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Two-Player Games for Mixed Skill Level Players?
koreth asks: "What are some good two-player games that a newbie can successfully play with a more seasoned gamer? I want to find a good console or PC game I can play with my girlfriend, who has only recently started gaming. Something cooperative would be great, but head-to-head is fine too. All the games we've tried are made for players of roughly the same skill level -- so either I end up dumbing my gameplay way down (no fun for me) or blowing her out of the water without much effort (no fun for her). Is there any game out there that gives two players tasks of varying difficulty to keep both of them engrossed, at the same time?"
Most fighting games have a handicap system that essentially alters the damage dealt. Turn your damage way down, and hers way up, and then tweak them as she learns the system. I can particularly recommend Super Smash Brothers Melee for this, as it even has an auto-handicap system.
Another one, though I haven't played for years, that I would suggest would be Super Bomber Man or a sequel - easy to pick up and fun.
And the person above who suggested a MMO has an excellent point, though depends how casual you want the gaming to be as they generally require a large investment of time.
LEGO Star Wars is a very fun co-op game . . . it even allows you to drop in/out at any point, which is great if the phone rings, the oven timer goes off, etc. It's not terribly long, but the sequel will be out soon. :-)
On the PC side, WarCraft III might be a good idea -- you can play against AI opponants, and select various handicaps for each player if desired.
Puzzle games are a lot of fun to play together, too -- my wife and I have played Bookworm together and had quite the good time.
My wife and I play a lot of Mario Party together. It has some tweakable handicapping anda pretty short learning curve. We usually play against 2 other computer controlled players. That sets up a nice dynamic where we can be competitive with each other but cooperative in screwing over the computer controlled players.
Another great Japanese game is "Ribbit King"- http://www.ribbitking.com/about.htm sort of a weird golf game where you launch frogs off of a catapult to ultimately get the frog into the hole. You score points for getting teh frog to cover larger distances and interact with the dense kooky environment. It has a lot of charm goofiness and just the right amount of skill to be fun and never frustrating.
Guild Wars can give you the best of both online and offline gaming. Just you and your GF (plus AI henchmen) as you don't want other players to intrude on the two of you, no subscription fees, and none of the griefing you get in other MMOGs.
... on other things. :P
Plus, a huge and wonderfully detailed world for the two of you to explore and to battle against, with no xp grinding, nor any of the other traditional MMOG timesinks that make some other popular worlds so tedious. The time saved can then be used
Recommended.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
Look no further than:
.html) if you can find it for the old original PlayStation. That game had very interesting cooperative properties where certain shots would change characteristics and trajectory if they hit your friend's ship so sometimes it would be strategic to try to stay vertically aligned together (or overlay each other) to benefit from these special shots.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puzzle_Fighter
This game strikes an amazing balance by being both compelling for serious competition and entertaining for casual play. David Sirlin has a relevant article (http://sirlin.net/archive/slippery-slope-and-perp etual-comeback/) describing "perpetual comeback" as it pertains to Puzzle Fighter and why it makes that game so very fun.
Are you still looking further?
Well then...
Another example of perpetual comeback is the fighting system in Battle Arena Toshinden (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Arena_Toshind en) where each character has usually two special moves (in addition to their normal repertoire) that they can only perform once their health gets very low (i.e., they are about to be knocked-out). These moves (sometimes referred to as "desperation moves") usually do a great deal of damage and can easily turn the tide of a round or just win the round outright so they add cool intensity to the conclusion of many matches (even when one player is notably superior because they need to be extra careful to avoid getting hit by one or more of these "come-back" moves). These moves can be difficult to perform for those uninitiated to the common fireball and yoga-flame joystick movements they typically require but they totally have the best risk-vs.-reward benefit when a player is learning the game. I'd recommend studying and practicing the execution of those moves first to new players. Additionally, some characters have very easy ones like (if I remember correctly) Ellis and Sophia only need to press back, forward, back, forward + Triangle to do theirs. Choose an easy and fast character to start with until you learn enough to venture out.
Of course there are some fun cooperative experiences (like Halo or MMOs) but if your partner shows an affinity for, and appreciation of, games requiring increasing reflexive (a.k.a. "twitch") skill, I would highly recommend the plethora of http://shmups.com/ out there. Ikaruga (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikaruga) must be mentioned as one of the greatest here. All threatening bullets and beams are either white (with blue highlights) or black (with red highlights). Similarly, each players' ship can flip over to alternate between those colors as well. When you're the same color as bullets, you absorb them into your shield and they store in a meter which can be unleashed as homing shots. When you are the opposite color of enemy ships, your shots do double-damage (but you're vulnerable to their bullets because they are the same color as them). It makes for awesome tension because the whole screen can be completely covered in bullets but at least half of it is always survivable space if you're the same color as the bullets occupying that space. Check out "bullet-eater" mode too. You can beat lots of levels without firing a shot (i.e., by just alternating to the right colors and dodging terrain features).
Another great one is Raiden Project (http://gamespot.com/ps/action/raidenproject/index
There are lots of great cooperative Shmups but the only directly competitive one I have yet encountered is astonishingly fun. It is called Twinkle Star Sprites (http://en.wiki
It's got a great co-op mode, doesn't rely on both players being skilled, but has some parts that need you to work together and communicate on...
It's available for consoles and the PC, and is a really fun game. (:
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
Gamecube, thirded, especially the first-party titles:
- Mario Kart: Double Dash has a coop mode where one person drives and the other chucks stuff and creates sparks for acceleration. You can switch positions at any time.
- Mario Power Tennis: Play doubles vs the computer. Lots of fun. The Chain Chomp game is one of the best mini-games I've ever seen.
- Super Monkey Ball (2): I think there are 12 little mini-games, a LOT of fun for two or more people. Maybe 6 are great, the rest are alright but get old quick. The downside is that this game sucks for a single player.
- Ghost Recon: I play this with my wife and she loves it because you don't need quick reflexes. You can creep around rocks and bushes without being seen and shoot the enemy. We use the coop mode, and I sometimes handicap myself by taking odd weapons. I think it's a great introduction to FPSs.
Stuff I can't vouch for, but is probably just as good:
- WarioWare: I haven't tried the multiplayer on this game, but the single player was fun enough to figure out that two people would have a blast with it.
- Mario Party (I haven't tried this one at all). Again, lots of mini-games, some of which might be duds but I'd bet $100 that there are at least a few great ones.
I also wanted to mention that the Action Replay MAX from CodeJunkies is well worth picking up. I know, it's a cheat etc, but my wife got stuck at one point in Rayman 3 (tough platforming level). She stopped playing the game for a few months, until I picked up the Action Replay. I booted up the Cube with a couple of cheats and all of a sudden she was having fun again. I think that if a single player game gets too hard, it's not fun anymore and people just don't want to play that game. The AR costs $40 canadian (as much as a game) but it's very worth it.
It's great :)
Any version of Tekken.
You can learn all the moves, and get uber good at it, and have really high end matches that feel intellectual and thought out ... and then still get ur ass whipped by an unpredictable button masher.
City of Heroes has a very nice system that basically makes it nearly impossible for you to not be able to team with one other person. ;)
And it is so genre relevant that it isn't funny.
After all, what would Batman be without his Robin or Batgirl? A sidekick is your friend indeed!
No! It's a *SIG*. Keep the Special Interest Groups away! (Con joke!)
All of my friends, ecen the non gamers play Worms World Party, it's easy to learn, a blast to play multiplayer, and only requires one PC and will run on very old hardware (100MHZ, 32MB). Being turn based makes it a bit easier on noobs who can't compete with your highly trained reaction times as a gamer. Chicks especially love Worms for the cute factor. It's also playable by people of all ages, so it's something you can play with your kids.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.