| Action | Informal group for finding action sub-genres. | | | 0 games |
| Action-Adventure | A very vague genre often involving lots of action in form of bloody combat, somewhat spacious environments, and an occasional environmental puzzle. Also includes adventure games that are very action oriented. |  | 1983 / 2012 | 507 games |
| Action-RPG[ARPG] | RPG sub-genre characterized with heavy focus on fast-paced (real-time) combat and is overall very similar to Action-Adventure genre. |  | 1996 / 2013 | 39 games |
| Anti-Advergame | A game featuring a product but deriding it rather than promote it. | | | 0 games |
| Artificial life (Life simulation) | | | 1984 / 2010 | 142 games |
| Artillery game | Strategy sub-genre. Involves lobbing shots long distances with aim based mainly on angle, but often force applied to the projectile is a factor. | | 1981 / 2011 | 80 games |
| Augmented Reality Game (ARG;Alternate Reality Game) | ARGs remove barriers between the game world & the players so that they are shaped by each other. Actions in the real world are part of the game. | | 1981 / 2010 | 47 games |
| Beat 'em up | Informal group for finding beat 'em up sub-genres; fighting genre modified to so it's no longer one-on-one but against multitude of opponents. | | | 0 games |
| Biological simulation | Sub-genre of artificial life | | 1984 / 2010 | 35 games |
| Boat combat | | | 1983 / 2005 | 15 games |
| Boulder Dash-like | Any games that replicate the game type established by Boulder Dash. | | 1984 / 2011 | 67 games |
| Breakout-like (Breakout clones;Casse-briques;ブロック崩し;Block Kuzushi)[Arkanoid-like;Arkanoid clone] | A type of action game where player controls a pad - usually moving it along the bottom edge of the screen - and using it to bounce a ball up to destroy blocks with it while trying to prevent the ball from falling off screen. | | 1976 / 2010 | 224 games |
| Business simulation (Economic simulation) | |  | 2003 / 2012 | 3 games |
| Car combat (Auto combat) | Sub-genre of vehicular combat. | | 1976 / 2011 | 53 games |
| Card battle | A strategy genre with collectible trading cards. | | 1995 / 2011 | 88 games |
| Card game | Played with a deck (or pack) of hand-sized heavy paper or plastic sheets with faces & backs. | | 1978 / 2012 | 172 games (13 characters) |
| Cave-flyer (Luolalentely) | A genre where the player controls a ship with 360 degree movement all around and usually physics playing a role in either the ship's control or otherwise. | | 1983 / 2010 | 40 games |
| City-building | Involving city planning, building, and management. | | 1989 / 2012 | 112 games |
| Comical Action (コミカルアクション) | An action/platformer genre characterized by single-screen levels (no scrolling) and cooperative 2-player action. A level is usually cleared when all enemies on the screen have been defeated (who usually drop random score bonus items). | | 1983 / 2002 | 29 games |
| Construction & management simulation | Sub-genre of business simulation with emphasis on construction which forms most or all of the aspects of managing the business. | | 1994 / 2010 | 28 games |
| Construction puzzle | | | 1989 / 2012 | 77 games |
| Dandy-like (Gauntlet-like) | Replicates the gameplay established by Dandy - a top-down maze dungeon crawler. Popularized by the first clone, Gauntlet. | | 1983 / 2010 | 43 games |
| Dating simulation | Dating sims are a sub-genre of simulation games, usually Japanese, with romantic elements. The most common objective is to achieve a romantic relationship. | | 1988 / 2012 | 65 games |
| Dress-up Game | A significant portion of gameplay is devoted to dressing a character in clothing according to taste (the players' or a preference of the game) | | | 0 games |
| Dungeon Crawler (Dungeon Bash) | An RPG sub-genre where the player navigates labyrinthine "dungeons" in search of treasure and evil to vanquish. | | 1974 / 2012 | 112 games |
| Endless Running[Endless Runner] | An auto-scrolling platformer characterized by simple controls - usually just one or two buttons - and randomly generated levels. | | 1983 / 2012 | 6 games |
| Escape the room | Adventure sub-genre where the goal is to "escape the room". Most commonly seen as online Flash games and made popular by MOTAS which is one of them. | | 1994 / 2012 | 3 games |
| Exergame (Fitness game;Exertainment) | | | 1982 / 2010 | 92 games |
| Falling blocks | Sub-genre of visual matching puzzles (think of Tetris). | | 1984 / 2012 | 530 games |
| Farm simulation | | | 1993 / 2010 | 15 games |
| Fighting (Versus fighting;One-on-one fighting) | Informal group for finding fighting game sub-genres; Primarily one-on-one fighting genre, but includes tag team fighting, too. | | | 0 games |
| Fixed shooter (1DoF shooter) | | | 1977 / 2012 | 394 games |
| FPS/RTS and TPS/RTS | This is a placeholder for the FPS/RTS and TPS/RTS hybrid genres. | | 1997 / 2012 | 18 games |
| Frogger-like | Anything that replicates the basic gameplay introduced in Frogger. | | 1981 / 1998 | 32 games |
| Gamebook [Choose your own adventure] | "A gamebook is a book that allows the reader to participate in the story by making choices that affect the course of the narrative, which branches down various paths through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages." --Wikipedia | | 1982 / 2001 | 7 games |
| God game | Strategy sub-genre where the player assumes the role of a god and leads their fanatical followers to whatever future he or she deems them worthy of. | | 1981 / 2012 | 48 games |
| Government simulation (Political simulation) | Simulation sub-genre | | 1981 / 2010 | 47 games |
| Grand strategy (Grand strategy wargame) | A strategy game that focuses on [i]grand strategy[/i], using the entire resources of a nation to accomplish your goals. | | 1985 / 2012 | 23 games |
| Hack and Slash (Hack and Slay;Hack & Slash) | A sub-genre of beat 'em ups that originated from P&P RPGs where it's seen as derogatory. Differentiated from most beat 'em up by the fact that you use edged melee weapons instead of bare hands. | | 1986 / 2012 | 247 games |
| Hidden object | A type of puzzle games where the aim is to find some hidden object, often several, which are used to solve a puzzle. | | 1977 / 2012 | 80 games |
| Hogan's Alley | | | 1984 / 1986 | 3 games |
| Hybrid game genre[genre fusion] | Mixes two or more game genres more or less seamlessly, but does not fall into definition of some hybrid genre already in existence. | | 1996 / 2012 | 49 games |
| Interactive fiction (IF;Text adventure) | | | 1975 / 2011 | 360 games |
| Interactive Movie | Players get to guide the outcome of a movie. The players actions can have minor or major effects, but often the movie either continues or ends. | | 1983 / 2010 | 30 games |
| Kikstart-like | Replicates the gameplay established by Kikstart - a (side-scrolling) driving/biking game similar to motorcycle/mountain bike trials with heavy emphasis on physics. | | 1985 / 2012 | 14 games |
| Knight Lore-like | Replicates the gameplay established by Knight Lore - an isometric maze-adventure-platformer. | | 1984 / 2010 | 34 games |
| Logic puzzle | Puzzles that derive from the mathematics field of deduction but don't necessarily require any actual math. | | 1982 / 2011 | 160 games |
| Management simulation | Business simulation that emphatizes micro-management with little or no construction involved. | | | 1 games |
| Manic shooter (Bullet hell;Curtain fire;Danmaku;弾幕;Maniac Shooters) | A sub-genre of shmup where the whole screen is literally filled with projectiles, usually with the main challenge being avoiding those bullets (often by memorizing firing patterns) rather than destroying enemies. | | 1993 / 2011 | 58 games |
| Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMO;MMOG;Persistent Online Game) | | | 1987 / 2012 | 434 games |
| Match 3 | A type of visual matching puzzles where you match 3 or more visually similar pieces to progress, often by lining them horizontally, vertically or diagonally. | | 1990 / 2012 | 155 games |
| Medical simulation | | | 1986 / 2010 | 15 games |
| Melee combat simulation (Non-VS fighting;Non-versus fighting;Fighting simulation) | This is a placeholder genre for non-versus fighting games. | | 1998 / 2012 | 19 games |
| Metroidvania | Action-adventure sub-genre, though has probably more in common with platformers. Usually a side-scrolling adventure-platformer with non-linear world design. | | 1991 / 2012 | 19 games |
| Militainment (Military entertainment) | "... defined as either entertainment featuring and celebrating the military, or controlled by the military." --Wikipedia | | 1998 / 2009 | 35 games |
| MUD (Multi-User Dungeon;Multi-User Domain;MU*) | Text-based role-playing, simulation and/or action games that can usually be played with any telnet compatible client. | | 1987 / 2004 | 23 games |
| Multi-directional shooter (Arena shooter) | Sub-genre of shoot 'em up. | | 1982 / 2012 | 101 games |
| Nameless genres | Any game genres that don't have widely agreed upon name yet nor have decent placeholder name. | | | 0 games |
| OBSOLETE: Pinball | Flag the games with `pinball´ instead. | | | 0 games |
| Other puzzle | Puzzle games that defy categorization. | | 1985 / 2008 | 8 games |
| Outline puzzle | The objective is to uncover the silhouette portion of background with a marker until most of the silhouette is uncovered. | | 1981 / 2012 | 61 games |
| Pac-Man-like | Any game that replicates the basic gameplay of the original Pac-Man. | | 1980 / 2009 | 136 games |
| Party game | Intended to be played in parties or similar large gatherings of people. | | 1990 / 2010 | 42 games |
| Platformer[jump and run] | Informal group for finding platformer sub-genres. | | | 0 games |
| Point-and-click adventure | Adventure games mainly driven by pointer device. | | 1988 / 2012 | 201 games |
| Poker: 5-card | A poker rule variation where hands consist of only 5 cards. | | 1997 / 2004 | 3 games |
| Poker: 7 card | A poker rule variation where hands consist of only 7 cards. | | 1995 / 2004 | 3 games |
| Poker: Aces Wild | A poker rule variation where aces are used as wild cards. | | | 0 games |
| Poker: Deuces Wild | A poker rule variation where deuces (2s) are used as wild cards. | | | 0 games |
| Poker: Draw | A poker rule variation where players can discard cards from their hand to be dealt replacement cards. | | 1997 / 2000 | 2 games |
| Poker: Jokers Wild | A poker rule variation where joker cards are used in the deck as wild cards. | | | 0 games |
| Poker: No Wild Cards | A poker rule variation where no wild cards are used. | | | 0 games |
| Poker: Omaha (Omaha hold 'em) | Poker variation where exactly 4 cards are dealt to each player that must use exactly 2 plus exactly 3 of exactly 5 community cards to construct a hand | | 2000 / 2005 | 4 games |
| Poker: One-eyed Jacks are Wild | A poker rule variation where one-eyed jacks (the jack of spades and the jack of hearts) are used as wild cards. | | | 0 games |
| Poker: Other Variations | Other variants of of the card game of poker not covered in UVL tags are included. | | 2000 / 2005 | 2 games |
| Poker: Texas Hold'em | Poker variation dealing 2 cards per player face down, 5 community cards. A check, bet or fold can occur between each deal. 2 cards per player (bet) 'the flop' 3 (bet) 'the turn' 1 (bet) 'the river' 1. | | 2000 / 2005 | 5 games |
| Pong | Pong and any game that reproduces the simplistic gameplay it had. | | 1972 / 2007 | 35 games |
| Puzzle (Problem solving) | Informal group for finding puzzle sub-genres. | | | 0 games |
| Qix-like | Gameplay based on Taito's arcade game Qix, where one fences off sections off the gameworld, trapping bonuses, enemies and whatever else inside. Usually levels are won by fencing off ~75% of them. | | 1981 / 2012 | 64 games |
| Racing | Informal group for finding racing sub-genres. | | | 0 games |
| Railshooter | A shooter sub-genre where the player is stuck on a relatively linear path with few or no branches, can't stray far from it and viewing angles are limited (usually none but what the virtual "rails" dictate). | | 1982 / 2011 | 50 games |
| Raiser sim[raise-up sim;raising sim;princess maker clones] | | | 1991 / 2011 | 34 games |
| Real-Time Strategy | A strategy game where all elements are in real-time. | | 1996 / 2010 | 16 games |
| Roguelike | Imitates the old Rogue's style. | | 1982 / 2012 | 193 games |
| Role-playing game | Informal group for finding RPG sub-genres. | | | 0 games |
| Run and Gun | Shoot 'em up sub-genre. | | 1985 / 2012 | 166 games |
| Sarcastic (Sarcasm) | A characterization to express contempt. Often combined irony & a change in voice tones. Usually a subset of Humorous. | | | 1 games |
| Scrolling shooter | A shooter sub genre characterized by automatically advancing (autoscrolling) environments, giving the impression of constant motion towards the goal, preventing any significant backtracking and limiting chances on full destruction of enemy forces. | | | 0 games |
| Shoot 'em up | Informal group for finding shmup sub-genres. | | | 0 games |
| Shooter | Informal group for finding shooter sub-genres. | | | 0 games |
| Simulation | Informal group for finding simulation sub-genres. | | | 0 games |
| Sliding puzzle (Sliding block puzzle;Sliding tile puzzle) | A type of puzzle where player usually slides square tiles across a grid where only one square is free. | | 1982 / 2012 | 31 games |
| Social simulation | Sub-genre of artificial life | | 1985 / 2009 | 28 games |
| Stealth game | Not only is stealth possible, the gameplay focuses on it. | | 1981 / 2011 | 72 games |
| Strategy | Informal group for finding strategy sub-genres. | | 1988 / 2009 | 9 games |
| Strategy-RPG | Hybrid genre unrelated to tactical-RPGs. | | 2003 / 2011 | 10 games |
| Survival horror | | | 1981 / 2012 | 196 games |
| Tile cycle puzzle[tile cycling puzzle] | A visual matching puzzle where player cycles tiles in predefined area (usually 1x2, 2x2, or similar area of adjacent tiles) until they match what is desired. | | 1996 / 2009 | 3 games |
| Tile swap puzzle[tile swapping puzzle] | A visual matching puzzle where player swaps any tile with any other to achieve what is wanted. May also occur with swapping groups of adjacent tiles together for added challenge. | | | 0 games |
| Tiling puzzle | Sub-genre of transport puzzles. | | 1983 / 2009 | 12 games |
| Tower Defense | Strategy sub-genre where player is limited to building defensive towers and has no movable defenses (or moving them is hard/detrimental) to protect something, and never goes on the offense. | | 1990 / 2012 | 131 games |
| Tower Offense | Inversion of the Tower Defense strategy genre where the player controls the horde trying to reach whatever is being protected by the towers. | | 2009 / 2012 | 10 games |
| Trading simulation | A business simulation that focuses on trading of goods. | | 1982 / 2010 | 14 games |
| Train simulator | Sub-genre of simulation | | 1984 / 2011 | 101 games |
| Tube racing | | | 2001 / 2008 | 6 games |
| Tube shooter | Shmup sub-genre where player flies inside an abstract tube. | | 1979 / 2010 | 39 games |
| Unknown genre | Takes a severe departure from its base genre, becoming something largely unidentifiable. | | | 0 games |
| VAGUE: Jump and Run | This can either mean basic platformer or hop and bop sub-genre of it. | | | 0 games |
| Vehicular combat | | | 1983 / 2012 | 104 games |
| Virtual pets (Digital pets;Artificial pets;Pet-raising simulation) | Sub-genre of artificial life | | 1997 / 2012 | 106 games |
| Visual novel | Sug-genre of adventure games. Easily confusable with dating sims with which visual novels share their outward appearance, but the emphasis is on non-gamelike elements and the lack of use of statistics or other numerical data. | | 1987 / 2012 | 397 games |
| Wargame | A sub-genre of strategy games involving warfare on tactical or strategic level. Categorized somewhat differently from their tabletop cousins. | | 1981 / 2011 | 144 games |
| Whac-A-Mole | Anything that imitates the Whac-A-Mole gameplay where user wields a mallet which she uses to whack moles who appear from holes randomly. | | 1981 / 2005 | 10 games |
| Word game (Word puzzle) | | | 1978 / 2011 | 202 games |
| Work of art based plot | Plot centers on a uniquely valuable work of art such as a painting or sculpture. It is often missing, stolen, or the protagonist intends to steel it. | | | 1 games |
