The boomer shooter post a few days ago got me thinking: some video game genre names just suck.

My least favorite is “character action”. There are much better fitting names for the genre that have been tossed around the internet, like spectacle fighter or stylish action. All action games have characters, so the name has the vagueness of “Role playing game” without the genre itself being vague.And if I see someone use it, I instantly know that that person has either not been on the internet enough to hear the better names, or has the personality of a wet towel.

On the other hand, “Mascot horror” fits its genre like a damn glove. I generally don’t like the actual games in the genre, most of them just feel like cashing in on a trend, but there is the occasional one that has some actual creative ideas. But the name itself practically tells one everything they need to know about the genre: Marketed towards kids, featuring a mascot that’ll probably be pasted onto a kids backpack when the game gets popular enough, and everything in that game being centered around that mascot, which becomes scary enough that it looks spooky but not enough that kids won’t play it.

Also the -likes just suck. All that they tell you is that game is like other game. I don’t even think that a tenth of rogue like fans have actually played rogue, which is understandable since the genre has spread out so much.

So, what are yours?