What is a Shoot Em' Up? Defining the Genre with Shmup Junkie. This video has literally been years in the making. As much as we all the love Shoot Em' Up (shmup, STG) genre, what's embarrassing is that, up to this point, over all these decades, there has never been a solid criteria or definition of what a shmup even is. For a genre that is so fundamental you'd think this would have been established by now, but due to the nature of online discourse, this question has never been resolved. Over the years, I have worked on what I think are the 3 criteria of what I believe consitute a shmup, and in today's video I explain these criteria and run them by fellow youtuber, Shmup Junkie, to hear his reaction and thoughts. We not only talk about shmups, but also related genres like run n' gun, rail shooter, gallery shooter, first person shooter (fps), third person shooter, single screen games, metal slug, contra, platformers, twin stick shooters, Star Fox, Doom, and many more! I think we have a fantastic discussion and I do think this is one of the most important episode of The Electric Underground :-) I am now going to list off some algorthym tags: Nintendo Switch, Steam, Bullet Hell, PS4. PS5, Xbox, PC, Indie, Hidden Gem, Sega, CAVE, Touhou, Battle Garegga, Longplay, 1cc, Podcast.