Going back to the Rail Shooters shouldn't be Classic Shooters question, there's a bit of vagueness to be addressed.
There's a lot of vagueness. The vagueness seems to come from where the turning point is between the mechanics that define the "Classic Shooter" and the "[modern] Shooter". I've generally used the concept of free movement to differentiate the two (which itself isn't perfect, as there are some old school arcade games with full movement). From that perspective, I don't have qualms about having on-rail light gun games as "Classic Shooters", as they are essentially shooting galleries that move from time to time.
I think leaving light gun games out of Classic would be the least messiest option. I know Duck Hunt is classic by all means but we're going to have to draw lines somewhere.
It's not just Duck Hunt-- you'd be pretty much taking out most of the Shooting Gallery games out of the Classic Shooter genre. Personally, I think that any game with "Light Gun" listed as a subgenre must be accompanied with another subgenre (usually "On-Rails" or "Shooting Gallery"). For example:
House of the Dead = On-Rails Light Gun
Point Blank = Shooting Gallery Light Gun
Vampire Night 2= On-Rails
I think light guns fall under the Classic heading as light gun games and the tech are classic, not the games themselves per se.
Definitely agree that light gun games need to remain classic, as they are one of the earliest examples of a video game genre.
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