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Best 2+ Player Video Games?
Twinbee asks: "I was wondering what you lot would consider the best 2+ player games of all time. Apart from games for mixed skill players, this has never been asked on Slashdot before, so it would be interesting to see. From my own experience and research, it looks as though a top 50 would include games such as Streetfighter 2, World of Warcraft, Speedball 2, Super Mario Kart, SWIV, Ikaruga, Stunt Car Racer, Super Monkey Ball, Puzzle Fighter, and Mario Party. Whether they are competitive or cooperative, Slippery slope or Perpetual comeback, 2-player or multiplayer, retro or cutting edge, I want to hear them! I would prefer MMOG games not to be included, unless there is a good deal of interaction between the people in the 'same house' (e.g. perhaps they can team up and play against the world)."
Super Smash Bros.
Thousands of hours, and still fun.
(But forget the following ones; "1 Plus" is the best).
-- Rastignac was here.
Why, Guitar Hero 2 of course. GH1 was mediocre at best as a two player game, but GH2 is sweet as a two player game thanks to both cooperative multiplayer and the new pro-face off. It's easy to learn, challenging as hell, and each player can play at their skill level so nobody feels like they're just wasting their time.
It makes a great party game.
Serious Sam: The Second Encounter is pretty cool on cooperative multiplayer too.
Nothing to see here
Battle Kart powaaa !!! :)
Other than that I don't think any game has kept my friends (and me) in front of a tv as much as Winning Eleven
Gears of War - excellent 2 player co-op and 8-player deathmatch
Perfect Dark - decent co-op and deathmatch
Call of Duty 3 - some of the best multiplayer i've played on the 360 (24 players max) 4 player split screen (no co-op)
and then there's plenty of sports games and racing games (Project Gotham Racing 3 and Test Drive Unlimited are excellent)
Serious Sam and Serious Sam 2nd Encounter on two PC's in cooperative game mode. Both great games and a lot of fun right up to (but NOT including) the end-game.
[Insert pithy quote here]
Even if you have to find a used copy of the game, Saturn console, 2 multitaps, and 10 controllers to play it in all its glory, it is far worth it. Without any sort of networking mumbo-jumbo, you can play with up to 10 players! 10 player Bomberman is great. 8 player is better with a bigger variety of levels. Anyone can pick up Bomberman in a few minutes to play it and from what I've always seen, newbies are pretty evenly matched to seasoned players because the seasoned players get cocky and make more mistakes. And instead of the usual droll of bombermen in different colors, in multiplayer you get to choose characters from previous Hudsonsoft games like Bonk or Milon or Master Hudson (from Adventure Island). It's a shame it came to the US a system with such little popularity. I pull out my Saturn far more often than any other old system I have (including Dreamcast) just so I can play the ultimate manifestation of 2D Bomberman (and Legend of Oasis but that's not a multiplayer game).
Like someone else said, it all depends on what you like and what you have available (as a platform). I'm only including games that I've played and liked. Each section is roughly ordered from best to worst game.
If you like brawling action:
Ratchet: Deadlocked (PS2)
Gauntlet: Dark Legacy (GC, PS2, Xbox)
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (GC, PS2, Xbox)
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (GC, PS2, Xbox)
Batman: The Rise of Sin Tzu (GC, PC, PS2, Xbox)
Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows (PC, PS2, Xbox)
If you like quasi-rpg brawlers:
X-Men Legends (PS2, Xbox, GC)
X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse (GC, PS2, Xbox)
Champions of Norrath (PS2)
Champions of Norrath 2: Return to Arms (PS2)
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (GC, PS2, Xbox)
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 (PS2, Xbox)
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (GC)
Hunter the Reckoning (GC, Xbox)
Hunter the Reckoning: Wayward (PS2)
Hunter the Reckoning: Redeemer (Xbox)
Fallout Brotherhood of Steel (PS2, Xbox)
If you like racing games:
Super Monkey Ball (GC)
Gran Tourismo 3 & 4 (PS2)
Jak X Combat Racing (PS2)
If you like first person shooters:
Halo (PC, Xbox)
Halo 2 (PC, Xbox)
Half-Life (PS2)
If you like Roleplaying Games:
World of Warcraft (PC x2)
Valkerie Profile 2: Silmeria (PS2)
Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (PS2)
If you like RTS games:
Starcraft (PC x2)
Warcraft III (PC x2)
Total Annihilation (PC x2)
Warcraft II (PC x2)
Warcraft I (PC x2)
If you like strategy games:
Civilization III & IV (PC)
Alpha Centauri (+ Alien Crossfire Expansion) (PC)
Master of Orion II (PC)
Master of Magic (PC)
I know I'm missing quite a few games from that list, but those are the ones I've played and enjoyed playing.
Fanatically anti-fanatical
Are you reffering to the Off-Road series of games? I use to love these as well. Infact, I bought (well, at this point in my life, more like begged my parents) for the 4-player multi-tap for the NES.
I realized that I never finished my comment on the game "Metal Warriors". This game was awesome for the fact that in 2-player mode (you could only fight each other, unfortunately, while I'm more of a co-op person), you would pick 1 of 6 mech-machines, then then fight the other person. The cool part? You could jump out of the Mech and fly around with your little pilot. Some other mechs where hidden in some stages, so if you lost your first one, you could bail before it blew up and try to survive until you got another one. Just, lots of fun and balanced player vs player fights.
Of course, who could forget the TMNT arcade game and all the numerous 4-player clone games after it... like the Xmen and Simpsons version of the games (which had either 2, 4 or 6 player coin-ops).
Cheers,
Fozzy
"The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth." ~1984 George Orwell
One of the most fun 2-3 player RPG game (1 player till 30 minutes into the game, then its 2-3 player from there) i have ever played. Real time fighting, leveling up weapons, its a game where im dissapointed Squaresoft/Square Enix doesnt make sequel games with the same gameplay. Its a game i would snatch up instantly if it just had new weapons/storyline/bosses and just had the same gameplay.
You'll find Gauntlet in the Midway Collections because Gauntlet was by Atari (Midway)
well i can not overstate how many hours my brother and i played
LEGEND OF THE MYSTICAL NINJA on snes, as kids [ganbare goemon in jap, theres like 30 of them i forget which one]
basically an isometric adventure game, absolutely great in two players!
contra force was another one, great, hard to find, not as great as mystical ninja [we spent hundreds rentin those two]
later years it was
golden eye, ikaruga, nwn coop
Phantasy Star Online [offline mode lol, on dc/later on xbox]
coop fps and rpg are great too, and there are FAR TOO FEW of them!
All hail the power of the multi-tap! Play as the Boy, Girl, and the Sprite, or...
Face each other in the four-for-all (with CPU as fill-in) in Bomberman or Smash Brothers
Rampart, Rampart and Rampart.
Someone really needs to write a net-enabled version of it.
Ready? Aim? FIRE!!!!!
And you can actually play split-screen on one PC, though this usually means some players will be usings joypads or something.
For team versus - UT2004 onslaught or assault. Great for co-op against bots or full team-vs-team if you have a lot of friends.
For 1 on 1 - Tekken.
Free-for-all - Total Annihilation.
I quit!
All the "you dont know jack" games, and the 2d worms games were absolutely perfect to even get absolute non-gamers playing.
Sadly, the 3D Worms sucks... (the concept is just completely incompatible with a 3d playfield. I just wish the designers would get that idea, too, and make a sequel one can actually enjoy)
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?