/eggs/shapes? Come to think of it, there’s another stale sub-genre too!  Where are the (good) downloadable racing games?  PSN and XBLA are too narrowly focused on a few genres that they’re not reaching anywhere near their full potential.

Is there anything developers could do to interest you in another dual-stick shooter?  I mean if they announced Super Stardust HD 2 was coming out next week, I’d be curious, but not excited.  I’m not sure what they could do to excite me.  How do you feel about Dual-stick Shooters in general and do you think they’re being overdone?
Is your gripe with another genre of downloadable games?  If so, which genre?

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