Why is this corridor in Inferno called “Banana”

Sorry for the necro. I find this immensely interesting, and have done some deep digging and made a video about the topic:

The earliest source I found is from a 1980 arcade operating manual of Space Panic, mentioning bosses. Another enemy in that game is a 'don'.

In early 1980's Japan, "bosu" (loanword from English) had a derogatory connotation to do with Mafia. Translating "bosu" would give you "boss", but in English the negative meaning is not present.

Old Kung Fu films use this term for mobsters too (Bruce Lee in The Big Boss).

~ GeoKoer

This is called a "shoot 'em up," although there are several related sub-genres:

Shoot 'em ups encompass various types, or sub-genres. In a "fixed shooter" such as Space Invaders, the protagonist can only move across one axis and enemies attack from a single direction. In a "multi-directional shooter" the protagonist may rotate and move in any direction. By contrast, a "rail shooter" protagonist is viewed from behind and moves "into the screen", while the player retains control over dodging. "Tube shooters" feature similar viewpoints, and their protagonists fly through abstract tubes. "Scrolling shooters" encompass both "horizontal shooters" and "vertical shooters" (featuring side-on and top-down viewpoints respectively) and in turn "bullet hell" games and "cute 'em ups". "Run and gun" games feature protagonists on foot, rather than spacecraft, that often have the ability to jump; they may feature either scrolling or multidirectional movement.

By this definition, this game would be a horizontal scrolling shooter.

There are a million games in this genre, including classics like Galaga, and Gradius. Elements of rail shooters can be found in many games - if you've ever had a vehicle segment where you were the gunner and someone else was driving, for instance, although arguably one of the most famous rail shooters is Star Fox. Bionic Commando's top down segments would be a good example of a "run and gun" game.