Thinking Outside The Box

[Steven M]

How many side-scrolling shoot-em-ups are there where the player is the bullet (e.g. the player fires themselves at the enemy waves, taking care not to get hit by enemy fire in the process)?

Edit: opening up the thread for people to discuss genres, the defining characteristics or qualities of these genres, and what we could gain from removing or changing them. Think of games like Bionic Commando (a platformer with no jump button, forcing you to rely on the bionic arm) or Ikaruga (a SHMUP based around two colours of enemies and bullets).

[DimensionWarped]

I remember a game where you were a stationary gun defending against incoming ships and people. It was similar to missile command, but without the limited ammo and the enemies were more varied.