Top-Down Camera
Although it is considered to be an “old-fashioned” camera view, you can still occasionally find action arcade games presented in a top-down view. Classic games like Smash TV and Gauntlet are examples that used this camera view. It has some disadvantages, such as not being able to get a good look at the game character or the game world, and concepts like depth should be avoided from this perspective.
An interesting variation on the top-down camera view is the top-down/side view camera, also known as “forced-perspective” view. Although some elements in the game level are presented from a top-down view (usually world elements and power-ups), other elements (like characters) are presented from a side view. This view has a certain charm to it, similar to how characters in Egyptian tomb art are always shown from the side view. Snake and Tower Defense are some of the more recent types of games that use this quirky camera view.
