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Check out Soldat. It's not at all SSB, but I think it captures the (very, very) basic playstyle. We used to play it on LAN in high-school back in the early 00s, but it's pretty fun for a while.

It won't satisfy your itch for SSB, but it's pretty good.

Soldat is a free to play CS/Liero type of game that works well under wine. Several hundreds active players worldwide, several leagues, obscenely fun, etc (if you are not stupid enough to dismiss it for it's graphics)

http://www.soldat.pl/

Fantastic side scroller game, great for multiplayer.

Story games are good, but sometimes you have to appreciate the games that take a minimalist approach to story-telling.

Soldat is damn fun as well--and free! It's a 2D, sidecrolling deathmatch type of game. http://www.soldat.pl/main.php

Have you ever found yourself lying awake at night, staring at the ceiling and wondering just how much better your life would be if someone decided to create a funky game fusion of Worms and Counter-strike, then pump it full of Red Bull and steroids?

Soldat is a real-time, multiplayer shoot 'em up combat game that has the soul of a vicious FPS packaged in the body of a system friendly side-scroller. Players move their soldiers around levels, strolling across hills and using their jet packs to navigate environments that bear no small similarity to ant farms, all the while trying their hardest to evade hurricanes of small arms fire.

Download.com ----- Score 4/5 + User reviews
The Underdogs ----- Soldat is a TopDog!
Gamespot.com ----- Score 8.6/10 ! Player testimonials.
acid-play.com ----- Reviewer Rating: 100%
GameSpotting Shareware ----- My new shareware addiction
gamefaqs.com ----- "Amazing, absolutely amazing!!!"
gamearena.com.au ----- 9/10 !

Here is the main page: http://www.soldat.pl/main.php

Basically it's a 2D side scroller multiplayer shooter with lots of weapon.
Never played it, but it seems like a lot of fun :)

My point is simply that graphics don't make the games, gameplay does. I listed those games because i liked the gameplay, and the quality of the graphics does not impact how i feel about the game. This is in contrast to the myriad of players who see the latest and greatest Battlefield game and go "OOO! Shiny" and rave on about how awesome it is, although the gameplay is crap ( this is my biased opinion though ).

So you want some more recent games that have awesome gameplay that don't need the latest and greatest computer and graphics card?, Ok...
Soldat
Flow
Warning Forever
Dismount games
Solitaire

I'm sure there are more...

Soldat, Pontifex and Starscape are three of my personal favourites.

Which reminds me, what about the Roller Coaster Tycoon games? Weren't they largely a one-man effort?

This guy has preconceived some game in his mind. What he's saying makes little sense to me.

If you're so busy you can't dedicate one daily hour to a game, you shouldn't even try playing adventures. Instead of playing stupidly simple games, one would rather go to a web design company sitemap and start pointing and clicking while watching the multimedia. The whole point of adventure games is the challenge.

I've been quite busy myself for some years now and I only play adventures when I'm on vacation. Best games for busy people are multiplayer games with short rounds. I don't really need the latest and greatest. There are many oldies that never get really old. Tekken 3 for instance allows for several rounds in 30 minutes. SNES Mario Kart, or N64 Diddy Kong Racing in multiplayer mode are also great options if you have someone around. You can also look for adversaries online: Bomberman Online for DC is just great, so is soldat for PC (give it a download). Crazy Taxi or Jet Set Radio allow for short sessions. Short deadmatches of your FPS of choice are also very adequate.

This guy probably doesn't know what he's talking about by experience. I don't need a stupidly simple adventure game babysitting me to the end. If you want that, just try the lowest difficulty level and for many games you're set.

Trial and error is just fine. R-type and Ikaruga come to mind. There should be enough save points so you don't have to repeat the same level a ridiculous number of times. In other words: arcades so easy you don't even need to retry are silly (this only applies to arcades).

I agree in a couple of things, though: being lost is not fun (busy or not) and stupid long animations you need to see must die. Busy or not, I don't like wasting my time watching long animations. Most Final Fantasies are excessive, but FF X is just unbearable. Games are not movies, and Square sucks at making movies anyway. Let me play. Shenmues are much better in this respect. They don't bore the shit out of you every minute with a long animation: animations are short, to the point, instructive and often interactive. It also takes you notes so you can easily retake the game after long breaks.

Hey, if 2D shooters are your thing, you really should check out soldat It's a 2D deathmatch/CTF, with realistic weapons and tribes style jetpacking. Netplay included, or play with tolerable bots. It even has the famous QUAD DAMAGE, along with lame camper rifle.

A game that is a good intro to the whole online gaming concept has to be Soldat It's a shareware title, 9 bucks to register. Its far simpler then the average 3d shooter, as it exists in 2 dimensions. It really gets you into the whole navagating maps issue and deathmatch tatics without you really having to know a massively complex 3D layout. It runs on just about anything with a monitor, and really is quite fun. The whole concept of a 2d shooter takes getting used to, but if you aren't trying for the high and mighty l33t gamer, it is really quite fun. The servers are plenty, and the bots can give you a decent feel for the game before sticking your neck out to the online games.

Definitly this game rulez: Soldat
It's a 2d platform alike multiplayer game that clearly had some inspiration from worms - but is is oh so cool and fun to play in lan with 4 persons, the gameplay is just fantastic :)

Truck dismount already had a prequal otherwise it would be my choice :)
The other games I saw really were sequals or non-original things, so I guess there won't be any other...