It's hard to believe that at one point twin-stick shooters were specialized games requiring either an arcade cabinet or a deeply expensive home setup. Plugging in two joysticks at once for a single-player game and going to the trouble of stabilizing them so they don't wander off while you play? That's a crazy amount of effort, especially seeing as only a handful of games like Llamatron supported that kind of input! You could fire in the direction you were moving or hit a second button at the same time to lock the firing direction while moving freely, and you'll like it!
The Arcade Never Died, It Just Adapted
Then the PS1 introduced the Dual Analog controller, a new model of its joystick-free original model, and suddenly twin-stick shooters had room to breathe. Mutant Storm and Geometry Wars lit the fuse over on the original Xbox, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved was a solid hit on the launch of the 360, and then gaming did that cross-pollination thing that always happens and strip-mined the twin-stick shooter for parts. Which sounds bad, but really isn't. The level-up, choose one-of-three upgrades of Vampire Survivors is the latest mechanic to spread beyond its...