One More List: Multiplayer Madness
By: Eric M. Martin |
Thursday November 13, 2008 |
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A look at some of the best multiplayer games to ever exist. |
| Some of the best gaming experiences ever have been shared experiences. Super Mario Bros. 3 was always a better game when there was a Luigi at the controls. Contra wouldn’t have been half as addictive if you couldn’t share in the carnage with a 2P by your side. My uncle and I once spent four hours playing Contra over and over again. End of digression and beginning of point: More players equals more quality where certain games are concerned. This One More List is dedicated to those titles that wouldn’t be without your 2P (and in some cases, 3P and/or 4P). Super Bomberman - Super Nintendo What other game screams “multiplayer” other than one that is bundled with a little piece of technology known as the Multitap. Super Bomberman was my first exposure to the Bomberman series, and one of the most tempting games I’ve ever played. Two-player story mode is hours of fun and frustration, and four-player battles are all out mayhem with endless powerups and bowling ball explosives. What more could you ask for? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Arcade I remember when I first saw this hunker of a machine at a Wal-Mart. I plunked in a couple of quarters in the Leonardo slot and started beating up Foot Soldiers in a burning building. That was fun. Imagine meeting up with three strangers at a local video arcade and actually finishing the game with all four heroes. There were several games that were similar to this, X-Men and Sunsetriders being top favorites, and it was better to get through the more help that you had. Getting three friends together and bringing ten dollars and tokens was a guaranteed good time, with tons of stories to tell afterward. Counterstrike - PC Although Team Fortress has its own flavor of attraction, nothing will ever quite combine realism and strategy quite like Counterstrike. User-created maps and a store to die for! With a combination of players, maps, objectives and items, no two rounds of Counterstrike will ever be the same. Even though the controls take some getting used to and many untimely deaths will result in the cursing of several players, they will always come back for more. Hail to the Chimp - Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 This was a more recent offering to the multiplayer world, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Although Nintendo does a great job every once in awhile, they certainly don’t do any favors when it comes to over inflating the market with party games or “family games.” And yes, while you get a good time, a large majority of them turn out to be flubs. Hail to the Chimp brought out the best and worst in party gamers by proving that it was as fun as Wario Ware and as cutthroat as Smash Bros. Combine that with a bevy of witty unlockable television spots and character customizables and it’s the great clam romp in the sky. Goldeneye - Nintendo 64 I don’t care how blocky the game looks or how frustrating some of the story mode missions are, this is THE BEST four-player shooting action ever created in any game both past and future. If it weren’t for Goldeneye, there would be no Halo. Still, I could live without Halo, but that’s beside the point. Remember when people would yell and curse because someone got to pick Oddjob first? Or what about finding the only Golden Gun in the level and suddenly becoming the biggest target? And finally, who wants Knives Only or Slappers Only matches? How many sleepless nights? How many parties? How many controllers? Goldeneye takes the cake! |
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