Projectile limit

Video game concept

There's a limit in how many projectiles can be "active" at any given time, especially when this limit is noticeable by the player.

34
games
16
platforms
Older games had a limit of 1 or 2 simultaneously existing projectiles from same shooter with the player incapable of shooting more until one or both had been destroyed (hit something).

Notes:
* Promotes player behaviour where they only shoot when the projectile is guaranteed to have limited live time (e.g. a wall right behind the target), allowing the player to shoot again faster in case they miss their target.
* Has the effect that your gun shoots extremely fast at point blank range but extremely slow when far away from your target.
* There's usually no explanation for this, and even if there's one, it's likely BS.
* Although this also affects your enemies, you rarely see them taking advantage of it (they don't shoot faster at close range).
* Some rare games would delete the oldest projectile instead of block shooting, causing an effect where the projectiles disappear into thin air if you shoot too fast.
* The limits may vary with weapons.

Limitations:
* Does not include slow weapons that give similar effect, but the speed remains unchanged regardless how long the previous projectile lasts.
* Sensible cases of projectile limits should not count, such as with actively guided weapons, boomerangs, or weapons that imitate a returning hammer (you have only one thrown weapon that returns to you).

Popular tags

arenashooter fixedshooter mario mario-universe metroidvania precisionplatformer runandgun

Parent groups

Game-like elements, Artificial limitations

Games by year

7981838587899193959799010305070911131517 41230

The first Projectile limit video game was released in 1979.

Nicalis, Computermat and CLOAD published most of these games.

Related site

Platforms

Linux 7
Tandy Coco 4
Apple II E 4
NES 3
Windows 2
C64 2
TRS-80 2
Arcade 2
MS-DOS 1
Atari 2600 1
Mac OS X 1
Switch 1
ColecoVision 1
VIC-20 1
Master System 1
Lynx 1

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