Steam has added another genre tag to the digital storefront, this time officially recognizing the old-school "boomer shooters," as games about booming and shooting surge.
The boomer shooter moniker simply refers to retro shooters (Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein) and the waves of modern games, usually indies, built in that style (Dusk, HROT, Turbo Overkill.) They're sometimes characterized by their nostalgic pixelated/voxelated art, sometimes by their labyrinthine levels, and always known for how furiously you can blast baddies.
Steam’s latest genre tag has given the boomer shooter some newfound validation since, for years, the title has been a little controversial around online forums, mainly because Doom and other 1980s shooters were more likely played by Generation X. But I guess the "OK, boomer" meme makes the term easily understandable. How about Doomer Shooter?
Andrew Hulshult, the composer behind several throwback shooters including the excellent Dusk, shed some more light on the term’s origins in a recent social media post. "The term 'boomer shooter' was a lovingly cheeky term we saw used when developing Dusk as a description for Doom," Hulshult explains. "So we ran with it because it was funny. It would go on to be associated with an entire genre of shooters. Today it’s a category on Steam. I love this reality."
The boomer shooter, erm, boom will certainly expand in the coming years thanks to the storefront’s new tag. You can head over to Steam’s Boomer Shooter section to find all those trigger-happy games that make you feel like you're ice skating around demons. Among them is one of the best Warhammer games ever made and the spell-slinging Hexen, a classic that Phil Spencer wants to see return now that Microsoft owns Activision Blizzard.
For now, check out the best FPS games to get your classic fix.
