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I want to know why its great and what features made it work for you.

I'm developing a 2d light gun style game, the background is either static, or scrolls right to left, so its not really reliant on 3d graphics but gameplay. I'm looking for ideas, so I thought Id ask here, see if I get any ideas for my game.

Typing of the dead. Hands down.

I guess if I were you though, I'd invent one new unheard of feature to incorporate into a standard rail shooter game.

Gotta be Point Blank. As a kid, I didn't know why all the older kids played that game over things like Time Crisis, Virtua Cop, or GunBlade. Now that I'm older, it's the one lightgun game that just keeps getting better. The small challenges, really good hardware, and general silliness belies something deeper. It got what gun games are about at their core - they are a skill game that rewards the quickest and most accurate players. Story isn't needed there, only ramping challenge.

Another good one that has been strong for years now is Big Buck Hunter. It's the ultimate bar game. Dudes drink a heap of beer, and try their arm at being a hunter. Again, the short challenge time is what makes it so replayable.

Greenlig

Point Blank thanks greenlig, that looks a great game to look at, I like how the camera is stationary and doesn't relay on graphic immersion to make the game, but instead is all about gameplay.

I like Point Blank, really fun game that one - and even if you went for a different theme altogether, it's worth noting for any bonus games you care to add. Like firing range shooting targets like in Robocop.

Myself, well I can't help but bring up Operation Wolf. Firstly, the gun wasn't a light gun as far as I know - it was aimed using potentiometers, so had this sturdy UZI rather than a lightgun on a lead. One benefit in that, is there's no need for a screen flash or anything like that. Also, the arcade cabinets were really sturdy - it tended not to be the Op Wolf cabinets that would end up vandalised, someone trying to steal the light gun - the OP Wolf cab could take a beating. I'm mentioning that because it seems like a big part of the nostalgia for me - when you played Op Wolf you did feel like that was a real gun, even as restricted as it was, it felt heavy and dangerous.
The game itself is a lot of fun, often unfair, but always exciting. You should certainly try it, or watch some youtube videos of it - and see how the enemies are handled in that - it'll be pure inspiration. There are enemies that run back and fourth, ones that jump out at you, ones that have a hostages, or appear at a window... there's even nurses walking round during all that - so lots of relevant examples that would help anyone making a 2D rail shooter.

Having static, scroll left, or scroll right levels might be the easiest way - if you want to expand on visuals, maybe consider having a parallax backdrop - like hills then mountains then the sky, all scrolling at more and more reduced speeds.

Always, always have friendlies in amongst the enemies - otherwise theres no risk, and no real need to worry about aiming. If you can somehow save a life, then that's a great way to allow extra lives as well - save a life, earn a life... it's only fair.

Just an idea, but if I was making a side scrolling rail shooter - I'd make a level with no enemies first, then play it, pretending to shoot enemies, and record the position of my shots. Then, I'd go back and add the enemies. The end result would be a level that flows perfectly. Without doing that, I'd be concerned about the game being unfair, or unbalanced - ideally a great player should be able to 100% the enemies, if the game is intuitive then people will appreciate it more I think - like designing a level that way might make the player think they have some godlike ability to predict where the next enemy is coming from - while actually they are just following your predefined instincts.

Operation Wolf, it had a fixed machine gun. Was once in the position of pitching arcade publishers a long time back, rather than the golden age of arcade games of innovation, arcade games focused on either fighting games, driving games or rail shooters, not much choice when pitching, even less as the publisher complained about price for everything suggested, one being the price of the guns which used a gyroscope back then if I remember right plus breakages through rough play. I suggested a fixed gun like operation wolf but in the style of the alien series M56 Smart Guns and use sound as a vibration unit, like the device below (I own 2 of these)
http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/288162/10-bizarre-video-game-accessories/4
Anyway didn't get made, had me pitching all sorts said they wanted something new, ironically first game I showed them, a 3d railshooter turned down for new game concepts. ('ahem' free research and development that also keeps salaried publisher acquisitions in a job). The following year or so they made not a new game concept, but same game they always made, that I had given them first, a rail shooter, big (horror) video game franchise that also has films license from it, if I said the name you would recognize it instantly. My first game I part made would of fit the license (they acquired or owned already) perfectly, but no, had to be awkward. Thank god years later we have all these cheap engines and assessable platforms, my god how things have changed.

Anyway, always wanted to make a shooter game, Ill probably return to those old 3d games partially made from back in the day with something like Unity. But for now I think Ill get a 2d gun shooter game out first.

Thanks for the input, I'm getting loads of ideas, please keep them coming its helping to create the design for me.

House of the Dead 1. I had lots of memories with the first one. The rest were good too especially the last one. way too many profanity from the last one. lol The other one I enjoyed was Terminator 2 arcade game.

I played the Rambo game in Jakarta a few days ago, and it reminded me of how much fun that game can be. It was released a few years ago, and in my mind, is a much better game than the Terminator Salvation cabinet that was released with the film. The gameplay was varied and fun, and it seemed to not take itself too seriously.

Another one in the last few years that was REALLY good was Friction. Not necessarily for the gameplay, although that was good. It was the tight controls that set it apart. Originally released as a kit for CRT's, it had fantastic response. When you aimed and fired, it felt dead-on. Nothing worse than a gun game with sloppy response. The subsequent LCD version was crappy and lost the response time, making it just an average shooter. Sad!!

Greenlig